3/ 1/04 Monday
In southern Mississippi, more than two weeks after a family of
three vanished on Valentine's Day, authorities found their bodies
in a wooded area and charged the father's cousin with capital
murder. A series of coordinated blasts struck major Shiite Muslim
shrines in Karbala and Baghdad as thousands of pilgrims converged
for the final day of a major religious festival. Scores were
killed and wounded. The Rosetta lander aboard a European Ariane-5
rocket, blasted off from South America on a pioneering 10-year
journey to land on a comet and search for clues to the origins of
the solar system. Haiti's brutal conflict moved from the streets
to the political arena after rebels rolled into the capital to
cheering crowds, and U.S. Marines and French troops secured key
sites around the city.
3/ 2/04 Tuesday
John Kerry laid claim to the Democratic presidential nomination
after a decisive round of primary and caucus victories cleared the
field for a feisty head-to-head battle against President Bush - a
struggle already in motion. Kerry's New York-to-California
victories in the 10-state Super Tuesday series knocked the fight
out of his spirited rival, John Edwards. Mars may once have been a
wet place where life could flourish, according to NASA scientists
who say a robot rover has found evidence that rocks on the Red
Planet "were once soaked with liquid water." Californians
overwhelmingly approved a plan to borrow a record $15 billion to
bail out the state budget, handing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a
crucial victory in his bid to turn around the world's sixth-largest
economy. Rebels began patrolling Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as their
leader Guy Philippe declared himself military chief and threatened
to arrest the prime minister, raising fears of reprisals against
supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. U.S.
Marines, who arrived along with French forces in recent days to
secure diplomatic missions and other sites, barely ventured out of
the city's airport. Marine Col. Dave Berger said his forces will
increase their presence throughout the Caribbean nation following
Philippe's comments.
3/ 3/04 Wednesday
Frustrated Disney shareholders spoke with a loud voice, and the
company responded by stripping CEO Michael Eisner of his chairman's
title; Disney's board met and voted unanimously to sever the roles
of chairman and chief executive, naming director George Mitchell as
nonexecutive chairman; Eisner is keeping his job as CEO. Sen. John
Kerry is a whopping $100 million behind President Bush in ready
cash as he embarks on the next phase of his White House campaign,
and dependent on outside groups he can't legally control to help
close the gap. New nickels honoring the 1803 Louisiana Purchase
will soon be clinking in cash registers and jangling in pockets.
It's the first makeover for the five-cent piece in 66 years. The
back of the new coins look different, while the front looks the
same, retaining the image of Thomas Jefferson, third president of
the United States. The contentious debate over gay marriage
intensified from coast to coast as officials in liberal pockets of
the nation vowed to issue licenses for same-sex couples in defiance
of critics and long-accepted laws. As scores of gay couples tied
the knot in Portland, Oregon's governor joined others to question
the legality of similar marriage ceremonies sweeping the nation
from San Francisco to New Mexico,
3/ 4/04 Thursday
Central African Republic will offer ex-Haiti leader Jean-Bertrand
Aristide permanent asylum if he asks, an official said. Relatives
of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and a
firefighters union said they're angry that President Bush's new
campaign ads include images of the destroyed World Trade Center and
firefighters carrying a flag-draped stretcher through the rubble.
They say the ads are in poor taste and accuse Bush of exploiting
the attacks. Couples who came to the New York City clerk's office
were handed thick letters explaining that local law prohibits gay
marriages, based on a ruling a day earlier from the city's top
lawyer. A majority of people living in the two countries bordering
the United States and in five major European countries say they
think the war in Iraq increased the threat of terrorism in the
world, AP polls found. In the U.S., people were evenly divided on
whether the war has increased or decreased the terror threat.
3/ 5/04 Friday
Lawyers for the city of San Francisco defended the more than 3,600
gay marriages sanctioned there, arguing to the California Supreme
Court that nothing in the state constitution requires local
officials to obey laws they believe infringe on the civil rights of
their citizens. Attorney General John Ashcroft was in the George
Washington University Hospital intensive care unit suffering from a
severe case of gallstone pancreatitis. International peacekeeping
efforts forged ahead in Haiti, but a political solution seemed
elusive as rebels pressed to re-establish the army - something
Washington opposes - and former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's
supporters demanded his return. Shiite leaders refused to sign an
interim constitution after Iraq's top Shiite cleric rejected
portions of the charter, in a last-minute dispute that wrecked a
planned signing ceremony and marred a landmark in the U.S. plans to
hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis. Martha Stewart was convicted
of obstructing justice and lying to the government about why she
unloaded her ImClone stock just before the price plummeted - a
verdict that could send her to prison and cripple the homemaking
empire built around her vision of gracious living. Her
ex-stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, also was found guilty in the stock
scandal.
3/ 6/04 Saturday
In Iraq, four Shiite politicians met with Iraq's top Shiite cleric
in an effort to overcome an impasse that delayed the signing of the
country's interim constitution; also, U.S. soldiers opened fire on
a truck packed with explosives, killing the driver, and three
Americans were wounded when the truck crashed on a bridge and
exploded. A water taxi with 25 people aboard capsized in
Baltimore's Inner Harbor after a violent gust of wind struck the
boat, leaving passengers frantically clinging to the overturned
pontoon in frigid waters. President Bush gave Mexican President
Vicente Fox a gift to take home: his pledge to exempt certain
frequent Mexican visitors from onerous new security checks at the
U.S. border. The visit by Fox to Bush's Central Texas ranch, held
a year and a half after it was originally scheduled, was designed
to lay past disputes to rest. A team of 50 Justice Department
prosecutors, investigators and support staff is going to Iraq
beginning this weekend to assemble war crimes cases against former
President Saddam Hussein and others in his former regime.
3/ 7/04 Sunday
U.S. Marines are investigating the attack on thousands celebrating
the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide that killed at least
five people and led Marines to return fire in the first armed
action of their mission to Haiti. Iraq's Governing Council agreed
to sign the interim constitution after the country's most powerful
cleric cleared the way by signaling to Shiite leaders that he won't
block them from adopting the accord. The grudging consent by Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani appeared to end a political
crisis over the charter that wrecked a previous attempt to sign it
and exacerbated tensions on the council. Seven months after his
confirmation rocked the Episcopal community, V. Gene Robinson
officially became the ninth Bishop of New Hampshire and the first
openly gay bishop in church history. Martha Stewart's assistant,
who reluctantly testified that her boss tried to alter a phone
record, was the key witness who helped convict the domestic diva of
lying about a stock sale, six of her jurors said. Ann Armstrong
had testified that Stewart sat down at Armstrong's desk to change a
message from her broker, Peter Bacanovic, informing her that he
thought the ImClone stock price would start falling.
3/ 8/04 Monday
Haiti began trying to rebuild its shattered government, with a
seven-member council interviewing candidates for prime minister and
the interim president appealing for an end to recent violence.
Martha Stewart met for about an hour with federal probation
officials who will recommend the length of her prison sentence for
lying about a stock sale, then emerged from the courthouse to thank
her supporters. For an hour anyway, Iraqi leaders put aside their
disagreements during the signing of a landmark interim
constitution, heaping praise on the U.S.-backed document amid
patriotic songs and Quranic verses urging unity. But sectarian
differences resurfaced as soon as the event ended. The Shiites'
most influential cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini
al-Sistani, issued a religious edict saying he had reservations
about the interim constitution and that it will gain legitimacy
only when adopted by an elected assembly.
3/ 9/04 Tuesday
Two Americans working for the U.S.-led coalition were shot dead
along with their Iraqi translator after their car was stopped at a
makeshift checkpoint by men dressed as Iraqi policemen, outside
Hillah in south-central Iraq. Haiti's advisory council named an
interim prime minister to pave the way for elections, while U.S.
Marines said they would start helping disarm the general population
in a potentially volatile move after weeks of bloodshed. John
Kerry, with only phantom rivals and pushovers left in the
Democratic race, easily won four Southern primaries to bring him
within striking distance of the presidential nomination. Kerry
swept Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana on a night when the
names of old foes remained on ballots printed when there was still
a real competition.
3/10/04 Wednesday
Haiti's new prime minister sought to unite a divided, desperate
population as he began cobbling together a government. U.S.
Marines, meanwhile, stepped up their mission to stop violence in
the Caribbean nation; Gerard Latortue, who returned to his homeland
from Florida, was chosen by a committee earlier this week to fill a
void left after former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled the
country on Feb. 29, amid international pressure and a bloody
rebellion. House Republicans seeking to curb another potential
source of money for trial lawyers decided that eaters hankering for
"biggie" portions shouldn't be allowed to blame their weight on
fast-food chains and restaurants. The House voted 276-139 to ban
class act ion lawsuits that contend food companies and their
offerings are responsible for Americans' putting on the pounds and
lurching toward obesity. Powerful explosions rocked three Madrid
train stations just three days before Spain's general elections,
killing 131 rush-hour commuters and wounding more than 400 in what
officials called the deadliest attack ever by the Basque separatist
group ETA. "This is a massacre," government spokesman Eduardo
Zaplana said.
3/11/04 Thursday
The President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, was stripped of his
constitutional powers in an unprecedented impeachment vote that
rattled a government already struggling with the North Korean
nuclear crisis and a struggling economic recovery. On the air for
just a week, President Bush launches the first negative television
ads of his re-election campaign, accusing Democratic rival John
Kerry of being "wrong on taxes" and "wrong on defense." The
toughest of the two new ads names Kerry and claims he would raise
taxes by $900 billion and "delay defending America." Republicans
pushed a $2.36 trillion budget through the Senate, a package
allowing lower spending and smaller tax cuts than President Bush
wants and trimming record deficits faster than he proposed. The
plan largely follows the fiscal outline Bush sent lawmakers last
month. The California Supreme Court ordered an immediate halt to
same-sex weddings in San Francisco, as Massachusetts lawmakers gave
preliminary approval to a constitutional amendment to ban gay
marriages in the only state where they have been ruled legal.
3/12/04 Friday
Traumatized by terrorism, Spaniards girded for general elections as
a nation in grief, with the ruling party favored to win and
insisting that Basque separatists remain the prime suspect in the
rail bombings that killed 199 people. Millions of Spaniards poured
into the streets, chanting "Cowards!" and "Assassins!" in a protest
of the bombings. The Basque separatist group ETA denied government
allegations that it staged the attacks. The U.S. military
announced a sweeping new operation across troubled southern and
eastern Afghanistan, with the aim of destroying al-Qaida and
Taliban infrastructure; the Americans have been pressing their hunt
for Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, who are
believed hiding out in the border area between Afghanistan and
Pakistan. The interim head of state known as "Mr. Stability"
pledged to continue South Korea's alliance with Washington as he
began his first full day in office, hours after thousands of angry
South Koreans held candlelight vigils to protest the impeachment of
their president. In Iraq, a roadside bomb in Saddam Hussein's
hometown of Tikrit killed two American soldiers and wounded four, a
day after the military said two other soldiers died in a similar
explosion elsewhere in Iraq's so-called Sunni Triangle.
3/13/04 Saturday
In a videotaped message, a man purporting to represent al-Qaida
claims the terrorist network was behind bombings that killed 200
and wounded 1,500 in Madrid. The tape - along with the arrest of
three Moroccan and two Indian suspects - provided the strongest
indication yet of an Islamic link to the attack on one of
Washington's staunchest allies in Iraq. John Kerry locked up the
Democratic presidential nomination, reaching the magic number of
delegates needed to become President Bush's chief rival in the
general election; Kerry called for monthly debates with Bush to
elevate the tenor of a campaign that's opened with a relentlessly
negative tone. Four American soldiers died in two bomb explosions
in Baghdad, the coalition said, raising to six the number of U.S.
forces killed in roadside bombs this weekend. Hundreds of Iraqis,
meanwhile, mourned the death of a Shiite politician's relative in a
bomb blast in his shop the previous day.
3/14/04 Sunday
Brushing off U.S. criticism of a one-sided election campaign,
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory after voters
handed him an expected landslide win for a second four-year term.
Spain's ruling conservatives crashed to surprise defeat in
elections overshadowed by anger over terrorist bombings, becoming
the first government that backed the U.S.-led war in Iraq to be
voted out of office. The win by the Socialists over President Jose
Maria Aznar's favored Popular Party Sunday came amid charges that
Aznar made Spain a target for terrorist by supporting the Iraq war.
"The Passion of the Christ" was the top film for a third straight
weekend, taking in $31.7 million and pushing its total beyond a
quarter of a billion dollars. It was announced that months before
bombs tore through commuter trains in Spain, authorities had
suspicions about Jamal Zougam - a Moroccan being questioned in the
worst terrorist attack in Europe since World War II. Investigators
suspected that Zougam had ties to an al-Qaida cell leader and found
a video of mujaheddin fighters during a search of his home.
3/15/04 Monday
John Kerry says he stands by his claim that some foreign leaders
privately support him against President Bush. The White House,
casting doubt on the Democrat's credibility, suggested he was
lying. "I'm not making anything up at all," Kerry said in an
interview, accusing Republicans of "trying to change the subject"
from jobs, health care and other issues. Spain's newly elected
prime minister pledged to bring his peacekeeping troops home from
Iraq by June 30. All other governments helping rebuild Iraq said
they would stay the course, but there were signs of nervousness
after the Madrid bombings and the Spanish government's defeat at
the polls. Investigators filed an arrest warrant for a suspect in
two dozen highway sniper shootings in Ohio that have left one woman
dead and unnerved motorists for months. Martha Stewart stepped
down as chief creative officer of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
and resigned from the company's board. But she was given the new
title of founding editorial director, assuring her a role in
developing new products and shaping company strategy.
3/16/04 Tuesday
A second Oregon county has decided to issue marriage licenses to
gay couples, a decision legal experts say will likely press the
state's highest court to settle the issue soon. Benton County
follows in the steps of Multnomah County, the state's most
populous, which has issued over 2,400 licenses to gay couples since
March 3. U.S. and Iraqi military forces backed by helicopters and
armored vehicles launched a big operation in Baghdad, raiding
suspected rebel hideouts in an effort to weed out insurgents and
capture illegal weapons. The campaign comes a day after gunmen
killed two Europeans working on a water project. On Monday,
assailants shot to death four American missionaries also working on
a water project. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues
said they can be "patient" in ordering rate increases. Fed
policy-makers said that "new hiring has lagged" even though the
economy is growing solidly. A late-winter snowstorm that swept
over the Midwest and into the Northeast lingered, dumping up to a
foot of snow in parts of western New York three days before the
start of spring. Fourteen inches piled up in Buffalo while 8 to 12
inches fell in parts of western New York.
3/17/04 Wednesday
A thunderous car bomb tore apart a five-story hotel catering to
foreigners in the heart of Baghdad, killing 27 people and showing
the continued vulnerability of civilians to terror attacks just
days before the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. Flames
and heavy smoke burst skyward from the Mount Lebanon Hotel,
torching nearby homes, offices and shops. The man wanted in a
deadly string of sniper shootings that terrorized Ohio drivers was
captured at a motel after a tipster spotted him at a Las Vegas
casino reading a newspaper story about himself. An unshaven and
disheveled Charles A. McCoy Jr., 28, was arrested without incident
less than 36 hours after Ohio authorities released his name as a
suspect in the attacks. NATO urged Serbs and ethnic Albanians to
refrain from violence after riots that killed eight and injured
hundreds in one of the worst days of bloodshed since the end of the
Kosovo war in 1999. The clashes started in the ethnically divided
city of Kosovska Mitrovica after ethnic Albanians blamed Serbs for
the drowning of two of their children and began rampaging in
revenge.
3/18/04 Thursday
Pakistani forces believe they have cornered and perhaps wounded
Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, in a major battle near
the Afghan border, an area where many believe the world's most
wanted terrorist has been hiding. Pakistan President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf said a "high value" target was believed trapped in South
Waziristan, a semi-autonamous tribal belt that has resisted outside
intervention for centuries. One year after ordering the first
military strikes against Iraq, President Bush marks the anniversary
with a fresh defense of his actions for a voting public that
remains split over his decision and international allies who are
growing weary of continued postwar violence in that country.
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu
were shot while campaigning for this weekend's presidential
election, but their injuries were not life-threatening. South Korea
canceled plans to send troops to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk,
citing U.S. pressure to participate in "offensive operations," but
still plans to send the forces to help rebuild the country.
3/19/04 Friday
Pakistani troops resumed their pounding of tribesmen and militants
in rural mud fortresses where they believe al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman
al-Zawahri is trapped. Interrogators began grilling suspects
captured in the raid for clues about the terror leader's
whereabouts. A former senior administration counterterrorism aide,
Richard A. Clarke, said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld almost
immediately urged President Bush to consider bombing Iraq after the
Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington.
Canadian officials have traced to two mills the feed that probably
caused North America's two cases of mad cow disease, one in Canada
last May and the other in the United States in December. The feed
from the Canadian mills could have contained infectious protein
from imported British cattle, said Dr. George Luterbach, an
official of a mad cow working group in the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency.
3/20/04 Saturday
Hundreds of thousands of people around the world rallied against
the U.S. presence in Iraq on the first anniversary of the war, in
protests that retained the anger, if not the size, of
demonstrations held before the invasion began. Protesters filled
more than a dozen police-lined blocks in Manhattan, calling on
President Bush to bring home U.S. troops serving in Iraq. Carbon
dioxide, the gas largely blamed for global warming, has reached
record-high levels in the atmosphere after growing at an
accelerated pace in the past year, say scientists monitoring the
sky from Mauna Loa Observatory, atop a Hawaiian volcano; the reason
for the faster buildup of the most important "greenhouse gas" will
require further analysis, the U.S. government experts say. Two
mortar rounds landed in the headquarters compound of the U.S.-led
coalition, sending command staff to bunkers for safety inside the
fortified complex in the center of Iraq's capital.
3/21/04 Sunday
With sales of almost $259 billion - about a quarter of a trillion
dollars - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. topped the Fortune 500 list of the
nation's largest publicly traded companies for the third straight
year. Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and leader of Hamas, the
militant group that has targeted Israelis in suicide bombings, was
killed by missiles fired from Israeli helicopters as he left a
mosque. Yassin was the most prominent Palestinian leader to be
killed by Israel, and his assassination was seen as a major
escalation in more than three years of fighting. President Bush's
national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, "looked skeptical"
when she was warned early in 2001 about the threat from al-Qaida
and appeared to never have heard of the terrorist organization,
according to Bush's former counterterrorism coordinator. "Her
facial expression gave me the impression that she had never heard
the term before," wrote Richard A. Clarke in a new book - "Against
All Enemies". The White House is disputing assertions by President
Bush's former counterterrorism coordinator that the administration
failed to recognize the risk of an attack by al-Qaida in the months
leading up to Sept. 11, 2001.
3/22/04 Monday
Prosecutors in Terry Nichols' state murder trial began their
attempt to put the Oklahoma City bombing conspirator on death row
by linking him to the blast - even though he was more than 200
miles away. Pakistani forces discovered a mile-long tunnel leading
from a besieged mud fortress to a dry stream bed, and said the
secret passage may have allowed top al-Qaida suspects to escape
toward the Afghan frontier. The world's population growth is
slowing because women are having fewer children and more people are
dying from AIDS, especially in Africa, according to a Census Bureau
report released. The report forecasts there will be nearly 9.1
billion people by 2050, a nearly 50 percent increase from the 6.2
billion in 2002. Israel will try to kill the entire leadership of
Hamas without waiting for another attack by the militant group,
security sources said, citing a decision made by Israeli security
chiefs following the assassination of Hamas' founder.
3/23/04 Tuesday
Americans overwhelmingly want the phrase "under God" preserved in
the Pledge of Allegiance, a new poll says as the Supreme Court
examines whether the classroom salute crosses the division of
church and state. The U.S. Embassy and the consular office in the
United Arab Emirates have closed temporarily because of a "specific
threat" against the embassy. Three times in the late 1990s,
Clinton administration officials had reports on Osama bin Laden's
whereabouts that seemed credible enough to plan attacks, but not
enough to carry them out. In each case, CIA Director George Tenet
opposed the attacks because the intelligence came from a single,
uncorroborated source and there was a risk of innocents being
killed, according to a preliminary report from the federal
commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism attacks.
After two weeks and tens of millions of dollars spent by both sides
on negative advertising, little has changed in the basic landscape
of a very close presidential race, an Associated Press poll found.
3/24/04 Wednesday
Kobe Bryant's accuser testified more than three hours during a
hearing that will determine whether details about her sex life can
be introduced at the NBA star's rape trial. For a dozen years, he
worked quietly in the shadows of the White House. But Richard
Clarke stole the spotlight at an extraordinary series of hearings
into the Sept. 11 attacks, claiming President Bush hadn't done
enough to protect the country from terrorists. A counterterrorism
adviser to the past three presidents, Clarke accused the Bush
administration of scaling back the campaign against Osama bin Laden
before the attacks and undermining the fight against terrorism. A
family court judge ordered R&B singer Bobby Brown jailed for 90
days or until he pays $63,500 in child support he owes the mother
of two children he fathered. Brown, released from a Georgia jail
early so he could attend the contempt hearing, cried as he was led
from the courtroom. Insurgents attacked a patrol north of Baghdad,
sparking a gunbattle that killed a U.S. soldier and three rebels on
amid warnings that attacks will likely increase with fewer than 100
days left before the coalition hands over sovereignty.
3/25/04 Thursday
The United States used its veto power to quash a U.N. Security
Council resolution condemning Israel for killing Hamas leader Ahmed
Yassin in a missile strike. U.S. diplomats said the measure had
failed to mention the militant group's record of bombings and
shooting attacks during 3 1/2 years of Israeli-Palestinian
violence. John Kerry, promising to create 10 million jobs and keep
them in America, said he would cut corporate taxes by 5 percent and
eliminate tax loopholes that push jobs overseas. John Kerry said
the country deserves leadership that "tells the truth" as he took
over the mantle of the Democratic Party at a unity dinner with
Presidents Clinton and Carter and most of his former foes. "Never
has the Democratic Party been more united than it is today," Kerry
said. A tape purportedly recorded by Ayman al-Zawahri, the No. 2
figure in the al-Qaida terror group, called Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf a "traitor" and urged people to overthrow his
government.
3/26/04 Friday
In Iraq, U.S. troops and guerrillas armed with mortars and
rocket-propelled grenades battled for hours in the alleyways of
Fallujah, killing a Marine and at least five Iraqis, including an
ABC News cameraman. Near Tikrit, four members of the U.S.-trained
Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and three suspected rebels died during a
raid by Iraqi security forces and U.S. soldiers. Key Republicans
in Congress want to declassify 2002 testimony by former
counterterrorism official Richard Clarke, hoping to show
discrepancies between his recent criticisms of the Bush
administration and positive remarks he made as a White House aide.
"Mr. Clarke has told two entirely different stories under oath,"
Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., told the Senate. Condoleezza
Rice says the Bush administration has a good story to tell about
fighting terrorism and she's pouring it out in television
appearances, interviews and newspaper articles. The one place she
won't talk is in public, under oath, before the independent
commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
That is blossoming into a public relations nightmare. Democratic
presidential candidate John Kerry unveiled his plan to deal with
"Benedict Arnold" companies that he has repeatedly criticized
during the campaign for reaping tax benefits while shipping U.S.
jobs overseas. But his proposal to end an estimated $12 billion
annually in corporate tax relief is certain to stir stiff
opposition from some of America's largest multinational companies
who are currently enjoying those breaks. And private economists
questioned whether it would do much to halt the hemorrhaging of
manufacturing jobs to foreign countries.
3/27/04 Saturday
John Kerry said the White House is committing character
assassination with its treatment of former counterterror chief
Richard Clarke to avoid responding to questions about national
security. Kerry also said Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's
national security adviser, should testify in public before the
commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. In
Iraq, rebel rockets slammed into a government building in the
northern city of Mosul, killing two civilians and wounding 14
others. An explosion rocked central Baghdad in a roadside bomb
attack on a convoy, wounding five Iraqis. The Mosul attack brought
to 21 the number of people killed in two days of explosions and
shootings across the country. A French lawyer, known for defending
terrorists and a Nazi leader, said he will defend Saddam Hussein.
Jacques Verges told France-Inter radio he had received a letter
from Saddam's family requesting him to defend the former Iraqi
leader in court; U.S. officials have said they will bring Saddam to
trial for alleged crimes against Iraqi people. But the location of
any trial and its format and date have not yet been decided. Three
years after its first test flight ended in an explosion, NASA
successfully launched an experimental jet that the agency believes
reached a record-setting speed of about 5,000 mph. The unpiloted
X-43A made an 11-second powered flight, then went through some
twists and turns during a six-minute glide before plunging into the
Pacific Ocean about 400 miles off the California coast.
3/28/04 Sunday
U.S. soldiers in the northern city of Mosul shot and killed four
rebels suspected of involvement in attacks in the region. Two
American soldiers were wounded in the firefight. The fighting came
hours after gunmen fired on a convoy carrying a government minister
near Mosul and the separate killings of a Canadian and Briton in
the area. There is little chance that gas prices, which have
reached a record high, will fall significantly in the near future,
a national analyst says. Gas prices climbed another 3 cents in the
past two weeks, said Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg survey. The
nationwide average in the past two weeks is $1.80 for all grades, a
new record high. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice is
waging a vigorous defense of her actions in every public forum
except one: the Sept. 11 commission where she would be questioned
about the government's failure to prevent the terrorist attacks.
Rice declared that "nothing would be better, from my point of view,
than to be able to testify" to the commission. But, she added,
"there is an important principle involved here: It is a
long-standing principle that sitting national security advisers
do not testify before the Congress."
3/29/04 Monday
He doesn't have a lawyer in the room, but Saddam Hussein apparently
is practicing what most attorneys would advise: Don't talk.
Diplomatic and military officials say the former Iraqi leader has
provided little useful information in interrogations so far - and
may even be having fun. The questioning of Saddam - initially
handled by the CIA - is now a joint CIA-FBI operation, a sign that
the aim is changing from finding intelligence to gathering evidence
for any eventual trials. Police arrested eight men and seized half
a ton of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be used to make
bombs, in anti-terror raids in and near London. All the suspects
were British and were arrested as part of an operation targeting
alleged international terrorist activity. With gasoline prices at
a record high, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is
calling for the government to stop pumping oil into its emergency
stockpile. Kerry says that's one of several steps President Bush
could take to slow the soaring cost of gasoline, which reached a
national average of $1.80 a gallon in the past two weeks.
3/30/04 Tuesday
A bomb exploded under a U.S. military vehicle west of Baghdad,
killing five American soldiers. At least four people, possibly
foreign nationals, were killed in a separate attack in the area.
The explosive device that killed the Americans blew up when their
vehicle ran over it. The attack occurred in Anbar province, which
encompasses Fallujah, Ramadi and other towns where anti-U.S.
insurgents are located. In Uzbekistan, bombings and fierce clashes
between Uzbek forces and suspected Islamic militants raised the
death toll in three days of violence to 42, with insurgent attacks
appearing to target the government - an ally in the U.S.-led war on
terror. The violence, including the country's first suicide
bombings, has been Uzbekistan's most serious unrest since it let
hundreds of U.S. troops use a base near the Afghan border after the
Sept. 11 attacks. When she testifies publicly before the Sept. 11
commission, Condoleezza Rice will be making an election-year
defense of the Bush's administration's anti-terrorism policy prior
to the 2001 attacks. "We want to understand the nature of the
decision-making in the highest levels of government," commission
chairman Thomas Kean said after the White House reversed course and
agreed to let Rice, who is Bush's national security adviser,
testify publicly. The White House also agreed that Bush and Vice
President Dick Cheney would answer questions - together, in private
- before the entire commission.
3/31/04 Wednesday
This week's outbreak of violence in Uzbekistan is linked to
al-Qaida, a top anti-terror official said - the first time the
Uzbek government has directly linked the attacks to the terror
network headed by Osama bin Laden.
In Iraq, insurgents attacked a U.S. military convoy and a Humvee
was burned near Fallujah, a day after the grisly killing and
mutilation of four American civilians in the city.
Fame has come at a price for former POW Jessica Lynch. Since the
supply clerk's wounding and rescue made her the Iraq war's most
famous soldier a year ago, well-wishers have been drawn to her at
every public appearance, whether at the diner near her home or at
the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills. "I'm just a country
girl. It's something I'm not used to, and I probably never will
be," the 20-year-old Lynch said, "I do want my life back to normal,
because it's hard - it's so hard. But at the same time I'm like -
wow, I get to go to New York, I get to go to Hollywood. I get to
hang out with people like Britney and Leonardo."
With fuel costs already at uncomfortable levels for consumers, OPEC
took a step that could push prices even higher by announcing that
it would cut its crude oil production target by 4 percent. The
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries hopes the cut, which
takes effect Thursday, will prevent a slide in prices this spring,
when the global demand for oil usually slips to a seasonal low.
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