5/ 1/04 Saturday
Western diplomats streamed into Yanbu in Saudi Arabia to aid
relatives of foreign oil industry workers killed and hurt in a
shooting rampage followed by a gunbattle through the streets with
police in chase. All four assailants were killed, reportedly
including the kingdom's most-wanted terrorists. Militants sprayed
gunfire inside an oil contractor's Saudi office, killing at least
six people - two Americans, two Britons, an Australian and a Saudi
- and wounding dozens. As the attackers fled, they reportedly
dragged the naked body of one victim behind their getaway car.
Iraqi mediators attempted to set up negotiations with American
officials on ending the U.S. standoff with a radical Shiite Muslim
cleric at Najaf, while his militiamen attacked a U.S. convoy
further south. In Fallujah, residents and insurgents cheered the
end of the U.S. siege. A number of Humvees and trucks were in
flames after gunmen loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr attacked the
convoy between the southern cities of Basra and Amarah.
The chief of the U.S. Army Reserve condemned the abusive treatment
of Iraqi war prisoners and said he has ordered a study of whether
reservists are sufficiently trained in ethical conduct and how to
treat prisoners. Following a meeting with families of the reserve
unit at the center of the investigation, Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly
said photographs of naked inmates forced to assume humiliating
positions beside grinning military police reservists "go against
the grain of everything America's Army stands for."
President Bush tempered lighthearted remarks to a gathering of
journalists with a declaration that the nation is in a "period of
testing and sacrifice" spearheaded by a "new generation of
Americans as brave and decent as any before it." "As I speak, men
and women in uniform are taking great risks and so are many
journalists are being faithful to their own sense of duty," the
president told the 90th annual White House Correspondents'
Association dinner.
Revelers across ex-communist eastern Europe celebrated their
historic entry to the European Union amid scattered protests by
demonstrators decrying a loss of national sovereignty. The overall
jubilation differed sharply from May Days under communism, when
people were forced to march in parades carrying banners of Soviet
Union founder Vladimir Lenin and Soviet flags and listen to dreary
speeches by party apparatchiks.
5/ 2/04 Sunday
In a daring escape, American hostage Thomas Hamill pried open the
doors of the house where he was being held and ran a half-mile to a
military convoy that was passing by, officials and his wife said.
Hamill, 43, of Macon, Miss., identified himself to the U.S.
soldiers, then led them back to his Iraqi captors, two of whom were
captured. Across Iraq, insurgents attacked U.S. forces, killing 11
Americans.
A former Iraqi prisoner says the allegations that inmates at
Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison have suffered indignities at
the hands of their American guards came as no shock to him. In an
interview with The Associated Press, Dhia al-Shweiri said he too
was stripped naked during his stay in the prison and the
humiliation was worse than the torture he endured under Saddam
Hussein.
Seven U.S. soldiers have been reprimanded in connection with the
alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners carried out by guards at Baghdad's
notorious Abu Ghraib prison. On the orders of Lt. Gen. Ricardo
Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, six of the soldiers -
all officers and noncommissioned officers - have received the most
severe level of administrative reprimand in the U.S. military.
The Pentagon's top officer says a general who once headed Saddam
Hussein's infantry does not and probably will not command an Iraqi
force that is replacing Marines at Fallujah. Nevertheless, on the
ground outside the violent city west of Baghdad, Marine commanders
describe Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh as commander of the newly
organized "Fallujah Brigade" and have given no indication they are
losing confidence in him.
5/ 3/04 Monday
The U.S. military has reprimanded seven soldiers in the alleged
abuse of inmates at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, the
first known punishments in the case. Two of the soldiers were
relieved of their duties. The American officer who oversaw the
prison said many more troops might have been involved. The
soldiers were reprimanded on the orders of Lt. Gen. Ricardo
Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.
Former investment banker Frank Quattrone who shepherded some of the
most important companies of the dot-com stock boom to the public
market, was convicted of obstructing justice and witness tampering.
The verdict means the former banker, who made $120 million in 2000
at Credit Suisse First Boston, will likely go to prison - possibly
for more than a year. Sentencing was set for Sept. 8.
Democrat John Kerry launched a long-awaited, $25 million
advertising campaign with television spots that trace his life from
Yale to Vietnam to the U.S. Senate, and feature his daughter, wife
and a prominent Republican. Amid concerns among some Democrats
that many voters only know Kerry from President Bush's critical
ads, the challenger plans to air two 60-second spots beginning
Tuesday in local media markets in 19 states.
Southern California's 2004 fire season opened with firefighters
battling blazes that covered nearly 5,000 acres and forced hundreds
of people to evacuate. The largest was a 2,500-acre fire in
Riverside County. But five other blazes were scattered across Santa
Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, as temperatures
climbed to 100 degrees in some places. Several firefighters among
the thousands on the job were treated for injuries, including heat
stroke.
In Saudi Arabia, the U.S. ambassador traveled to the oil-industry
city of Yanbu, with a simple message for the gathered Americans: Go
home. We cannot protect you. Huddled in a meeting room in a
Holiday Inn still pocked with bullet holes after the latest in a
string of attacks on Westerners killed two Americans and four
others, many said they would heed his words.
5/ 4/04 Tuesday
Pentagon officials have decided to keep the current level of
American troops in Iraq - about 135,000 - until the end of 2005 in
an acknowledgment of long-term instability there. Commanders had
hoped to reduce the number of troops in Iraq to about 115,000 this
summer. But that was before a surge of violence from Sunni and
Shiite Muslim insurgents made April the deadliest month for the
United States in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.
The deaths of 10 prisoners and abuse of 10 more in Iraq and
Afghanistan are under criminal investigation, the Army disclosed as
U.S. commanders in Baghdad announced interrogation changes and the
White House reached out to the Arab world to try to blunt a
widening and increasingly damaging controversy.
Trying to contain the increasingly damaging controversy, President
Bush planned two interviews with Arab television to underscore his
aversion to photographs of naked detainees and gloating U.S.
soldiers at a prison in Iraq. "This is an opportunity for the
president to speak directly to the people in Arab nations and let
them know that the images that we all have seen are shameless and
unacceptable," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
In a growing practice that troubles some ethicists, a Chicago
laboratory helped create five healthy babies so that they could
serve as stem-cell donors for their ailing brothers and sisters.
The made-to-order infants, from different families, were screened
and selected when they were still embryos to make sure they would
be compatible donors. Their siblings suffered from leukemia or a
rare and potentially lethal anemia. This is the first time embryo
tissue-typing has been done.
Two years after President Bush fulfilled a campaign promise to
enact sweeping education changes, Democratic challenger John Kerry
is trying to use the president's signature domestic issue against
him. "Education reform was supposed to be the single biggest
effort of this administration," Kerry said as he started a
three-day education tour. "And all over our nation I'm meeting
teachers who are burdened, teachers reaching into their own
pockets, paying money out of their own salaries in order to put
materials in front of their kids in school. That's unacceptable
when you are giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America."
5/ 5/04 Wednesday
President Bush tried to calm the anger of the Arab world over the
abuse of prisoners in Iraq, promising that justice would be served.
White House aides said he had chastised Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld for failing to tell him about pictures of prisoner
mistreatment. Bush's administration asked Congress for an
additional $25 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a
retreat from the White House's earlier plans not to seek the money
until after the November elections. The money - half of what White
House officials have said they expect to need for 2005 - is
designed to carry the military through the first months of the new
budget year, which starts next Oct. 1.
Democrats are lambasting President Bush for his $25 billion request
for fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, saying they
will support the money but accusing him of low-balling the amount
for political reasons. The proposal marked an abrupt reversal for
a White House that until recently had insisted it would not seek
more money until next year. The reversal came amid intensified
combat that is forcing the Pentagon to keep more troops in Iraq
than they anticipated.
U.S.-led forces launched their biggest assault yet against
militiamen loyal to a radical Shiite cleric, raiding hideouts in
several cities and clashing with gunmen in the world's biggest
cemetery. At least 15 Iraqis and a U.S. soldier were killed. A
suicide car bomb exploded near a checkpoint to the main complex
housing U.S. administrative offices in central Baghdad, killing an
American soldier and five Iraqi civilians.
5/ 6/04 Thursday
A year before the Iraq invasion, the then-Army secretary warned his
Pentagon bosses that there was inadequate control of private
military contractors, which are now at the heart of controversies
over misspending and prisoner abuse. The author of that memo,
retired Army chief Thomas White, said in a telephone interview with
The Associated Press that the recent events show the Pentagon has a
long way to go to fix the problems he identified in March 2002.
In Iraq, hours after American forces seized the Najaf governor's
office, militiamen of a radical cleric dug in, taking positions
behind earthen mounds in the holy city and firing mortar shells and
small arms at a U.S. base. The defiance came amid concerns that
U.S. troops were about to move directly against the anti-American
cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr. American soldiers responded with a heavy
barrage of 120mm mortar fire and U.S. jets streaked across the
night sky.
President Bush, struggling to control a growing crisis, apologized
for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers and called it
"a stain on our country's honor." He rejected calls for Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation but complained about
Rumsfeld's handling of the controversy. "He'll stay in my Cabinet,"
Bush declared, a day after White House officials spread word that
the president was upset at the secretary for not alerting him about
the damaging reports.
5/ 7/04 Friday
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned members of Congress
that the Iraq prison abuse scandal could worsen with the release of
videos and more photographs depicting brutality. With his future
in the Cabinet in jeopardy, Rumsfeld apologized and told House and
Senate committees that he took full responsibility for the abuses
at the Abu Ghraib prison. Rumsfeld offered "my deepest apology" to
Iraqis abused by American soldiers and said he would seek
compensation for them.
German authorities arrested an 18-year-old man suspected of
creating the "Sasser" computer virus, which infected hundreds of
thousands of computers worldwide. The suspect, a high school
student, was arrested and lives near the northern town of Rotenburg
an der Wuemme.
Army Pfc. Lynndie England, shown in photographs smiling and
pointing at naked Iraqi prisoners, was charged by the military with
assaulting the detainees and conspiring to mistreat them. England
is the seventh soldier from an Army Reserve military police unit to
be charged in a scandal that has drawn outrage around the world and
damaged the reputation of the United States as it tries to
stabilize Iraq. England's relatives insisted she was merely
following orders.
5/ 8/04 Saturday
Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov died after an explosion tore
through a stadium where he was attending a Victory Day celebration.
At least 25 people were wounded in the blast, officials said. The
explosion was caused by a land mine that was planted under VIP
seats at the stadium.
The head of U.S. detention centers in Iraq said the military has no
plans to close the Abu Ghraib prison and blamed the abuse of
detainees there on poor leadership and disregard for the rules.
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller said the United States does intend to cut
the number of prisoners to help improve conditions but added that
"we will continue to conduct interrogation missions at the Abu
Ghraib facility." Miller was named head of prisons in April.
The Army investigation into the Iraq prison scandal should have
repercussions for higher-ups, not just the military police accused
of abusing detainees, lawmakers said. "I think command
responsibility has to be looked at just as seriously as the
abusers," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said in
an interview. "The culture that led to this outrageous conduct has
to be addressed just as much as the conduct itself."
British soldiers beat back attacks by militiamen loyal to a radical
Shiite cleric in southern cities, and U.S. forces stormed Muqtada
al-Sadr's stronghold in Baghdad. Elsewhere, a U.S. soldier from
the 2nd Infantry Division's Stryker Brigade was killed and a
soldier from the Army's Task Force Olympia was wounded in a mortar
attack on a coalition base in the northern city of Mosul.
5/ 9/04 Sunday
Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized for any abuses committed by
British soldiers in Iraq, and said those responsible would be
punished. As the government acknowledged it had known for months
about claims that its troops abused Iraqi prisoners, lawmakers
called for the publication of an International Committee of the Red
Cross report detailing many of the allegations. Human rights group
Amnesty International said it told British officials about reports
of violence and torture.
Stung by a worldwide outcry, the U.S. military announced the first
court-martial in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse allegations,
ordered a reservist to face a public trial in Baghdad on May 19.
Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits of Hyndman, Pa., a member of the 372nd
Military Police Company, will face a military court less than a
month after photos of prisoners being abused and humiliated were
first broadcast April 28.
U.S. gasoline prices rose by slightly more than 10 cents per gallon
in the past two weeks, the biggest jump since last August, an
industry analyst said. The weighted national average for all three
grades of gasoline was just over $1.96 per gallon on Friday,
according to Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the biweekly Lundberg
Survey, which regularly polls 8,000 gas stations across the United
States.
5/10/04 Monday
The international Red Cross has been buffeted by demands that it
drop its policy of confidentiality in dealing with prisoners in
Iraq but is determined its quiet approach is the best protection
for victims of war. "We're getting private e-mails. We're getting
comment from journalists. We're seeing reports in media around the
world," said Antonella Notari, chief spokeswoman of the
International Committee of the Red Cross, concerning the response
to the publication of its confidential report on abuse at U.S.-run
prisons in Iraq.
Americans can expect more shocking photos and searing public debate
as the Bush administration works to calm the firestorm over U.S.
soldiers' abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Senators scheduled another
hearing Tuesday with top military and intelligence officials,
including Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, author of a Pentagon
report that found numerous "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal
abuses" at a U.S.-run prison complex near Baghdad.
Up to 90 percent of Iraqi detainees were arrested "by mistake,"
according to coalition intelligence officers cited in a Red Cross
report. It also says U.S. officers mistreated inmates at the
notorious Abu Ghraib prison by keeping them naked in dark, empty
cells. Abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers was widespread
and routine, the report finds - contrary to President Bush's
contention that the mistreatment "was the wrongdoing of a few."
5/11/04 Tuesday
The U.S. military has opened an investigation into allegations that
an Afghan police officer was stripped naked, beaten and
photographed at a U.S. base in Afghanistan. The alleged abuse
occurred in August 2003 at the American base in the eastern town of
Gardez, 60 miles south of the capital, Kabul, an embassy statement
said. U.S. officials had learned of the allegations from the media,
it said.
Senators are getting a look at more photos of American soldiers
brutalizing Iraqi prisoners but won't have the authority to release
the pictures that the Pentagon warns could deepen international
fury over the abuses. The photographs were being made available
for three hours Wednesday afternoon in a high-security, classified
office in the Capitol. After that, they were to be returned to the
Pentagon while the Bush administration decides whether to make them
public.
In Iraq, U.S. soldiers backed by tanks and helicopters battled
fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr near a mosque in
the holy city of Karbala, hours after Iraqi leaders agreed on a
proposal to end al-Sadr's violent standoff with the U.S.-led
coalition. American troops and al-Sadr's followers also fought
overnight on the outskirts of two other southern cities, Najaf and
Kufa. Residents heard large explosions.
5/12/04 Wednesday
The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops went beyond the photos
seen by most Americans, shaken lawmakers said after viewing fresh
pictures and video that they said depicted forced sex, brutality
and dogs snarling at cowed prisoners. Some members of Congress
said they feared that making the images public would inflame
international outrage and endanger Americans still in Iraq. There
was a private screening of more than 1,600 photos in a top-secret
room of the U.S. Capitol.
Fresh photos showing American soldiers brutalizing Iraqi prisoners
with snarling dogs or forced sex left members of Congress angry and
disgusted, but apparently with few new clues about how widespread
the abuse was and who ultimately should be held accountable. In
separate private screenings on Capitol Hill, House and Senate
members saw photos and video of Iraqi corpses, military dogs
menacing cowering Iraqi prisoners, Iraqi women forced to expose
themselves and other sexual abuses.
Bush administration lawyers are advising the Pentagon not to
publicly release any more photographs of Iraqi prisoners being
abused by U.S. soldiers, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said
at the outset of a hastily arranged visit to Iraq aimed at
containing the abuse scandal. "As far as I'm concerned, I'd be
happy to release them all to the public and to get it behind us,"
Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him from Washington. "But
at the present time I don't know anyone in the legal shop in any
element of the government that is recommending that."
Amid heavy gunfire and explosions, American forces battled Iraqi
militiamen near a shrine that is one of the most sacred sites of
Shia Islam. Thick smoke rose over the city center. The fighting
came as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived in the Iraqi
capital on an unannounced visit aimed at calming the storm over
prisoner abuse and lifting the spirits of U.S. troops. He was
accompanied by Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff and some of the Pentagon's most senior lawyers.
Independent Ralph Nader, reviled by some Democrats for his
presidential bid, was endorsed by the national Reform Party, giving
him ballot access in at least seven states, including the
battlegrounds of Florida and Michigan. Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese
said the candidate welcomes the support but plans to continue
running as an independent. He said Nader would decide on a
case-by-case basis whether to accept the Reform Party's ballot
lines in each state.
5/13/04 Thursday
The Pentagon's No. 2 general and the deputy defense secretary said
they were unaware of interrogation rules approved for use in Iraq
allowing the use of dogs or days of sleep deprivation. Marine Gen.
Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz appeared before the Senate Armed
Services Committee. The panel is trying to determine if the
prisoner abuse was limited to a small group of soldiers at the Abu
Ghraib prison, or if the problem was more widespread and military
leaders were involved.
Explosions rocked the holy city of Najaf and residents reported
intermittent gunfire in Karbala as U.S. soldiers again clashed with
militiamen loyal to a radical cleric. Fighting broke out on a road
leading from Najaf to the nearby city of Kufa, where cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr was scheduled to deliver a sermon at prayers. At least one
American tank was stationed on the road. Militiamen took cover at
street corners. Smoke rose from two areas of Najaf.
Sonia Gandhi, the latest member of the Gandhi dynasty in line to
become India's prime minister, worked swiftly to build a new
coalition government around her family's Congress party after a
stunning upset election victory. Congress, the party that led
India to freedom from British colonial rule and then ran the
country for 40 years, is returning to power after an eight-year
hiatus, riding a surge of discontent among poor voters who felt
left behind by economic reforms.
5/14/04 Friday
Amid the uproar over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, the senior U.S.
commander in Iraq is moving to eliminate most coercive
interrogation tactics. The Pentagon says Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez
is letting military intelligence chiefs know that their requests
for such methods, which had been allowed with specific permission,
will be turned down.
American tanks firing shells and heavy machine guns made their
deepest incursion yet into Najaf, the stronghold of a radical
cleric. Apparent gunfire slightly damaged one of Shia Islam's
holiest shrines, prompting calls for revenge and even suicide
attacks. In response, cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militiamen attacked
U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Nasiriyah, trapping
international staff and some Italian journalists inside.
The U.S. military has launched a second probe into alleged prisoner
abuse in Afghanistan in a week. On Monday, the U.S. military
opened a criminal investigation into complaints of mistreatment
from a former Afghan police officer who claimed he was beaten and
sexually assaulted during 40 days in custody last summer.
With the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to step in and block gay
marriages in Massachusetts, same-sex couples planning to marry
could be confident that, beginning Monday, they could tie the knot.
Couples have been "nervous wrecks about whether they could marry
starting Monday," said Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the
Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus. "Now they can all
breathe a sigh of relief."
5/15/04 Saturday
A top U.S. official told Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa that
Washington will be watching to see how the territory's political
system develops now that Beijing has ruled out full democracy in
the near term. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said it
was too soon to determine whether China had harmed Hong Kong's
promised autonomy when it ruled out direct elections for the
territory's next leader in 2007 and all lawmakers in 2008.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the expansion of a
secret program that encouraged physical coercion and sexual
humiliation of Iraqi prisoners to obtain intelligence about the
growing insurgency in Iraq, The New Yorker reported. The Defense
Department strongly denied the claims made in the report, which
cited unnamed current and former intelligence officials and was
published on the magazine's Web site. Pentagon spokesman Lawrence
Di Rita issued a statement calling the claims "outlandish,
conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture."
The U.S. military said it killed 18 gunmen believed loyal to
radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad, and jet fighters
bombarded militia positions on the capital's outskirts. Skirmishes
persisted in the southern holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. The
U.S. military also announced the deaths of five soldiers, including
three killed by rebel attacks. In northern Iraq, rebels fired a
mortar round at an Iraqi army recruiting center, killing four
volunteers.
5/16/04 Sunday
The head of the Iraqi Governing Council was killed in a car bombing
near a U.S. checkpoint in central Baghdad. The killing was the
second of a member of the U.S.-appointed council since last year
and dealt a blow to U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq ahead of a
handover of sovereignty on June 30. Abdel-Zahraa Othman, also known
as Izzadine Saleem, was the second and highest-ranking member of
the U.S.-appointed council to be assassinated. He was among four
Iraqis killed in the blast, according to Redha Jawad Taki, a member
of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite
Muslim organization.
Two months before pictures of Iraqi prisoner abuse became public,
the family of one accused soldier wrote to 14 members of Congress
that "something went wrong" involving "mistreatment of POWs" at Abu
Ghraib prison. Separately, a suspended Army officer in Iraq wrote
to Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania that he was being
unfairly punished after "pictures of naked prisoners" were
discovered. He sent the letter six weeks before the CBS program
"60 Minutes II" first broadcast photographs of the prisoners on
April 28.
In a sign of the Iraq war's increasing strain on the U.S. Army, the
Pentagon is considering an extraordinary shift of troops to Iraq
from their garrisons in South Korea, where they have stood guard
for decades against a feared invasion by forces of communist North
Korea, officials say. The move reflects the Army's difficulty in
finding enough soldiers for the next rotation of forces into Iraq
later this year.
Fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr drove Italian
forces from a base in the southern city of Nasiriyah and attacked
coalition headquarters there with grenade and mortar fire as
tensions in the Shiite region escalated. Also, a powerful car bomb
exploded outside the headquarters of the American-led coalition,
killing four Iraqis and injuring eight other people, including two
U.S. soldiers.
5/17/04 Monday
Oil prices surged to near $42 a barrel and the U.S. Energy
Department said the country's average retail price of a gallon of
gasoline had passed $2 for the first time. Oil prices rose as
markets shrugged off a Saudi proposal that OPEC raise its official
output target by 6 percent. Analysts argued that the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries must add real barrels of oil to
world supplies, rather than just increase the target.
U.S. soldiers found a roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent in
Baghdad. The device, which partially detonated, was apparently a
leftover from Saddam Hussein's arsenals. It was unclear whether
more such weapons were in the hands of insurgents. Soldiers who
removed the bomb experienced symptoms consistent with low-level
nerve agent exposure.
One lesbian couple, partners for 33 years, married on a wind-swept
Cape Cod beach. Another pair wed on Boston's Beacon Hill to a
jubilant chorus of "Here Come the Brides." They were among
hundreds of gay and lesbian couples who obtained marriage licenses
as Massachusetts, obeying a landmark order from its high court,
became the first state to allow same-sex weddings. Yet even as
champagne corks popped and confetti swirled, opponents of such
unions declared their determination to fight back. "The sacred
institution of marriage should not be redefined by a few activist
judges," said President Bush, renewing his support for a proposed
constitutional ban that has been introduced in Congress.
5/18/04 Tuesday
Iraq's most respected Shiite cleric urged both U.S. soldiers and a
radical cleric's militia to withdraw from two Shiite holy cities
where fighting has raged near some of Shia Islam's holiest shrines.
Meanwhile arraignments began for three soldiers charged with
abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and all three deferred entering
pleas. The judge, Col. James Pohl, set a new hearing in the cases
for June 21.
A 71-year-old economic reformer and political veteran is set to
step in and become India's prime minister now that Sonia Gandhi has
abandoned her claim to the top job, a refusal that came as a shock
to her supporters, but that sidestepped Hindu nationalist outrage
over the prospect of a foreign-born woman leading the nation.
Gandhi, an Italian who became an Indian citizen 21 years ago when
she married former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, did not say whom
she would nominate for the post. "The post of prime minister has
not been my aim," Gandhi told the newly elected Congress party.
The Congress party named Manmohan Singh, a former finance minister,
as their choice, and he was expected to seek presidential approval
soon to form a Congress-led coalition government.
Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits pleaded guilty to three counts of abuse in
the first court-martial stemming from mistreatment of Iraqi
prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. Sivits, at times struggling to
hold back tears, was charged with mistreating detainees,
dereliction of duty for failing to protect them from abuse, cruelty
and forcing a prisoner "to be positioned in a pile on the floor to
be assaulted by other soldiers."
5/19/04 Wednesday
Families of World Trade Center victims say the Sept. 11 commission
and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani failed them by "sugarcoating"
their questions and answers in a public hearing. Relatives jumped
out of their seats and shouted at the panel and the former mayor,
who testified on the second day of the hearing examining the city's
emergency response. They said the commission feebly addressed
crucial issues like malfunctioning firefighter radios.
A U.S. aircraft fired on a house in the desert near the Syrian
border, and Iraqi officials said more than 40 people were killed,
including children. The U.S. military said the target was a
suspected safehouse for foreign fighters from Syria, but Iraqis
said a helicopter had attacked a wedding party. AP Television
News footage showed a truck containing bloodied bodies, many
wrapped in blankets, piled one atop the other. Several were
children.
For months, U.S. officials have warned that the insurgency in Iraq
would grow deadliest as the June 30 political transition drew near.
Now, they're warning the violence might get even worse once the
handover is completed. And that could mean the need for more U.S.
troops, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East says.
President Bush acknowledged that Iraq could remain dangerous and
unstable after the transfer of political power.
5/20/04 Thursday
In Iraq, American AC-130 gunships and tanks pounded militia
positions near two shrines in the center of the holy city of
Karbala, and the U.S. military said it killed 18 fighters loyal to
a rebel cleric. Also, the U.S. military released a group of
prisoners from the Abu Ghraib jail, center of a scandal involving
abuse of detainees by American soldiers. Several buses carrying
prisoners left the prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad. It
was unclear where they were headed.
President Bush, forced to defend a Deep South state he comfortably
won four years ago, is trying to offset the attention Democratic
rival John Kerry is lavishing on Louisiana. Bush combines a pitch
for votes and money as he delivers the commencement address at
Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge before heading to a New
Orleans suburb to speak to Republican Party donors.
Still sporting pigtails, 18-year-old Muriel Cincotta became the
first woman to work at the Bendix Aeronautics factory in Lodi,
N.J., during World War II. It was hot, noisy and scary. "Things
blew up. But I got used to it," Cincotta, 80, said at a tribute to
the war's "Rosie the Riveters." "I don't think I would have had
the gumption to do nine-tenths of the things I've done in my life,
if I hadn't had that wartime experience."
5/21/04 Friday
Antonio Zamora was a teenager when he fled his native Cuba and
joined a U.S.-led effort to topple the island's communist
government. Now 63, the Miami-based lawyer was back on Cuban soil
this week attending a ceremony to restore his citizenship and that
of six other Cuban exiles who participated in the disastrous 1961
Bay of Pigs invasion. "This was a surprise," Zamora told reporters
at an immigration conference for overseas Cubans.
Authorities are investigating the deaths of at least nine prisoners
in Iraq and Afghanistan that doctors classified as homicides. The
medical findings mean the deaths were linked to the actions of
another person; however, that doesn't necessarily mean the deaths
were criminal in nature, military officials said. A 10th prisoner
death, also determined a homicide, already has been resolved.
Delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Boston this July
can look forward to plenty of speeches, schmoozing, balloons and
confetti. What they may not be able to count on is choosing their
presidential nominee. John Kerry's campaign said he is considering
delaying his nomination to gain more time to capitalize on his
record-breaking fund raising and reduce President Bush's
multimillion-dollar financial advantage.
North Korea agreed to release the family members of Japanese
citizens kidnapped by Northern agents, and Tokyo pledged food and
humanitarian aid to the impoverished country, Japanese Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi said at a summit of the nations'
leaders. American Charles Jenkins, who is accused of deserting his
Army unit in 1965 and defecting to the North, refused to leave
because of fears of facing prosecution in the United States,
Koizumi said. Jenkins is married to one of the kidnapped Japanese
who were allowed to return home in 2002, and they have two
daughters who also apparently won't leave.
5/22/04 Saturday
Suspected Islamic militants blew up a military bus in India's
portion of Kashmir, killing at least 26 soldiers and wounding 15.
The bomb was planted under a small bridge along a road connecting
the cities of Sringar and Jammu. The attack on the Border Security
Force bus came hours after India's new prime minister, Manmohan
Singh, took charge in New Delhi.
A river ferry carrying about 250 passengers capsized during a storm
in eastern Bangladesh, and dozens of people were feared dead. Many
of the passengers were asleep when the accident occurred and were
believed to be trapped inside the double-decker ferry. About 50
people swam to shore and some were rescued from inside the vessel.
Several bodies had also been found.
Iran acknowledged it had a strong dialogue with embattled Iraqi
politician Ahmad Chalabi, but rejected accusations that he passed
classified intelligence to Iran. Chalabi's long-standing contacts
with Iran have left some in the U.S. government suspicious about
his intentions. Chalabi has denied allegations he handed over
sensitive information to Iran about the U.S. occupation. His home
and offices were raided by Iraqi police backed by American soldiers
on Friday.
President Bush suffered minor cuts and bruises in the early
afternoon when he fell while mountain biking on his ranch. Bush
was on the 16th mile of a 17-mile ride when he fell. He was riding
with a military aide, members of the Secret Service and his
personal physician, Dr. Richard Tubb.
The rising sea is eating at the shores of low-slung Funafuti, a
spit of coral and coconut palms in the remote Pacific. Unseen
fingers of ocean even reach beneath the sands, surfacing inland in
startling places, among nervous islanders. "It used to be puddles.
Now it's like lakes," said Hilia Vavae, local meteorologist. Far
to the north in the Marshall Islands, 1,250 miles away, trees are
toppling before aquamarine waves.
Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar said the United States isn't doing
enough to stave off terrorism and criticized President Bush for
failing to offer solid plans for Iraq's future. Lugar, chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the nation must
prevent terrorism from taking root around the world by "repairing
and building alliances," increasing trade, supporting democracy,
addressing regional conflicts and controlling weapons of mass
destruction.
5/23/04 Sunday
More than 5,500 Iraqis died violently in just Baghdad and three
provinces in the first 12 months of the occupation, an AP survey
found. The toll from both criminal and political violence ran
dramatically higher than violent deaths before the war, according
to statistics from morgues. There are no reliable figures for
places like Fallujah and Najaf that have seen surges in fighting
since early April. Indeed, there is no precise count for Iraq as a
whole on how many have been killed in the war.
A videotape captures a wedding party that survivors say was later
attacked by U.S. planes early Wednesday, killing up to 45 people.
The dead included the cameraman, Yasser Shawkat Abdullah, hired to
record the festivities, which ended Tuesday night before the planes
struck. The U.S. military says it is investigating the attack,
which took place in the village of Mogr el-Deeb about five miles
from the Syrian border.
The U.S. Energy Secretary said that Saudi Arabia has assured
Washington it will supply up to 2 million barrels a day in
additional crude oil if the market demands it. The pledge
underscored differences within the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries, which has come under intense pressure from the
United States and other oil-importing countries to boost output to
calm markets and reduce prices.
The vaulted roof of the new, showcase terminal at Paris' Charles de
Gaulle airport - touted as a jewel of design, safety and comfort -
collapsed, killing at least five people and forcing authorities to
revisit problems that preceded the fanfare opening of Terminal 2E
less than a year ago. There were some cracking sounds and some
dust, and then tons of concrete, steel and glass came crashing down
on a waiting area inside the gleaming terminal.
5/24/04 Monday
Local-phone giant SBC Communications Inc. reached a tentative
contract agreement with more than 100,000 union employees, hours
after the workers' planned four-day strike came to an end, union
and company officials said. Communications Workers of America
leaders say the five-year deal, which is subject to member
ratification, improves wages and strengthens job security for the
employees it represents in 13 states.
Security Council nations gave a generally positive response to the
U.S.-British blueprint for a post-occupation Iraqi government but
several demanded greater Iraqi control over security and the
U.S.-led multinational force that will try to restore stability.
The introduction of a draft resolution by Iraq's occupying powers
set the stage for intense negotiations with longtime critics of the
war, such as France and Germany, who are demanding that Iraq's
interim government be the key decision-maker on security issues.
The Army general who was in charge of the U.S. prison guards
accused of abusing Iraqis has been suspended from command of the
800th Military Police Brigade. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski and
other officers in her brigade were faulted by Army investigators
for paying too little attention to the prison's day-to-day
operations and not acting strongly enough to discipline soldiers
under her command for violating standard procedures.
President Bush is urging Americans and Iraqis alike to follow what
he envisions is a path toward a stable, peaceful Iraq. But events
out of his control could frustrate his five-step plan in coming
weeks, and he acknowledges "difficult days ahead." The president,
speaking at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., offered no exit
strategy for bringing 138,000 American soldiers home, pledging
instead to send more, if necessary. The speech was nationally
televised.
5/25/04 Tuesday
The Bush administration is hoping a new U.N. resolution will induce
fence-sitting governments - maybe even some Arab states - to send
peacekeeping troops to Iraq. So far, though, the United States has
few takers. "It remains to be seen," Secretary of State Colin
Powell said. The uncertainty over troops underscores one of the
many pieces of unfinished business as the United States begins the
final push toward handing over political control to an interim
Iraqi.
The United States and Britain appeared at odds over how much
control Iraq's caretaker government will have over American-led
military operations after the handover of political authority on
June 30. Secretary of State Colin Powell said U.S.-led troops will
do "what is necessary to protect themselves." In London, British
Prime Minister Tony Blair said Iraqis should have the final say
over any major military operations.
Far from being crippled by the U.S.-led war on terror, al-Qaida has
more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world
and the war in Iraq is swelling its ranks, a report said. Al-Qaida
is probably working on plans for major attacks on the United States
and Europe, and it may be seeking weapons of mass destruction in
its desire to inflict as many casualties as possible, the
International Institute of Strategic Studies said in its annual
survey of world affairs.
5/26/04 Wednesday
John Kerry says he will accept the Democratic presidential
nomination at the party's convention after all, dropping the idea
of a unique maneuver to narrow President Bush's public money
advantage. "Boston is the place where America's freedom began, and
it's where I want the journey to the Democratic nomination to be
completed," Kerry said in a statement released by his campaign.
"On Thursday, July 29, with great pride, I will accept my party's
nomination for president."
Al-Qaida is close to completing its avowed plan to strike America
again with a major attack, according to top U.S. law enforcement
officials who want the public's help in locating seven terror
operatives labeled a "clear and present danger" by Attorney General
John Ashcroft. Ashcroft said a steady stream of "disturbing"
intelligence, collected for months, indicates that could mean
terrorists already are in the United States to execute a plan.
In McAlester, Okla., nearly a decade after the Oklahoma City
bombing, Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 state murder charges
for helping carry out what was then the deadliest terrorist attack
on American soil. He could get the death sentence he escaped when
he was convicted in federal court in the 1990s. The verdicts came
just five hours after the jury began deliberations. Nichols was
stone-faced and stared straight ahead at the judge as the verdicts
were read, while his attorneys bowed their heads and clenched their
hands together.
5/27/04 Thursday
The FBI and Justice Department insist that warning the public about
a possibly devastating terror attack in this country was justified
by intelligence and may avert a repeat of the Sept. 11 attacks.
But some Bush administration officials and lawmakers aren't so
sure. These officials and members of Congress with access to the
same intelligence reports said the announcement by Attorney General
John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller was overblown and
caused unnecessary public worry.
The U.S.-led coalition agreed to suspend offensive military
operations in Najaf after Shiite leaders struck a deal with a
radical cleric to end fighting that killed more than 350 Iraqis and
21 coalition troops. The U.S. military released Iraqi prisoners
from the Abu Ghraib facility, the center of a scandal involving
abuse of detainees by American soldiers. Hundreds of relatives
watched as a convoy of at least 13 buses left the prison.
America's inmate population grew by 2.9 percent last year, to
almost 2.1 million people, with one of every 75 men living in
prison or jail. The inmate population continued its rise despite
a fall in the crime rate and many states' efforts to reduce some
sentences, especially for low-level drug offenders. The report
issued by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics
attributes much of the increase to get-tough policies enacted
during the 1980s and '90s.
Helicopters loaded with drinking water and medicine touched down in
remote villages devastated by floods caused by torrential rains as
Haiti and the Dominican Republic struggled to recover from a
disaster that left at least 1,000 dead and hundreds more missing.
With bodies floating near the tops of palm trees and thousands of
survivors isolated by mudslides, aid workers along with U.S.-led
troops planned new relief shipments Friday to remote towns where
the death toll was swiftly rising.
5/28/04 Friday
Army helicopters ferried rescue teams into mountain villages hit by
a powerful earthquake in north and central Iran, while a senior
Iranian Red Crescent official raised the death toll to 35 and with
250 people injured. Twenty aftershocks were reported after the
6.2-magnitude quake, including a moderately powerful magnitude-4.6
temblor in the southeastern city of Bam that state-run Tehran
television reported caused "some damage but no casualties."
The United States has warmly endorsed a decision by the Iraqi
Governing Council to select a longtime exile with strong ties to
the CIA to be the new prime minister of Iraq's interim government
despite U.N. concerns over his past links. This selection of Iyad
Allawi - a Shiite Muslim council member who headed an exile group
made up of former Saddam Hussein military officers - was an
assertion of influence by the U.S.-picked body as the June 30 date
for the return of Iraqi sovereignty draws near.
Several U.S. guards allege they witnessed military intelligence
operatives encouraging the abuse of Iraqi prison inmates at four
prisons other than Abu Ghraib, investigative documents show. Court
transcripts and Army investigator interviews provide the broadest
view of evidence that abuses, from forcing inmates to stand in
hoods in 120-degree heat to punching them, occurred at a Marine
detention camp and three Army prison sites in Iraq besides Abu
Ghraib.
5/29/04 Saturday
Saudi authorities freed dozens of American and other foreign
hostages after a shooting rampage turned into a daylong standoff
with Islamic militants in the nation's oil region. A Saudi
security official said the lead attacker was in custody and two
other suspects were being arrested. At least 10 people - including
an American - died in the attack claimed by an al-Qaida-linked
group composed of gunmen in military-style dress. Saudi officials
would not comment on the condition of the hostages. However, a
diplomat in Khobar said officials told him there were deaths among
the hostages and attackers. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he
said he did not know how many hostages were dead, but was informed
that two gunmen were killed.
In Washington, D.C., America dedicated a memorial to the
fast-thinning ranks of World War II veterans, a poignant last
hurrah drawing together tens of thousands of old soldiers, sailors
and heroes of the home front. Frail now, full of spunk then, they
were thanked for service that "helped save the world." The
National Mall, where huge numbers usually gather in protest,
instead offered a last-of-a-lifetime scene of commemoration as
veterans assembled by the sweeping monument.
Iraq's Governing Council met to try to finalize the makeup of the
new government to take power June 30, with the post of figurehead
president emerging as the main stumbling block to an agreement. A
council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S.
governor of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, and special U.N. envoy Lakhdar
Brahimi were exerting "massive pressure" to choose former Foreign
Minister Adnan Pachachi.
5/30/04 Sunday
Assailants ambushed a convoy of Britons on a northern Baghdad
highway, killing one Iraqi security guard and a bystander. U.S.
soldiers came under fire in a Shiite holy city as an agreement to
halt fighting there appeared to be unraveling. Two American
soldiers were wounded in the clashes around the holy city, Najaf.
Helicopter-borne Saudi commandos drove al-Qaida militants from an
expatriate housing complex in the kingdom's oil hub, ending a
shooting and hostage-taking spree that left 22 dead - most of them
foreigners. Police were hunting for three assailants believed to
have escaped after the attack, the worst terrorist act on Saudi
soil in a year and the second this month to target its oil
industry. At least one American was killed in the attack.
Buddy Rice kept one eye on the fuel gauge, one on the darkening sky
and his foot on the pedal and won a rain-soaked Indianapolis 500
Sunday. With storm clouds closing fast, the 28-year-old Rice
grabbed the lead for good in a final flurry of pit stops and took
his first career victory under a yellow caution flag as the rain
that first delayed the race and then interrupted it for almost two
hours finally ended it 50 miles short of the scheduled finish.
President Bush keeps in his White House offices a trophy of one his
high points in the Iraq war, the pistol that Saddam Hussein held
when soldiers pulled him from his underground hideaway. Military
specialists mounted the sidearm, and soldiers who helped in the
deposed Iraqi president's capture presented it to the president,
the White House. The president keeps the gun in a small study
adjoining the Oval Office.
Powerful storms again swept across the Midwest, downing trees and
power lines and spawning twisters that leveled houses and barns and
sent mobile homes hurtling through the air. In Marengo, Ind., a
town of 800 about 35 miles northwest of Louisville, Ky., about 100
people took shelter at a high school when a storm destroyed at
least 50 homes and left an elderly man dead. A second man was
killed in Missouri when part of a tree slammed onto his car.
5/31/04 Monday
Democrat John Kerry, accusing President Bush of not doing enough to
prevent nuclear terrorism, promises a new plan "to keep the worst
weapons from falling into the worst hands." The Democratic
presidential candidate was laying out what he called a "layered
strategy" to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction,
particularly nuclear technology, to al-Qaida and other terrorists
in a speech at the Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach, Fla.
Iraq's Governing Council named a popular, U.S.-educated Sunni
leader as the president of the interim government, after the
Americans' preferred candidate turned down the post. The selection
of Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer to the largely ceremonial post broke
a deadlock over the makeup of a new Iraqi government set to assume
power June 30. Council members had angrily accused the American
governor of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, of trying to install Adnan
Pachachi.
The death toll from a chain of Memorial Day holiday thunderstorms
and tornadoes stood at 10 as residents of the South and Midwest
struggled with power outages, debris and water-logged streets.
Storms produced heavy rain, high winds and dozens of tornados along
an arc from Louisiana to New England. More thunderstorms moved
across parts of the Great Lakes states.
In Iraq, a car bomb exploded near coalition headquarters, killing
four people and wounding 25 in violence that U.S. authorities
believe was aimed at blocking the coming transfer of power. Four
American soldiers were reported killed in other attacks. An
explosion was heard in central Baghdad, and smoke was seen rising
from the green zone headquarters of the U.S.-run coalition.
Shiite leaders also urged U.S. troops to halt "aggressive
patrolling".
President Bush declared that "America is safer" because of its
fighting forces while Sen. John Kerry went to the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial in somber but historically asymmetrical Memorial Day
tributes.
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