This is a rush transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” March 5, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Welcome to “Hannity & Colmes.” We’re glad you are with us. I’m Sean Hannity. We get right to our top story tonight. …

WASHINGTON – Howard Berman, a 13-term Democrat from California, was formally chosen Tuesday as the next chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Berman, 66, has been acting head of the committee since former Chairman Tom Lantos, another California Democrat, died a month ago. The Democratic caucus on Tuesday elected …

OSLO, Norway – Austrian skier Matthias Lanzinger’s lower left leg was amputated Tuesday because of complications from two broken bones in a crash at a World Cup race. Lanzinger broke his shin and fibula Sunday during a super-G. The double fracture severely damaged blood vessels, hampering circulation in the 27-year-old …

WASHINGTON – President Bush is disturbed by the U.S. military’s practice of paying Iraqi papers to run articles emphasizing positive developments in the country and will end the program if it violates the principles of a free media, a senior aide said Sunday. “He’s very troubled by it” and has …

SYDNEY, Australia – Young people riding in vehicles smashed cars and store windows in suburban Sydney late Monday, a day after thousands of drunken white youths attacked people they believed were of Arab descent at a beach in the same area in one of Australia’s worst outbursts of racial violence. …

CHICAGO – About a third of U.S. teens would flunk a treadmill fitness test, a new study shows, meaning that more than 7 million youngsters could face higher risks for heart disease later in life. While that finding is not surprising — given previous research showing that about 16 percent …

MILWAUKEE – Several people were being questioned by detectives in the beating of a motorist who was dragged from his car and severely injured, police said Wednesday. The 50-year-old man was hospitalized in critical condition with head trauma after the beating late Monday on Milwaukee‘s north side, according to police. …

NORWALK, Ohio – A boy whose parents are accused of making their special-needs adopted children sleep in cages testified Thursday that the couple forced him to live in the bathroom as punishment for urinating in his enclosed bed. On another occasion, Sharen and Michael Gravelle forced him to stay in …

CHICAGO – The reverse thrusters that should have slowed a Southwest Airlines jetliner before it slid off a runway at Midway Airport and into the street didn’t immediately kick in when the pilots tried to deploy them, federal investigators said Saturday after interviewing the crew. How much of a role …

BEIJING – The death toll from a coal mine explosion in northern China reached 169 Saturday, making it one of the country’s worst mining disasters in decades, while a separate flood trapped 42 miners, officials said. The explosion and flood are the latest disasters highly embarrassing to China’s Communist-led government, …