7/ 1/04 Thursday
Democrat John Kerry has one less person to consider while
deliberating his choice of a presidential running mate: New Mexico
Gov. Bill Richardson has said thanks, but no thanks. Richardson
said he wants to keep a promise to the people of his state to serve
a full term and noted that Kerry has "numerous experienced and
talented leaders" from which to choose a vice presidential
candidate.
Saddam Hussein got his day in court, and Iraqi leaders and U.S.
troops got back to the task of fighting an insurgency that shows no
sign of abating, as rebels fired rockets at two hotels. One rocket
struck the Sheraton Hotel on Firdous Square in central Baghdad but
caused only minor damage. Another veered northward and exploded
near the Baghdad Hotel, used by Western security contractors. There
were no reports of injuries.
When the astonishingly clear and detailed pictures of Saturn and
its rings came beaming in from the Cassini spacecraft to the video
monitors at the mission's control center, Carolyn Porco could not
believe her eyes. "They were so shocking I thought that my team
was playing tricks on me and showing me a simulation of the rings
and not the rings itself," Porco, leader of the mission's imaging
team, said at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Bill Cosby went off on another tirade against the black community,
telling a room full of activists that black children are running
around not knowing how to read or write and "going nowhere." He
also had harsh words for struggling black men, telling them: "Stop
beating up your women because you can't find a job."
7/ 2/04 Friday
Insurgents attacked an Iraqi checkpoint south of the capital,
killing five national guard soldiers and wounding five more,
hospital officials said. West of Baghdad, a U.S. Marine died of
wounds suffered the day before during operations in Anbar province,
the military said, giving no other details. The Marine was the
fourth to die this month in Anbar, a Sunni-dominated area that
includes Fallujah, Ramadi and Qaim that's has been a hotbed of
anti-U.S. resistance.
A man whom police describe as a disgruntled employee went on a
shooting spree inside a meatpacking plant, killing four of his
co-workers and injuring three others. He then took his own life.
The ConAgra Foods Inc. workers were on break at 5 p.m. when the
10-minute rampage began.
A single winning ticket was sold in record $290 million Mega
Millions lottery drawing. The ticket - 10-25-38-39-50 and the Mega
Ball 12 - was bought in Massachusetts, said Georgia lottery
spokesman J.B. Landroche. Other states that participate in the
lottery are Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, New
Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
Lawyers have filed suit demanding the U.S. government justify its
detention of nine foreign terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The challenges, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, are
the first since the Supreme Court's ruling this week that the
prisoners may use American courts to contest their detentions.
The economy created just 112,000 jobs in June, slowing from the
torrid pace of the previous three months and raising new misgivings
about the strength and endurance of the rebounding jobs market.
The unemployment rate remained at 5.6 percent for a third
consecutive month, the Labor Department reported.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, hoping to narrow
President Bush's strong advantage in rural America, is highlighting
agriculture policies he says will help family farmers and
ranchers. Kerry is in the middle of a three-day, 546-mile Fourth
of July weekend bus tour through rural Minnesota, Wisconsin and
Iowa, just over three weeks before he accepts his party's
nomination at the Democratic National Convention.
7/ 3/04 Saturday
Iraqi militants claimed on a Web site that they beheaded a captive
U.S. Marine, in what would be the fourth decapitation of a foreign
hostage in the region since May. A group calling itself the Ansar
al-Sunna Army said in its written statement that Lebanese-born Cpl.
Wassef Ali Hassoun had been lured into a trap involving a love
affair with an Arab woman.
Iraq's prime minister, less than a week after taking power, may
offer amnesty to insurgents and could extend it to those who killed
American troops in an apparent bid to lure Saddam Hussein loyalists
from their campaign of violence. A spokesman for Iyad Allawi went
as far as to suggest attacks on U.S. troops over the past year were
legitimate acts of resistance - a sign of the new government's
desire to distance itself from the 14-month U.S.-led occupation of
Iraq.
Elijah Brown's co-workers always had a hard time making sense of
him. He paced, he talked to himself, he got bothered over teasing
that wouldn't faze other people. Questions about the meatpacking
plant worker grew exponentially, after he used two handguns to
shoot seven co-workers, killing five of them, before killing
himself. Police did not offer a motive for Friday's 10-minute
rampage, but said there appeared to be nothing random about the
killings at the Kansas City, Kan., ConAgra Foods Inc. plant. They
said Brown passed by some co-workers, telling them, "You haven't
done anything to me, so you can go."
Waiting to walk out on Centre Court with Serena Williams for the
Wimbledon final, Maria Sharapova was fidgety. She bit her nails,
tapped her foot, pressed a finger against her neck to feel her
pulse. But she completely outclassed two-time defending champion
Williams 6-1, 6-4, becoming the third-youngest winner in
Wimbledon's 127 years. After the match, Sharapova was giddy and
giggly, fumbling with a cell phone while trying to call Mom, just
like any 17-year-old at a suburban mall on Saturday afternoon.
7/ 4/04 Sunday
Militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led an April uprising
that left hundreds dead, called Iraq's new interim government
"illegitimate" and pledged to resist occupation forces to the "last
drop of blood." A government spokesman said Iraq arrested in May
four men accused of involvement in the beheading of American
businessman Nicholas Berg.
A 20-ton slab of granite, inscribed to honor "the enduring spirit
of freedom," was laid at the World Trade Center site as the
cornerstone of the skyscraper that will replace the destroyed
towers. The ceremony marked the start of construction on the
1,776-foot Freedom Tower, designed as a twisting glass and steel
tower that evokes the Statue of Liberty, including a 276-foot spire
resembling her torch.
The Fourth of July was a day for parades, picnics, fireworks and
summer stunts such as the annual hot dog-eating contest, but it
also included sober reminders of a nation at war and of the ongoing
threat of terrorism. In New York, relatives of some of the victims
of the Sept. 11 attacks gathered to watch a 20-ton slab of New York
state granite placed as the cornerstone of the skyscraper that will
replace the destroyed World Trade Center towers.
Defending the war in Iraq, President Bush said on Independence Day
that America is safer because Saddam Hussein is in a prison cell...
"Our immediate task in battle fronts like Iraq and Afghanistan and
elsewhere is to capture or kill the terrorists ... so we do not
have to face them here at home," Bush told a cheering crowd outside
the West Virginia Capitol. An enthusiastic audience estimated by
state capitol police at 6,500 people waving American flags chanted,
"Four more years."
Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry carefully dodged
questions about his search for a running mate, even as he
campaigned with one potential vice presidential candidate, Gov. Tom
Vilsack. Kerry is expected to name a No. 2 for the party ticket
before the Democratic National Convention opens in Boston on July
26, and an announcement could come as early as this week.
Like many military operations in Iraq, July 4th celebrations began
at dawn. To beat the brutal summer heat, soldiers wanting to
participate in a 10-kilometer fun run at Camp Victory, on the
outskirts of Baghdad, gathered at 5:30 a.m., when the temperature
dropped to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The run was the first in a
series of events giving soldiers - not on guard duty or combat
patrol - a chance to enjoy the most American of holidays. Soldiers
attending Capt. Jim Combs' church service heard a sermon about
independence.. The Protestant pastor focused on the Book of Exodus
where Moses and his followers had fled slavery in Egypt, but were
suffering in the wilderness. He said that according to Bible
verses, there was a lot of "grumbling" among the Hebrews while they
were in the desert.
When Afghan militiamen raided a home in the remote southern village
of Parchar Shiela, in November, they found no weapons but dragged
away a 28-year-old man and accused him of being a terrorist. Two
months later, the family got Abdul Wahid's body back, with little
explanation. The U.S. military says Wahid died in American custody
- one of four such cases under criminal investigation in
Afghanistan - but the man's father blames the Afghan militia, not
U.S. forces.
7/ 5/04 Monday
A massive U.S. air strike on a suspected militant safehouse in
Fallujah that killed at least 10 people was planned with the help
of intelligence from Iraq's interim government, officials said.
Elsewhere, the military said in a statement that three U.S. Marines
assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed while on
duty in Western Iraq. Two died in action in the Anbar province,
while a third died of his wounds later. Their names were withheld
pending notification of families.
A glimmer of hope emerged in the Salt Lake City suburb of West
Jordan, on word that an abducted U.S. Marine being held by
insurgents in Iraq may still be alive. In a statement sent to
Al-Jazeera television, a group calling itself "Islamic Response,"
said that Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun was safe at an undisclosed
location. The statement also claimed that Hassoun had promised not
to return to the American military.
Oil prices moved higher, after new attacks on Iraqi oil lines
forced the country to reduce its exports by half. News of Russian
oil giant Yukos' expanding legal and financial troubles added to
traders' anxiety. Iraqi repair crews worked frantically to fix one
of two key southern crude oil pipelines, officials in the state-run
South Oil Co. said. The disruption - coming about two weeks after
exports were halted following sabotage attacks on the two export
lines - heightened concern among traders and analysts about the
security of Iraq's oil flow at a time when global spare capacity
for crude is thin.
7/ 6/04 Tuesday
The Iraqi government announced a long-anticipated package of
security laws intended to help put down the persistent insurgency
wracking the country. The new law signed by interim Prime Minister
Iyad Allawi gives Iraqi officials the right to impose martial law
in special circumstances and for limited periods of time in
specific places, said Nassir Nassir, an official in Allawi's
office. The law has been signed and approved by the government, he
said.
In the AM, John Kerry picked John Edwards to be his VP running
mate. Edwards sees the issues of the day more or less Kerry's way,
despite their once-pitched rivalry. In the Democratic nomination
dustup, John Edwards did his best to draw distinctions with the
leader of the pack. He branded Kerry a Washington insider who
hasn't lived a sufficiently humble life to understand how policy
affects people.
The world is losing the race against the AIDS virus, which last
year infected a record 5 million people and killed an unprecedented
3 million, the United Nations reported. The virus has now pushed
deep into Eastern Europe and Asia, and tackling it will be more
expensive than previously believed, according to the most accurate
picture to date of the global status of HIV infections.
Facing hostile questioning in parliament, Prime Minister Tony Blair
acknowledged some friction in his close relationship with President
Bush and the political problems the friendship causes at home.
Blair used his sharpest language yet in the long-standing
disagreement over the Bush administration's detentions at the U.S.
Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying they "must end." And the
British leader said it was likely weapons of mass destruction may
never be found in Iraq.
The economy appears headed for a banner year despite a springtime
spike in energy prices and a recent increase in interest rates. In
fact, many analysts are forecasting that the overall economy, as
measured by the gross domestic product, will grow by 4.6 percent or
better this year, the fastest in two decades.
7/ 7/04 Wednesday
Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay was involved in a wide-ranging scheme
to deceive the public, company shareholders and government
regulators about the energy company that he founded and led to
industry prominence before its collapse in 2001, according to an
11-count indictment to be unsealed Thursday.
The U.S. Embassy said it has "credible information" that a missing
U.S. Marine is in his native Lebanon, and the military said it was
investigating the possibility his disappearance was a hoax. There
have been several contradictory reports about the fate of Marine
Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun since he disappeared in Iraq on June 20.
Insurgents fired mortar rounds Thursday at a headquarters used by
U.S. and Iraqi forces in the city of Samarra, destroying the
building and killing four American soldiers and one Iraqi
guardsman, the military said. A fifth U.S. soldier was unaccounted
for and 20 others were wounded in the attack, said Maj. Neal
O'Brien, the spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division.
President Bush curtly dismissed freshman Sen. John Edwards'
credentials to be vice president while Democratic challenger John
Kerry and his running mate rallied voters in battleground states.
"Dick Cheney can be president," Bush declared, and Kerry suggested
that was part of the problem. A day after he welcomed Edwards to
the presidential campaign, Bush visited Edwards' hometown of
Raleigh, N.C., to criticize the North Carolina senator's role in
holding up judicial appointments. The president said he was
unconcerned about the potential of Edwards to help carry states in
the South, a GOP bastion.
7/ 8/04 Thursday
The Iraq insurgency is far larger than the 5,000 guerrillas
previously thought to be at its core, U.S. military officials say,
and it's being led by well-armed Iraqi Sunnis angry at being pushed
from power alongside Saddam Hussein. Although U.S. military
analysts disagree over the exact size, dozens of regional cells,
often led by tribal sheiks and inspired by Sunni Muslim imams, can
call upon part-time fighters to boost forces to as high as 20,000 -
an estimate reflected in the insurgency's continued strength after
U.S. forces killed as many as 4,000 in April alone.
A steady stream of intelligence, including nuggets from
militant-linked Web sites, indicates al-Qaida wants to attack the
United States to disrupt the upcoming elections, federal officials
said. Besides elaborate security plans for the political
conventions this summer in Boston and New York, the officials are
considering how to secure polling places come November.
Federal prosecutors unveiled charges that placed Enron Corp.
founder and former chairman Kenneth Lay at the center of a
conspiracy to manipulate the company's books in the frenzied weeks
before its scandalous collapse. He returned the punch with an
unusual and aggressive public declaration of innocence, speaking at
length at a news conference and taking questions from reporters
after entering a not guilty plea.
A U.S. Marine whose apparent kidnapping in Iraq was followed by
conflicting claims - first that he was beheaded, then that he was
alive - contacted U.S. authorities and was safe in his native
Lebanon. The Navy was investigating whether his abduction could
have been a hoax. Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, reported missing from
his base near the troubled city of Fallujah 18 days ago, arranged
with American officials to pick him up in the afternoon in Beirut
and bring him to the U.S. Embassy, State Department spokesman
Richard Boucher said in Washington.
7/ 9/04 Friday
Following the release of a Senate report harshly criticizing U.S.
intelligence gathering and analysis, the focus will soon shift to
whether and how to make sweeping changes to the intelligence
community. After a year long investigation, the Senate
Intelligence Committee released nearly 120 conclusions about the
intelligence community's performance on estimating the threat from
Iraq, found primarily in a 2002 assessment that served as the Bush
administration's leading arguments for war.
Following their victory in the U.N.'s highest court, the
Palestinians will ask the General Assembly next week to demand that
Israel destroy the barrier it is building to seal off the West
Bank. After Friday's ruling by the International Court of Justice
in The Hague, Netherlands, that the barrier violates international
law, the Palestinians and their Arab supporters said they will seek
a resolution enforcing the decision.
A Filipino worker held by Iraqi insurgents made a last appeal for
his government to spare his life and withdraw its troops from Iraq,
according to a video broadcast. The kidnappers of Angelo dela Cruz
had threatened in a video broadcast Wednesday to kill him if the
Philippines didn't pull its 51 police and soldiers from Iraq within
three days.
Glen Campbell called it "a captive audience" - and he wasn't
kidding. Campbell, nearing the end of his 10-day sentence for
extreme drunk driving, gave a free 30-minute concert Friday night
for about 1,000 inmates at Maricopa County's outdoor jail. "Tent
City, you're gentle on my mind," Campbell sang during his opening
song, the million-selling "Gentle on My Mind."
7/10/04 Saturday
A militant group linked to Jordanian terror suspect Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for a recent attack on a military
headquarters in Samarra that killed five U.S. soldiers and one
Iraqi National Guardsman. The claim by al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and
Jihad movement, which was posted on a Web site known for being a
clearinghouse for such statements, claimed that dozens of Americans
and hundreds of Iraqis died in Thursday's assault. The U.S.
military has said insurgents detonated a car bomb and then fired
mortars at the building used jointly by the 1st Infantry Division
and Iraqi guardsmen.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says his selection of
John Edwards as his running mate seems to have injected energy into
the campaign. Still, he recognizes the dangers of being swept up
by the excitement of the moment and growing complacent. "We're
going to campaign intensely. There's not going to be any letup,
and I'm very confident that the enthusiasm we are seeing is real,"
he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Fox TV has become a reality series copycat instead of an innovator
and is hurting television in the process, NBC executive Jeff Zucker
said. NBC was smarting earlier this year when Fox said it planned
a boxing series - after NBC announced its own big-ticket entry,
"The Contender," from Sylvester Stallone and reality king Mark
Burnett ("Survivor," "The Apprentice").
The Philippines confirmed Saturday it would withdraw its small
peacekeeping contingent from Iraq on Aug. 20, as planned, but it
was unclear if the announcement had saved the life of a Filipino
hostage being held in Iraq. Government officials said truck driver
Angelo dela Cruz had been released, but the Arab television station
Al-Jazeera said it had received a message from the militants
denying that.
7/11/04 Sunday
Insurgents killed three U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi civilian in
separate attacks, and a militant group threatening to kill its
Filipino hostage extended until Tuesday its deadline for Manila to
agree to withdraw peacekeepers early. The Philippine government
previously rejected that ultimatum.
Working in secret, the Sept. 11 commission is finishing a final
report that several members believe will be done by week's end and
have unanimous support. The report's factual findinggus, which are
virtually complete, will in some respects echo last week's Senate
Intelligence Committee report by harshly criticizing the FBI and
CIA for poor intelligence-gathering that many members believe could
have otherwise prevented the attacks.
In Bangkok, Thailand, the Ugandan leader credited with slashing HIV
rates in his country insisted that condoms are not the ultimate
solution to fighting the AIDS scourge, saying abstinence and loving
relationships in marriage are even more crucial. President Yoweri
Musaveni's comments of the International AIDS Conference were in
line with the position of President Bush, but at odds with a
majority of researchers and activists involved in fighting the
disease.
7/12/04 Monday
President Bush is viewed by more American voters as decisive and
arrogant than Democratic rival John Kerry, according to an
Associated Press poll. Voters are more likely to see Kerry as
intelligent. Asked who makes them feel more optimistic about the
future, slightly more voters choose Bush than Kerry, the poll
conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs found. Both
candidates are viewed as wealthy by nearly all voters, with
slightly more seeing Bush as wealthy than Kerry.
Frantically trying to obtain the release of a captive Filipino
truck driver with the clock ticking down, the Philippines said it
would withdraw its tiny peacekeeping force from Iraq as soon as it
can. However, the statement, which followed all-night Cabinet
consultations, was unclear as to whether Manila was advancing the
pullout as demanded by the Iraqi militant kidnappers, or was
sticking by its commitment to bring its 51-strong force home on
Aug. 20 as planned.
Environmentalists are blasting a Bush administration proposal to
lift a ban on logging in remote areas of national forests, saying
the move ignores popular support for protecting forests. The plan
announced today would allow logging by permitting roads to be
constructed in national forests. Governors would have to petition
the federal government to block road building.
The head of a new federal voting commission suggested to
congressional leaders that there should be a process for canceling
or rescheduling an election interrupted by terrorism. But national
security adviser Condoleezza Rice said no such plan is being
considered by the administration. Federal officials warned last
week that intelligence indicates al-Qaida wants to attack the
United States to disrupt the upcoming elections.
7/13/04 Tuesday
A suicide attacker detonated a massive car bomb at a checkpoint
near the British Embassy and the interim Iraqi government's
headquarters in Baghdad, killing 11 people and wounding 40,
including a U.S. soldier, authorities said. It was the worst
attack in the capital since the United States transferred
sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government on June 28.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, rocked for months by the fallout from
the Iraq war, now faces a potentially scathing report on the
quality of British intelligence used to justify the invasion.
Blair has weathered three previous inquiries, all of which cleared
his government of misusing intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction as it built a case for war.
A disabled militant who was billed as a close confidant to Osama
bin Laden surrendered under a Saudi amnesty offer, the most
important figure to turn himself in so far. Khaled bin Ouda bin
Mohammed al-Harby could provide clues about the fugitive al-Qaida
leader, though a U.S. counterterrorism official said he is not
considered an operational planner for the terror network. Another
U.S. official, who declined to be identified, said al-Harby was not
a senior member of al-Qaida and called him "an aging mujahideen."
States are beginning to receive long-awaited federal shipments of
antidotes against chemical weapons, under a program that aims to
have stocks in every state within two years. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention began quietly shipping the so-called
chem-packs four months ago. New York City and Boston, sites of the
upcoming national political conventions, were among the early
recipients.
7/14/04 Wednesday
A car bomb exploded near a police station in the western Iraqi city
of Haditha, killing 10 people in a second day of violence that
highlighted insurgents' disregard for the country's interim
government. Police apparently thwarted a second attack in Karbala,
where police chased a car after receiving a tip it was filled with
explosives. The two people inside detonated their bomb, killing
only themselves and causing no other casualties.
Prime Minister Tony Blair says the case is settled: a new
intelligence review that clears his government of intentionally
exaggerating the threat posed by Iraq shows his government joined
the war against Saddam Hussein in good faith. His opponents are
not convinced. They hope to capitalize on widespread public
opposition to the war - not to mention the review's finding that
British intelligence about the Iraqi threat was flawed - during
elections that are due to get underway Thursday to fill two vacant
parliamentary seats.
Ask anyone to name a brain disease that causes dementia and
eventually death, and the most likely answer you'll get is
Alzheimer's disease. Though that's one correct answer, it's not the
only one. And a group meeting this week is trying to increase
medical and public awareness for other degenerative brain syndromes
that are as misunderstood and underdiagnosed as they are
destructive to victims and families. Frontotemporal dementia, or
FTD, is an umbrella term that includes several related brain
disorders. They generally strike people in their 50s - a decade
earlier than Alzheimer's typically hits - and ca n take a severe
financial, as well as emotional, toll on the sufferers' families.
The Slim-Fast diet drink company has dumped Whoopi Goldberg from
its advertising because its executives were unhappy with remarks
the comedian made at a recent political rally that mocked President
Bush. "We are disappointed by the manner in which Ms. Goldberg
chose to express herself and sincerely regret that her recent
remarks offended some of our consumers. Ads featuring Ms. Goldberg
will no longer be on the air," Slim-Fast general manager Terry
Olson said in a press release.
7/15/04 Thursday
Iraq's interim prime minister said he expects insurgents to strike
harder in the coming weeks and announced the creation of an
intelligence service designed to combat terrorism. Prime Minister
Iyad Allawi's comments to The Associated Press came amid a spate of
new violence, including a car bomb that killed 10 people and
wounded 40 others. Also, a decapitated body wearing an orange
jumpsuit was found in the Tigris River, possibly that of a
foreigner taken hostage.
Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, the Marine who disappeared in Iraq and
turned up in Lebanon three weeks later, will remain at Quantico
Marine base until he is deemed fit to return to duty, a spokesman
said. Hassoun arrived here from Germany, where he had undergone
six days of evaluation in a U.S. military hospital.
Medicare now recognizes obesity as an illness, a change in policy
that may allow millions of overweight Americans to make medical
claims for treatments such as stomach surgery and diet programs.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said, "Obesity
is a critical public health problem in our country that causes
millions of Americans to suffer unnecessary health problems and to
die prematurely."
7/16/04 Friday
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agreed to consolidate his security
forces into three branches, a key international demand for reform,
a top Arafat aide announced. Arafat also fired the national police
chief, who had been abducted in a wave of kidnappings a day
earlier, and named two new top officials in a shake-up of his
security machine.
A car bomb struck the Iraqi justice minister's convoy as it passed
through western Baghdad, the latest in a wave of assassination
attempts on government officials. Malik Dohan al-Hassan was unhurt
but five bodyguards were killed. The blast hit the tail end of
al-Hassan's convoy at an intersection 500 yards from his home. At
nearly the same time, a car bomb exploded outside an Iraqi National
Guard headquarters in Mahmudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Two
people were killed and 47 were wounded, hospital officials said.
After being sentenced to five months in the poky, Martha Stewart
declared she is used to hard work and is not afraid of prison.
Later, in an interview with ABC News, the homemaking expert
repeated that she would be able to handle it and compared her
plight to that of anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela. "I could
do it," she said, according to excerpts released by ABC late in the
day. "I'm a really good camper. I can sleep on the ground. There
are many, many good people who have gone to prison. Look at Nelson
Mandela."
Most of the heart disease experts who urged more people to take
cholesterol-lowering drugs this week have made money from the
companies selling those medicines. Consumer groups blasted the new
cholesterol guidelines as being tainted by the influence of major
pharmaceuticals that make blockbusters such as Lipitor and
Pravachol. Last year, drug makers earned $26 billion worldwide on
cholesterol-lowering medicines, the top-selling class of drugs.
7/17/04 Saturday
A U.S. airstrike on a house in the restive city of Fallujah killed
at least 10 people, hospital and local officials said. Explosions
rocked the city, and angry crowds gathered near the building that
was hit.
The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will recommend a
new Cabinet-level post to oversee the nation's 15 intelligence
agencies and control their budgets, say two people familiar with
the panel's final report. The report to be released Thursday makes
the case for a director of national intelligence by detailing
intelligence failures by the CIA and the FBI that enabled the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks to occur, they say. The two would only speak
on condition of anonymity because the report has not been made
public.
Images of an American hostage being decapitated surfaced on an
Internet site known for carrying the statements of Islamic
militants. The gruesome videotape appeared three days after U.S.
authorities announced the search for the body of Paul M. Johnson
Jr. had been called off.
The Danbury Federal Correctional Institution is only about 20 miles
from Martha Stewart's home in Connecticut, but it will seem like a
world away from her usual lifestyle. If Stewart loses her appeals,
she will in all likelihood end up at the low-security prison that
is home to 1,300 female inmates.
Maurice Brubaker probably wouldn't have gone to see "Fahrenheit
9/11" on his own, but free admission helped change the Republican's
mind. Brubaker, chairman of the Bush/Cheney campaign team in Union
County, was among at least 40 people who went to the Campus Theatre
today to take advantage of a free showing for card-carrying GOP
members.
7/18/04 Sunday
A fuel truck sped toward a police station in southwest Baghdad and
exploded as policemen waited for their assignments, killing at
least nine people and wounding 57, Iraqi officials and witnesses
said. The Philippines, meanwhile, announced that it had completed
the withdrawal of its peacekeeping contingent from Iraq, meeting a
demand by Iraqi insurgents threatening to behead a Filipino hostage
but defying opposition from Washington. The last members of the
51-strong force made an "exit call" on the new Polish commander at
their base in Hillah, south of Baghdad, then waved as they left in
six cars.
Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin says the agency has made
changes since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and he sees no need
for a new national intelligence chief. The bipartisan commission
investigating the 2001 hijackings will release its final report
this week, and it is expected to recommend the creation of a
Cabinet-level position to oversee the nation's 15 intelligence
agencies and control their budgets.
A wildfire fed by dry temperatures and strong winds raged toward
four hillside communities in northern Los Angeles County, forcing
several thousand people to flee their homes. Authorities said
1,600 homes in Santa Clarita had been evacuated since the fire
began Saturday. Up to 800 homes were in imminent danger and
authorities were taking precautions by evacuating all three canyons
north of the blaze, said county fire spokesman Mike Brown.
As a vice president at security software leader Symantec Corp.,
Matthew Moynahan applauds Microsoft Corp.'s effort to make its
Windows operating system safer from attack. But Moynahan is not so
excited about the flood of help-desk calls almost certain to come
when Microsoft releases a comprehensive security overhaul of
Windows XP next month. To make the new Microsoft system work
smoothly with Norton, customers will need to download a Norton
update. The company is already bracing for the change, working
with its customer support staff and making plans to increase phone
support.
The firing of two "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" stars in a
salary dispute was fair and intended to help the TV industry draw
the fiscal line, CBS chief Leslie Moonves said. Actors Jorja Fox
and George Eads, who play investigators Sara Sidle and Nick Stokes
on the hit CBS crime drama, were dumped last week when they failed
to report for work on the upcoming season, he said.
7/19/04 Monday
A Filipino truck driver held hostage in Iraq for nearly two weeks
was freed, a day after his nation withdrew its final peacekeepers
from Iraq in a move that met the kidnappers' demands but angered
U.S. and Iraqi officials. Angelo dela Cruz was brought to the
steps of the United Arab Emirates embassy about 10:30 a.m. and told
by the kidnappers to go inside, a UAE Embassy official said on
condition of anonymity. Embassy officials said there was no
coordination between them and the kidnappers.
Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, the Marine who disappeared under
mysterious circumstances while on duty in Iraq, insisted that he
was captured by insurgents and that he is still a loyal Marine. "I
did not desert my post," he told reporters outside Quantico Marine
Corps Base. "I was captured and held against my will by
anti-coalition forces for 19 days. This was a very difficult and
challenging time for me."
The U.N. General Assembly delayed a vote on a resolution on the
Israeli security barrier against Palestinian suicide bombers to let
European Union members work out language to ensure passage by a
wide vote. The Palestinians had sought a vote in the 191-member
assembly urging Israel to obey the July 9 court opinion that the
security fence is illegal, should be abandoned and Israel pay
compenstation to Palestinians hurt by its construction.
7/20/04 Tuesday
Congress isn't likely to undertake major revisions of the nation's
intelligence operations this year, House Speaker Dennis Hastert
says, casting doubt on the Sept. 11 commission's push for immediate
changes once its final report is released. The independent
commission unveils its 500-plus-page report Thursday. It will
detail significant intelligence lapses and other government
failures that allowed the terrorist hijackings to succeed, but
won't make the politically explosive conclusion that the attacks
were preventable.
New online statements by purported militants threatened attacks
against three U.S. allies - Poland, Japan and Bulgaria - if they
don't pull their troops from Iraq, a day a Filipino hostage was
released because the Philippines bowed to insurgents' demands and
withdrew its tiny contingent. Meanwhile, the death toll of U.S.
forces in Iraq since the start of the war rose to 900, including
two civilians linked to the military, when a roadside bomb struck a
Bradley fighting vehicle in central Iraq, killing one soldier
inside.
Former national security adviser Sandy Berger says he regrets the
way he handled classified terrorism documents, calling the whole
thing "an honest mistake." Republicans say the matter raises
questions about whether the former Clinton administration official
sought to hide embarrassing materials. "What information could be
so embarrassing that a man with decades of experience in handling
classified documents would risk being caught pilfering our nation's
most sensitive secrets?" House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.,
said. "Mr. Berger has a lot of explaining to do."
7/21/04 Wednesday
U.S. Marines killed 25 insurgents and captured 25 others during
several hours of fierce fighting in Ramadi, a hotbed of insurgents
battling U.S. and Iraqi forces, the American military said. The
fighting in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, wounded 14 U.S.
servicemen, but none sustained life threatening injuries and 10
have returned to duty, according to a Marine statement.
Some of the hijackers who crashed a jetliner into the Pentagon on
Sept. 11, 2001, twice set off alarms as they passed through metal
detectors that morning at Washington Dulles International Airport,
but security screeners did not appear to question them about
utility knives investigators believe they were carrying as part of
the takeover plot, according to newly disclosed surveillance
video. The video represents the only footage known to exist
showing any of the Sept. 11 hijackers boarding their final flights
that fateful morning. It shows most of the hijackers in Washington
were pulled aside to undergo additional scrutiny after alarms went
off at metal detectors but then were permitted to board American
Airlines Flight 77.
The Sept. 11 commission concludes that a "failure of imagination,"
not governmental neglect, allowed 19 hijackers to carry out the
deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history. The panel calls for an
intelligence overhaul to confront an al-Qaida organization intent
on striking again. While faulting institutional shortcomings, the
bipartisan report being released does not blame President Bush or
former President Clinton for mistakes contributing to the 2001
terrorist attack, Bush administration officials familiar with the
findings said.
American soldiers in Iraq have been dying at a rate of two a day
since Iraqis regained political control on June 28 - a drop from
the deadliest months of violence before the handover but still
about the same rate overall as in the 16 months since the U.S.
invasion. The U.S. military death toll now has reached 900, and
the number of American soldiers injured is approaching 6,000.
Republicans initially dismissed "Fahrenheit 9/11" as a cinematic
screed that would play mostly to inveterate Bush bashers. Four
weeks and $94 million later, the film is still pulling in
moviegoers at 2,000 theaters around the country, making Republicans
nervous as it settles into the American mainstream. "I'm not sure
if it moves voters," GOP consultant Scott Reed said, "but if it
moves 3 or 4 percent it's been a success."
7/22/04 Thursday
Warning "we are not safe" yet, the Sept. 11 commission called for a
major overhaul of the nation's intelligence agencies to stop the
next terror attack. Panelists vowed to make their unanimously
backed reforms an election-year issue. The panel of five
Republicans and five Democrats released the findings of its
20-month investigation into the deadliest terror attack in U.S.
history. Citing multiple government failures, the report called
for a national counterterrorism center headed by a Cabinet-level
director to centralize intelligence efforts.
The images were vivid: A U.S. Army sergeant who told his troops to
"rough up" two prisoners; a platoon that agreed to make prisoners
jump off a bridge into the Tigris River; an interrogator who hit a
prisoner in the head. Those were among the new details of abuses
by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan reported by the Army
Inspector General's office. The review found 94 cases of confirmed
or alleged abuses and 39 deaths, 20 of which were ruled homicides
or remain under investigation.
As the costs of fighting and rebuilding in Iraq keep mounting by
the billions, lawmakers and policy makers are debating how much
more will be needed and whether money used so far was well spent..
Congress and its auditors are looking at amounts still required as
the campaign moves well into its second year. One congressional
committee has looked at allegations of war profiteering by private
contractors. And with the State Department now in charge of
American activities in Iraq - instead of the Pentagon - officials
there said that they think reconstruction money could be better
spent creating Iraqi jobs than on big-ticket infrastructure
projects.
Lance Armstrong never thought about playing it safe this time -
even with a sizable overall lead and a record sixth Tour de France
victory so close. The Texan threw caution aside and powered to
another brilliant victory, winning three straight stages for the
first time and picking up his fourth victory of this Tour. In past
years, when Armstrong was in similar commanding positions, he used
to let other riders take a bit of the glory in stages.
7/23/04 Friday
Senate and House committees will hold an unusual round of August
hearings on intelligence reform after leaders of the Sept. 11
commission warned that America remained vulnerable to another
deadly terror strike. "The American people expect us to act," Sen.
Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Governmental
Affairs Committee, said. "We don't have the luxury of waiting for
months."
Iraqi insurgents issued a brash new challenge to the country's
interim government, capturing an Egyptian diplomat as he walked out
of a mosque and making new demands for the release of seven
hostages that will almost certainly go unmet. The separate
developments suggested the insurgents are growing bolder,
particularly since terrorists scored a stunning victory by getting
the Philippines to withdraw its 51-member peacekeeping contingent
to save the life of a hostage. Angelo dela Cruz returned home
Thursday.
The Energy Department, responding to a security scandal at the Los
Alamos weapons lab, ordered a halt to classified work at as many as
two dozen facilities that use removable computer disks like those
missing at the New Mexico lab. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham
said that the "stand-down" at DOE operations that use the disks,
containing classified material involving nuclear weapons research,
was needed to get better control over the devices.
Democrat John Kerry holds a 10-point lead over President Bush in
Pennsylvania, and a slight lead in Oregon, polls said. Two new
Florida polls found the race deadlocked in a three-way race,
suggesting that independent Ralph Nader again could play a pivotal
role in the essential swing state of 2000. Bush won the disputed
Florida election by a margin of a few hundred votes, and Democrats
blamed Nader, who had more than 97,000 votes, for tipping the
balance in the state and awarding Bush the presidency.
7/24/04 Saturday
John Kerry narrowly trails President Bush in the battle for the 270
electoral votes needed to win the White House, as he makes his case
at the Democratic National Convention this week to topple the
Republican incumbent. With three months remaining in a volatile
campaign, Kerry has 14 states and the District of Columbia in his
column for 193 electoral votes. Bush has 25 states for 217 votes,
according to an Associated Press analysis of state polls as well as
interviews with strategists across the country.
Without promising what specific steps he will take, President Bush
is committing his administration to relying on the recommendations
of the Sept. 11 commission in waging the war on terrorism. "The
danger to America has not passed," Bush said in his weekly radio
address, citing the cautionary note sounded this week by the
commission chairman, Thomas Kean.
A woman who disappeared when she reportedly went out for a jog
remained missing, after days of police efforts that have included
cadaver dogs and a search of a municipal landfill. Salt Lake City
police Detective Dwayne Baird met for more than an hour today with
the family of 27-year-old Lori Hacking, who has been missing since
Monday and is reportedly five weeks pregnant.
7/25/04 Sunday
A suicide bomber detonated a car filled with explosives, mortars
and rockets near the gates of a U.S. base in the northern city of
Mosul, killing an Iraqi guard, a woman and a child, the military
said. Three American soldiers were injured by the blast. A
militant group, meanwhile, released a video on pan-Arab TV station
Al-Jazeera saying it had taken hostage two Pakistanis working for
U.S. forces and sentenced them to death because their country was
discussing sending troops to Iraq. It was latest in a wave of
abductions of foreigners designed to force their countries to
rethink sending troops to Iraq.
President Bush probably will move within days to adopt
recommendations made by the Sept. 11 commission, a senior
administration official said as lawmakers pressed for speedy
action. The White House is studying which of the panel's more than
40 proposals can be implemented by executive order, which ones
require congressional approval and which ones actually would
improve domestic security.
On the eve of his party's convention, John Kerry is returning to
Florida, a state seemingly as divided in this election as it was
when its fiercely contested recount handed the White House to
George W. Bush four years ago. Kerry planned to talk about
innovative ways he would lead the country during a town-hall
meeting at the Kennedy Space Center.
Matt Damon's "The Bourne Supremacy," the sequel about the amnesiac
assassin he played in "The Bourne Identity," debuted as the top
weekend movie with ticket sales of $53.5 million, according to
studio estimates. That was nearly double the opening weekend take
of $27.1 million for "Bourne Identity" in summer 2002. Halle
Berry's critically derided comic-book adaptation "Catwoman" opened
a distant third with $17.16 million, behind "I, Robot," which took
in $22.05 million to lift its 10-day total to $95.4 million.
Lance Armstrong rode into history, winning a record sixth Tour de
France and cementing his place as one of the greatest athletes of
all time. Never in its 101-year history has the Tour had a winner
like Armstrong. His streak of six straight crowns has helped
reinvigorate the greatest race in cycling, steering it into the
21st century. And the Tour, as much a part of French summers as
languid meals over chilled rose, molded Armstrong into a sporting
superstar.
7/26/04 Monday
Day One of the Democratic National Convention: energized by Bill
and Hillary Clinton, Democrats castigated George W. Bush as a
president who mishandled the economy and bungled the war on
terror. John Kerry will "rally the world to our side," the former
president said as the party turned to an aging liberal warrior and
Kerry's outspoken wife to define the Massachusetts senator.
Al Gore, loser of the bitterly contested 2000 presidential
election, accused President Bush of creating profound problems for
Americans with ill-fated policies and rallied Democratic activists
to "make sure that this time every vote is counted." The
convention greeted Gore with an enthusiastic ovation and eagerly
cheered his speech lines about the 2000 election. They roared when
Gore kissed his wife, Tipper, in a redux of their long embrace four
years ago.
A senior Egyptian diplomat returned to work a day after being
released by militants, while a Baghdad mortar barrage killed an
Iraqi garbage collector and injured 14 coalition soldiers. Gunmen
also killed a hospital official south of the capital. The release
of Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb, the third highest diplomat at the
Egyptian mission here, came as two different militant groups
threatened to kill four new foreign hostages amid an increasingly
audacious wave of kidnappings in Iraq.
The last day her co-workers saw her, Lori Hacking has heading home
for the weekend after getting a phone call that left her stunned
and sobbing, The Associated Press has learned. She never showed up
at her office the following Monday. Several colleagues said
Hacking had been arranging for on-campus housing at the University
of North Carolina medical school and that they believe the school
was returning a call to say her husband, Mark Hacking, was not
enrolled there, as he had told her.
7/27/04 Tuesday
A suicide car bomb exploded outside a police recruiting center in
Baqouba on Wednesday, killing 51 Iraqis in the worst attack in Iraq
since the United States transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi
government last month, officials said. The attacker drove a car
carrying explosives up to the crowd of people gathered outside the
al-Najda station in Baqouba to apply for police jobs, said Gen.
Walid al-Azawi, chief of police in Diyala Province.
The relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres said it is pulling out
of Afghanistan, discouraged about a fruitless investigation into
the slayings of five of its workers and fearful of new attacks.
The Nobel prize-winning group's decision to withdraw was the most
dramatic example yet of how deteriorating security has crippled the
delivery of badly needed aid and reconstruction in Afghanistan
since the Taliban regime was ousted more than two years ago. MSF
had already suspended most of its work after the June killings and
recalled all foreign staff to Kabul, the capital.
Al-Qaida militants and other terrorists traveling through Europe
have obtained South African passports, and authorities believe they
got them from crime syndicates operating inside the government
agency that issues the documents. The illicit acquisition of the
passports, which allow travel through many African countries and
Britain without visas, sent shock waves through South Africa after
one top police official said "boxes and boxes" of the documents
were discovered in London.
The syndicated TV series "On-Air with Ryan Seacrest" is going off
the air, permanently. Seacrest was unable to turn his visibility
as host of Fox's "American Idol" into success for the talk and
music show, and low ratings led Twentieth Television to announce
the end of production. "I am proud of my team who worked
tirelessly every day," Seacrest said in a statement. "I wouldn't
have changed anything about this entire experience and I look
forward to building my business within Twentieth Television."
7/28/04 Wednesday
His moment at hand, John Kerry claims the Democratic presidential
nomination and asks Americans for the chance to build a country
"stronger at home and respected in the world." In a curtain
raiser, running mate John Edwards praised Kerry as a born leader
tested in Vietnam and now ready to protect the country in the age
of terrorism.
The insurgent group of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
kidnapped a Somali truck driver in Iraq and threatened to behead
him if his Kuwaiti company doesn't stop working there, according to
a videotape aired. Iraqi health officials, meanwhile, raised the
death toll by two to 70 from a suicide car bomb that devastated a
busy, shop-filled street in Baqouba. Casualties from the
vehicle-born bomb blast, which targeted an Iraqi men waiting
outside a police station to apply to join the police, overwhelmed
Baqouba's hospital.
Al Sharpton won the hearts of delegates to the Democratic National
Convention with a rousing and raucous speech, saying his failed
quest for the White House was proof that kids can grow up poor and
make it in America. "As I ran for president, I hoped that one
child would come out of the ghetto like I did, could look at me
walk across the stage with governors and senators and know they
didn't have to be a drug dealer, they didn't have to be a hoodlum,
they didn't have to be a gangster," he said. "They could stand up
from a broken home, on welfare, and they could run for president of
the United States."
7/29/04 Thursday
The Iraqis took legal custody of Saddam Hussein and 11 of his top
lieutenants, a first step toward the ousted dictator's expected
trial for crimes against humanity. In a one-line announcement,
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's office said the Iraqi government
assumed legal - but not physical - control "today, 30th June, at
10:15 in the morning." They are to appear in court for a reading
of the charges.
In a precedent-setting decision, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the
government to change a large section of its West Bank separation
barrier, saying the current route violates the human rights of the
local Palestinian population. The government said it would honor
the ruling, which will likely effect other sections of the
contentious wall. The decision - the first major ruling on the
barrier - signaled that the court would reject other parts of the
fence.
Insurgents fired at least 10 mortar rounds at a U.S. base on the
outskirts of Baghdad International Airport, wounding 11 soldiers,
two of them seriously, and starting a fire that burned for well
over an hour. That attack, along with a car bomb that exploded
outside a police headquarters in Samawah, 150 miles south of the
capital, Baghdad, were yet more evidence that insurgents have no
plans of letting up their attacks.
Challenging President Bush by declaring that "strength is more than
tough words," Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry plunged
into the general election campaign aimed at convincing millions of
undecided voters that his time in Vietnam makes him the right
commander in a time of war. For his part, the president, trailing
slightly in polls, told battleground state voters that when it
comes to choosing a president, "results matter."
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is considering stepping down
after the November election, telling colleagues he is worn out from
the massive reorganization of government and needs to earn money in
the private sector to put his teenage children through college,
officials said. Ridge will not make a final decision until he
talks to President Bush later this year and is focused on thwarting
the terror attacks that officials fear al-Qaida will attempt before
November, Assistant Homeland Secretary Susan Neely said.
7/30/04 Friday
Senators promised swift consideration of proposals to revamp the
nation's intelligence structure after leaders of the Sept. 11
commission warned that bureaucratic wrangling leaves America
dangerously vulnerable to another terrorist attack. At a rare
hearing during the Senate's typically quiet August recess, Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine,
urged fellow lawmakers to "be bold but not reckless" in considering
a reorganization that would amount to a "fundamental overhaul of
our intelligence structure and a sea change in our thinking."
Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards rolled their post-nomination
campaign into the heart of Pennsylvania, pitching their
presidential ticket to independent voters in this battleground
state. On the first day of a two-week bus tour that will take the
running mates through 21 states from coast to coast, Kerry visited
thousands of supporters gathered in front of the capitol of a state
courted and coveted by Republicans and Democrats.
Sudan denounced a U.N. Security Council resolution that gave the
government 30 days to stem ethnic violence in the western Darfur
region or face sanctions, saying Khartoum needed international
help, not threats. Sudan said the resolution, passed 13-0,
violates a previous agreement with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, in which it promised to crack down on the militias who have
killed thousands of people and forced more than 1 million to flee
in Darfur.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States will speed
delivery to Iraq of billions of dollars in reconstruction aid that
the Congress approved last year. Powell disclosed the plan during
a news conference in which he vowed that terrorist violence in Iraq
will be defeated - only to be challenged by an Iraqi journalist who
defended the right of Iraqis to "kick out" occupiers.
A camouflaged architect, children screaming "You're fired!" and
hundreds of business-suited wannabe moguls flocked to the Trump
Tower for "The Apprentice 3" auditions. "I'm looking for someone
with great drive," Donald Trump told The Associated Press.
7/31/04 Saturday
New intelligence that the al-Qaida terrorist network plans to
attack commercial or financial institutions in New York City has
prompted police to urge security directors at various city
buildings to take extra precautions. The warning, announced,
didn't say how the attacks might be carried out or when they would
occur. But ABC News, citing anonymous sources, reported that
al-Qaida planned to send terrorists across the Mexican border into
the United States.
With dueling economic messages, President Bush and rival John Kerry
campaigned head-to-head in the Rust Belt, getting so close at one
point that their bus caravans were rolling toward each other on a
35-mile stretch of Interstate 70. They averted passing each other
when Bush's motorcade turned north toward an event in Pittsburgh,
Pa., and Kerry continued west into Ohio, a state with 20 electoral
votes where Bush had spent the day trolling for support.
Flood-weakened riverbanks in South Asia collapsed around villages,
pushing the death toll from this season's monsoons above 1,500 and
stranding more than 30 million people in homes and schools, along
highways and atop mud embankments, officials said. As some
floodwaters began receding, more bodies were found, raising the
death toll from six weeks of monsoons in Bangladesh, India, Nepal
and Pakistan to 1,509. The deaths have been caused by drowning,
landslides, electrocution and waterborne diseases.
After escaping from the circus, a white tiger alarmed picnickers
and motorists on what for him apparently was a calm, half-mile
stroll through an unfamiliar urban jungle. The animal, named
Apollo, was safely recaptured in the Queens section of the city -
but not before the sight of him on the Jackie Robinson Parkway
caused a multi-car accident. Four adults and one child suffered
minor injuries in the car crash.
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