8/ 1/04 Sunday
Police were investigating survivor accounts that an exploding gas
canister in a food court fueled a fire that killed at least 256
people in a crowded supermarket, in Paraguay's worst disaster in
more than half a century. Hundreds more were injured, many with
serious burns, after the blaze swept through the multilevel Ycua
Bolanos supermarket on the outskirts of the capital, Asuncion,
while it was crowded with Sunday shoppers.
Assailants triggered a coordinated series of explosions outside
five churches in Baghdad and Mosul during Sunday evening services,
killing 11 people and wounding more than 50 in the first major
assault on Iraq's Christian minority since the 15-month-old
insurgency began. Separate violence beginning the night before
killed 24, including an American soldier, and wounded 101.
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry told a crowd packed into
a block of a small Midwestern town's Main Street that he would
fight to prevent steel imports from taking American jobs, before
winding up the day pitching for support from Michigan auto
workers. "The law is the law, you're supposed to enforce the law,"
Kerry said in Bowling Green, Ohio, referring to steps the president
can take to stop foreign producers from dumping cheaper steel into
markets.
The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season developed
off the South Carolina coast as forecasters predicted Tropical
Storm Alex would make landfall in North Carolina. Alex's center
was about 90 miles south-southeast of Charleston, S.C., at 11 p.m.
EDT. Winds were blowing up to 40 mph, forecasters said. The
National Hurricane Center extended the tropical storm warning from
Cape Hatteras, N.C., to the South Santee River, north of
Charleston.
Federal authorities warned of potential al-Qaida bombing attacks on
prominent financial institutions in New York, Washington and
Newark, N.J., prompting increased security and concern from the
unusually detailed information unearthed on the plot. "The quality
of this intelligence - based on multiple reporting streams, in
multiple locations - is rarely seen, and it is alarming in both the
amount and specificity of the information," Homeland Security
Secretary Tom Ridge said at a hastily arranged news conference.
Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards are releasing a book-length
blueprint for their White House campaign, including plans to fight
terrorism and improve homeland security as officials warn of an
attack against major financial institutions. Kerry arranged a stop
at the Grand Rapids Fire Department on Monday to discuss the book,
which will be available on his campaign Web site and distributed to
supporters. Edwards planned his own event in Orlando, Fla., as the
candidates went their separate ways on the two-week, coast-to-coast
tour through battleground states.
8/ 2/04 Monday
Under the steady gaze of police officers sporting body armor and
automatic weapons, workers were confronted with ID checks and bag
searches as they headed for work following the most specific
domestic terrorism warnings since the 2001 attacks, warnings that
have sent ripples of anxiety as far away as the West coast.
Officials sealed off some streets in New York, put financial
employees in Washington through extra security checks, and added
concrete barricades and a heavily armed presence in Newark, N.J.,
in response to a terrorism alert aimed at financial titans.
President Bush is urging the creation of a national intelligence
director, but some lawmakers wonder whether the post he's proposed
will have enough power to get the nation's 15 sometimes
turf-conscious spy agencies working in concert. "All the
institutions of our government must be fully prepared for a
struggle against terror that will last into the future," Bush said
in the Rose Garden, where he announced his support for a national
intelligence chief and a national center to plan counterterror
operations in the United States and abroad. "Our goal is an
integrated, unified national intelligence effort."
Bangladesh will need food aid for 20 million people, or one-seventh
of its population, over the next five months because of massive
flooding that has destroyed crops, the South Asian country's
disaster minister said. The worst monsoon rains and flooding in
six years have covered 60 percent of this nation of 140 million
since June, destroying crops and jobs, said Food and Disaster
Management Minister Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusouf.
Upgraded from a tropical storm, Hurricane Alex picked up strength
and speed as it spun along the coast of North Carolina, but most of
the storm-hardened residents of the Outer Banks didn't bother to
board their windows. Though it was expected to gain strength as it
passes very near and likely brush the state's barrier islands
tomorrow, Alex is a lightweight by local standards.
From the day Lori Hacking disappeared, police never referred to her
husband as anything other than a "person of interest" - even as the
lies he told relatives unraveled and his psychological condition
deteriorated. Authorities closed in, arresting Mark Hacking for
the murder of his pregnant wife despite the lack of a body. He was
picked up before his scheduled release from a psychiatric ward at
the University of Utah Hospital and denied bail.
A roadside bomb killed a local police chief and another officer in
Baghdad, hospital and police officials said, in the latest
insurgent attack on Iraq's battered police forces. In other
violence, two U.S. soldiers were killed and two others wounded by a
roadside bomb in Iraq's capital, while an American Marine died in
action west of Baghdad, the military said.
8/ 3/04 Tuesday
The government is no closer to understanding some important details
about possible terror plots against American financial
institutions, intelligence and law enforcement officials
acknowledge. Investigators are poring over the trove of documents
and photographs that led to this week's urgent warnings from the
Homeland Security Department. But intelligence agencies have been
unable to reach a consensus on whether the unusually detailed
documents recovered in Pakistan reflect a defunct terror plot or
one that might have been successfully interrupted.
A tribal chief in the turbulent city of Fallujah led a raid that
freed four Jordanian hostages kidnapped a week ago, the chief said,
while a militant group promised to free two Turkish truck drivers
whose company agreed to pull out from Iraq. A brother of one of
the four Jordanian hostages, Mohammed abu Jaafar, said that he'd
spoken by telephone with his brother Ahmad, who told him: "Now I am
free. I was in the hands of evil people. Now I am in the hands of
good people."
The husband of a missing pregnant woman told a "reliable citizen"
witness at a psychiatric ward that he killed his wife as she slept
and then threw her body in a trash bin, according to a court filing
released by prosecutors. The police affidavit also says
investigators found human blood on a knife in the bedroom of Mark
Hacking's apartment and on the couple's headboard and bed rail.
Mary Kay Letourneau, the one-time grade school teacher whose
seduction of a sixth-grade pupil launched a thousand tabloid
covers, has been released from prison, a corrections spokeswoman
said. Letourneau served 7 1/2 years for child rape and avoided
reporters when she was freed from the Washington Corrections Center
for Women prison near here. Attempts to reach attorneys for
Letourneau were unsuccessful.
After pulling off the nation's first primary defeat of a sitting
governor in a decade, Democratic Auditor Claire McCaskill reached
out to the embattled Gov. Bob Holden, who returned her gesture of
party unity by urging supporters to rally behind her campaign.
Come November, McCaskill will face Republican Secretary of State
Matt Blunt, who handily turned back five lesser-known opponents to
win the Republican primary.
8/ 4/04 Wednesday
A U.S. helicopter was hit by gunfire and crashed during fierce
fighting with insurgents loyal to a radical cleric in the holy city
of Najaf. The crew was wounded and evacuated to safety. Also, a
suicide car bombing killed five people and wounded 27 at a police
station south of Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said.
President Bush and Sen. John Kerry clashed at close quarters along
the banks of the Mississippi River, the Republican incumbent
pledging to "spread ownership and opportunity" if re-elected while
his Democratic challenger campaigned as a fiscal conservative able
and eager to fix the economy. Both men reached out to independent
and crossover votes in late morning appearances three blocks apart
that made one small city ground zero in their close, cross-country
campaign for the White House.
Pakistan gave British authorities images of London's Heathrow
Airport and other sites that were found on the computers of two
arrested al-Qaida fugitives, intelligence officials said. It was
not clear, however, if the information helped lead to the arrests
of about a dozen suspected terrorists on Tuesday in Britain.
Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher convicted for having sex with a
sixth-grade student, was released from prison, and her 21-year-old
victim quickly sought to get back together with her. Vili Fualaau
is challenging a court order that bars Letourneau from contacting
him as part of her child rape sentence. He says he is an adult and
can pick his own friends, especially the mother of his two
children.
8/ 5/04 Thursday
Coalition troops battled militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr in several Iraqi cities, the second day of fighting that
has shattered truces to end a widespread Shiite rebellion two
months ago. The fighting began in the holy city of Najaf and has
since spread to other areas across the country, and dozens have
been reported killed and wounded. Also, members of al-Sadr's Mahdi
Army militia seized four police stations in Amarah, 180 miles
southeast of Baghdad, witnesses said.
An alleged key al-Qaida operative suspected of authoring
surveillance documents that sparked terror alerts in the United
States was among 13 terror suspects arrested in Britain, an
official said. The documents of surveillance of five U.S. financial
institutions were found on the computers of two accused members of
Osama bin Laden's terror network arrested in Pakistan last month.
Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press the
computers also held images of London's Heathrow Airport and that
this information was passed to British officials.
Federal agents investigating the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks
searched homes belonging to the founder of an organization that
trains medical professionals to respond to chemical and biological
attacks. He was later arrested in an altercation with family
members at a motel, police said. More than three dozen agents,
some in protective suits, combed through two homes in the upstate
New York village of Wellsville, at the same time as a similar
search occurred in New Jersey.
Hands bound and feet chained to the floor, two Afghan detainees
pleaded for their freedom before U.S. military tribunals, both
saying they were with Taliban forces but never fought against
American troops. The first detainee, who has been held for 2 1/2
years, spoke quietly through a Pashto interpreter Thursday to
declare he had a Taliban-issued Kalashnikov rifle but wasn't
involved in battle. "I wasn't going to fight anyone," the
31-year-old said.
8/ 6/04 Friday
Sporadic explosions and gunfire echoed through the holy Shiite city
of Najaf, after two days of intense clashes between U.S. forces and
Shiite Muslim insurgents that marked some of the bloodiest fighting
in Iraq in months and killed up to 300 people. A 24-hour
government deadline for the militants to leave Najaf expired
without any sign of a pullout - or any major attack. The city was
the quietest it's been since fighting erupted Thursday between
American troops and militants loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr and spread to several cities across Iraq including the
capital.
The trail began with a hunt for the people who ambushed a Pakistani
commander as his motorcade tried to cross Karachi's Clifton Bridge
in June. It led to a torrent of intelligence and ended with dozens
of arrests in Pakistan and Britain and a terror warning in the
United States. Along the way, investigators passed through
Karachi's teeming streets, to the dusty tribal village of Shakai
along the Pakistan-Afghan border, to seemingly placid suburban
London, to the world's financial headquarters in New York and to
Washington, D.C.
America's payrolls grew by an anemic 32,000 new jobs in July,
suggesting the economy is stuck in summer lethargy three months
before voters elect a president. The report rattled Wall Street
and sent stocks tumbling. The latest snapshot on employment
growth, in a report by the Labor Department, showed the smallest
gain in hiring since December. Job gains reported earlier for May
and June also were lowered.
8/ 7/04 Saturday
An aspiring politician and video game designer who faked his own
beheading by Iraqi militants awoke to learn that television
stations around the world were showing his homemade video of the
gruesome hoax. Benjamin Vanderford, 22, said he posted the
55-second clip, which shows a knife sawing against his neck, on an
online file-sharing network in May. It circulated in cyberspace
before crossing over to major media, airing on Arab television.
"It was part of a stunt, ...".
A series of witnesses place six top al-Qaida fugitives in Africa
buying up diamonds in the run-up to the Sept. 11 attacks, according
to a confidential report by U.N.-backed prosecutors. The
first-person accounts detailed by the prosecutors add to
long-standing claims that al-Qaida laundered millions of dollars in
terror funds through African diamonds before launching its
deadliest offensive.
A roadside bomb hit an American Humvee in southeastern Afghanistan,
killing two U.S. soldiers and their Afghan interpreter, the
American military said. Another U.S. soldier was reported injured
in the blast in Ghazni province, part of the rising cost of
American operations supposed to prevent militants from disrupting
historic Afghan elections. The wounded soldier was in stable
condition at the U.S. base the southern city of Kandahar.
The heightened state of alert in New York, Newark, N.J. and
Washington is "a grim reminder" of terrorist threats that still
face the United States, President Bush said. He defended the
elevated warnings in the face of criticism they were based on old
intelligence. "Information from arrests in Pakistan, taken
together with information gathered by the U.S. intelligence
community, indicated that al-Qaida has cased financial targets in
New York and New Jersey.
8/ 8/04 Sunday
Former Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi and his nephew Salem
dismissed charges filed against them by Iraq's chief investigating
judge, calling the allegations part of a political conspiracy
against them and their family. Ahmad Chalabi, once a Pentagon
favorite to take leadership of the new Iraq, was charged with
counterfeiting. A warrant for his arrest issued Saturday pushed
him futher from the center of power, over which he seemed to have a
firm grip until he fell out with the Americans in the weeks before
the U.S. occupation ended in June.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, on the western leg of
a coast-to-coast campaign tour, courted Hispanic and Native
American voters in states that he hopes can give him a winning
edge. Kerry talked about health care, education and tribal rights
through whistle-stops in New Mexico and Arizona. His wife, Teresa
Heinz Kerry, sometimes added a few words in Spanish to the delight
of the crowds.
Protected by about 100 guards, Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad
Allawi visited the war-shattered city of Najaf, calling on Shiite
militants to lay down their weapons after days of fierce clashes
with U.S. forces.
8/ 9/04 Monday
Mexicans making short trips across the border who have passed
security checks will be allowed to visit the United States for up
to 30 days instead of the current three-day limit, government
officials said. The change, long sought by Mexicans and
border-state politicians, is a gesture that could help President
Bush win support in the election battleground states of Arizona and
New Mexico. The 30-day limit will be available to Mexicans who
hold so-called laser visas.
The faulty cooling pipe at the center of Japan's deadliest nuclear
power plant accident had not been inspected since 1996, despite a
warning last year that it was a safety threat, the plant operator
said. The dangerously corroded pipe - which carried boiling water
and superheated steam - burst at the Mihama reactor, burning to
death at least four workers and injuring seven others, two of them
seriously. No radiation was released, officials said.
Militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Shiite militia has been
battling U.S. forces across Iraq, warned that he would fight "until
the last drop of my blood has been spilled," in his first
appearance since the violence began. The five-day-old uprising by
al-Sadr's Mahdi Army began to affect Iraq's crucial oil industry,
as pumping to the southern port of Basra - the country's main
export outlet - was halted because of militant threats to
infrastructure, an official said.
First lady Laura Bush, defending her husband's policy on embryonic
stem cell research, accuses proponents of overstating the potential
for medical breakthroughs, says it is "ridiculous" for John Kerry
to claim the president has banned the research. "We don't even
know that stem cell research will provide cures for anything - much
less that it's very close" to yielding major advances, she said.
Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, addressing a court
for the first time, proclaimed his faith in God and asked victims
of the blast for forgiveness as a judge sentenced him to 161
consecutive life sentences. "Words cannot adequately express the
sorrow I have had over the years for the grief that so many have
endured and continue to suffer," Nichols said from the witness
stand. "I am truly sorry for what occurred." District Judge
Steven Taylor gave the sentence.
8/10/04 Tuesday
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to
Afghanistan on Wednesday to review preparations for the October
presidential election and go over reconstruction and
counternarcotics programs. During a daylong visit, he planned
consultations with Afghan and United Nations officials, as well as
meetings with senior U.S. military officials.
President Bush's nomination of Rep. Porter Goss as the next CIA
director could lead to tense confirmation hearings, with plenty of
questions about the president's national security record and goals,
just weeks before the Nov. 2 election. Even as some Democrats
praised the nomination of Goss, R-Fla., who gave up his role as
chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, others criticized him
as inappropriately partisan for a job that requires relaying
objective advice to the president and others.
The woman accusing Kobe Bryant of rape has filed a civil lawsuit
seeking monetary damages from the NBA star, a filing that requires
a lower standard of proof but may complicate the impending criminal
trial. Attorneys for the 20-year-old woman asked for a civil jury
trial and compensatory damages of at least $75,000, with punitive
damages to be determined later. For now, both sides said the
criminal trial will begin as scheduled Aug. 27.
One set of terrorist videos. Two communities. Two entirely
different responses. When Spanish authorities uncovered al-Qaida
surveillance of major American landmarks in summer 2002, California
officials issued a public warning and doubled police security on
San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge because it appeared in the
videos. Alerted around the same time to the Spanish footage as
well as a second surveillance tape found in the apartment of a
Detroit terror cell, Las Vegas authorities chose a private briefing
to casino s ecurity chiefs and no public alerts.
8/11/04 Wednesday
A letter found in the apartment of a missing Salt Lake City woman
suggests she was having marital problems with her husband, who is
now accused of killing her. "I hate coming home from work because
it hurts to be home in our apartment," said the letter, excerpts of
which were included in a released police document. "I can't
imagine life with you if things don't change. I got someone I don't
know I want to spend the rest of my life with unless changes are
made."
Explosions and gunfire echoed across the holy city of Najaf, as the
U.S. military and Iraqi forces launched a full-scale assault to
crush a weeklong uprising by militiamen loyal to radical Shiite
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Thousands of U.S. troops were taking part
in the offensive, which began with the cordoning off of the revered
Imam Ali shrine, its vast cemetery and Najaf's Old City. The
coalition forces were trying to crush an uprising led by cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr, whose fighters have been battling U.S. troops in
Shiite strongholds across Iraq for a week. Hundreds of people have
fled in the last few days, moving in with relatives and friends in
quieter neighborhoods, or out of Najaf entirely.
Florida braced for a potential double dose of hurricanes, with
officials ordering Keys visitors out of Hurricane Charley's path
and residents preparing for possible flooding as Tropical Storm
Bonnie approached the already soaked Panhandle. Bonnie, which was
approaching hurricane strength, was forecast to hit the state early
Thursday, at least 12 hours earlier than Charley. The prospect of
back-to-back hurricanes prompted Gov. Jeb Bush to declare a state
of emergency.
President Bush pushed back against John Kerry's criticism of his
handling of Iraq, saying, "I know what I'm doing when it comes to
winning this war." Bush used a re-election rally to sharply reject
Democratic challenger John Kerry's proposal to begin to withdraw
troops from Iraq within six months of taking office. "We all want
the mission to be completed as quickly as possible. But we want
the mission completed," the president said.
Toys "R" Us Inc., battered by price wars from discounters,
particularly Wal-Mart, is considering getting out of the toy
business. The nation's second-largest toy retailer behind Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. announced plans to restructure its toy business, but
said it is considering selling the business outright as part of an
effort to dramatically reduce operating and capital expenses.
8/12/04 Thursday
A U.S. soldier was killed during fighting in Najaf, the military
said. The soldier, from a special forces unit, was killed during a
raid on a school in the holy city of Najaf, where militia loyal to
radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been fighting U.S. and
Iraqi forces for over a week. Thousands of U.S. troops sealed off
Najaf's vast cemetery, its old city and a revered Shiite shrine and
unleashed a tank, infantry and helicopter assault.
Gov. James E. McGreevey, a one-time rising Democratic star and
twice-married Roman Catholic, stunned the nation by admitting that
he was gay, had an extramarital affair with a man and was resigning
to head-off "threats of disclosure." "My truth is that I am a gay
American," McGreevey said at a news conference with his second wife
by his side. He described decades of sexual confusion that dogged
him through two marriages and ultimately led him to an act he
called "wrong, foolish and inexcusable."
The California Supreme Court voided the nearly 4,000 same-sex
marriages sanctioned in San Francisco earlier this year, a move
that will likely spur a new round of litigation about whether
California's Constitution allows the weddings. The seven justices
all said Mayor Gavin Newsom's decision to issue the licenses and
perform the ceremonies violated a 1977 state law that defines
marriage as a union between a man and woman.
Despite soaring oil and gas prices, oil companies and individuals
who own nearly 30 million acres of nonproducing federal oil and gas
leases have made little effort to transform them into energy
producers, federal records show. An Associated Press analysis of
Bureau of Land Management records obtained under the Freedom of
Information Act found that 98 percent of the more than 33,000
leases still considered nonproducing by BLM have never had an
exploratory well drilled.
Officials warned about a million residents and tourists along
Florida's Gulf Coast to get out of the way of Hurricane Charley,
saying parts of Tampa's downtown and nearby areas could be
submerged by the massive storm surge likely when the hurricane
strikes on Friday. "It does have the potential of devastating
impact. This is a scary, scary thing," Gov. Jeb Bush said. The
evacuation zone stretched along Florida's west coast from Key West
to north of Tampa.
8/13/04 Friday
President Bush retains an advantage with voters on such qualities
as decisiveness and strength of leadership despite the Democrats'
effort to promote John Kerry as a strong leader, a poll this week
finds. Kerry is seen as better on issues ranging from the economy
to health care to education. Bush has a 10-point, 49-39 percent
advantage over the Massachusetts senator on the issue of handling
terrorism. They were even on handling Iraq, and Kerry was favored
on issues ranging from the economy to health care to education.
Gov. James E. McGreevey began suffering fallout from his bombshell
resignation announcement as his former homeland security adviser
accused the governor of sexual harassment and Republican leaders
called on him to leave office immediately. "While employed by one
of the most powerful politicians in the country, New Jersey
Governor McGreevey, I was the victim of repeated sexual advances by
him," Golan Cipel said in a statement read by his attorney.
A military review of the cases against four terror suspects held at
the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has concluded they are
classified properly as enemy combatants and will not be freed, the
official overseeing the process said. The four were the first
cases, of 21 reviewed thus far, to be decided. There is no
appeal. In a change of policy, the Pentagon stopped on the release
of detainees' nationalities when their cases are heard.
The death toll from Hurricane Charley rose, when a county official
said there had a been "significant loss of life" at a mobile home
park and deputies were standing guard over stacks of bodies because
the area was inaccessible to ambulances. Wayne Sallade, Charlotte
County's director of emergency management, said that there were "a
number of fatalities" at the mobile home park, and that there were
confirmed deaths in at least three other areas in the county.
The worst hurricane to hit Florida since Andrew a dozen years ago
left at least three people dead, caused widespread damage to
oceanfront homes and trailer parks and knocked out power to a
million customers. Hurricane Charley's eye passed directly over
Punta Gorda, which took a heavy toll. The town of 15,000 on
Charlotte Harbor was left without power, and at least 40 people
were injured. "It looks like a war zone - power lines down
everywhere, street signs, ..."
Julia Child, whose chirping words of encouragement and
unpretentious style brought French cuisine to American homes
through her television series and books, died. She was 91. A
6-foot-2 American folk hero, "The French Chef" was known to her
public as Julia. She showed a delight not only in preparing good
food but in sharing it, and ended her landmark public television
lessons at a set table with the wish, "Bon appetit." Child died in
her sleep at her home in an assisted-living community in
California.
A tentative cease-fire held in the holy city of Najaf while envoys
of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr negotiated with Iraq's interim
government to end fighting that has become a key test of the
country's new leaders. But al-Sadr appeared in no mood for
compromise with the government or the U.S. troops his Mahdi Army
militiamen have battled for nine days. In a speech from Najaf's
revered Imam Ali shrine, where he is holed up with his loyalists,
he exhorted his men to keep fighting elsewhere in Iraq.
Google Inc. forged ahead with its IPO auction, even as the online
search engine leader acknowledged a newly published magazine
interview with its founders contained misleading information. The
admissions, made in a company filing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, enabled Google to avoid a last-minute delay in
its long-awaited initial public offering, according to a source
familiar with the negotiations with the SEC, who demanded
anonymity.
The Olympic games opening ceremony was after dusk, in Athens,
Greece - starting up the lengthy, periodic athletic contests.
8/14/04 Saturday
President Bush has decided to bring home tens of thousands of U.S.
troops from posts around the world - most of them in Europe and
Asia - plus 100,000 of their family members and support personnel,
U.S. officials said. The changes will have no effect on forces in
Iraq or Afghanistan. Bush will announce the move Monday in a
speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Cincinnati,
two senior administration officials said.
Negotiations to end the fighting in Najaf broke down, threatening
to spark a resurgence of the fierce clashes between Shiite
militants and a combined U.S.-Iraqi force that have plagued this
holy city for more than a week. The collapse of talks will likely
cast a pall over Iraq's National Conference, which starts Sunday,
gathering 1,300 delegates from all over Iraq in what is considered
a vital step toward establishing democracy.
After getting a first look at the widespread damage left behind by
Hurricane Charley, Florida residents were faced with the arduous
task of sorting through the wreckage, and for some, starting over
again. President Bush planned to visit the state Sunday to assess
the damage, two days after declaring the state a major disaster
area. Charley killed at least 13 - including a man who was crushed
outside his home when a banyan tree fell on him - and left
thousands homeless. The hardest-hit areas appeared to be Punta
Gorda and Port Charlotte in Charlotte County.
Rescuers rummaged through a chaotic landscape of pulverized homes
and twisted metal left by Hurricane Charley, racing to find bodies
and help thousands left homeless by its vicious winds and rain. As
a weakened Charley churned up the East Coast and was downgraded to
a tropical storm, newly sunny skies revealed its destruction in
Florida, where emergency officials pronounced it the worst to
wallop the state since Hurricane Andrew.
8/15/04 Sunday
Residents left homeless by Hurricane Charley's 145 mph winds dug
through their ravaged homes, sweeping up shattered glass and
rescuing what they could as President Bush promised rapid delivery
of disaster aid. With temperatures in the 90s and humidity that
made it feel hotter, people waited with carts in long lines to buy
ice. Supermarkets gave away water in five cities as just under 1
million people remained without power and 2,300 stayed in emergency
shelters.
Urban rescue teams, insurance adjusters and National Guard troops
were scattered across Florida to help residents rally from the
brunt of Hurricane Charley, the worst storm to hit the state in a
dozen years. At least 16 people were killed in Florida and
officials estimate the storm caused $11 billion in damage to
insured homes alone. Earlier, Charley killed four people in Cuba
and one in Jamaica.
Gas prices have dropped nearly 5 cents in the past three weeks with
an increase in supply, but soaring crude oil prices could cause
rates to rise again soon, an industry analyst said. The weighted
national average for all three grades of gasoline fell about 4.9
cents between July 23 and Friday to $1.90 per gallon, said Trilby
Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey. That
represents a drop of 20 cents per gallon since May 21.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld briefed his Russian counterpart
over the weekend on U.S. plans to shift its forces stationed around
the globe, in some cases potentially bringing them closer to
Russia's borders. Rumsfeld and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov met
over a two-day period in St. Petersburg on a variety of security
issues, including U.S. plans to reorient its forces away from its
Cold War alignment and toward one aimed at fighting Islamic
terrorist groups. President Bush is expected to discuss his plans
for the military on Monday at a speech in Cincinnati.
8/16/04 Monday
Two U.S. Army divisions will leave Cold War-era bases in Germany
over the next decade, and the U.S. military will increase it
presence in former Warsaw Pact countries under President Bush's
reorganization of forces abroad. Bush announced the plan and said
the realignment ultimately would bring up to 70,000 troops - plus
about 100,000 family members and civilian workers - back to the
United States. Major shifts would not begin before 2006.
No phone. No running water. No ice to fight the heat. No diapers
for the baby and no gas to fill the tank. For thousands who've
lost their homes and creature comforts to Hurricane Charley, this
is reality. "The hard part is not being able to bathe and not
having food and water unless I go out and look for it," said Tami
Wilson, 48, while waiting in line at a "comfort station" for ice
and water while her blind husband, Dewaine, waited alone at home.
The deadly showdown between U.S. troops and Iraqi militants in
Najaf dominated Iraq's national conference, with tribal and
religious leaders deciding to send 60 delegates to the holy city to
persuade a radical Shiite cleric to call off his fighters. Aides
to Muqtada al-Sadr said the cleric, whose loyalists have been
battling the Americans from Najaf's vast cemetery and revered Imam
Ali Shrine since Aug. 5, awaited the delegates' arrival Tuesday.
Archaeologists think they've found a cave where John the Baptist
baptized many of his followers - basing their theory on thousands
of shards from ritual jugs, a stone used for foot cleansing and
wall carvings telling the story of the biblical preacher. Only a
few artifacts linked to New Testament figures have ever been found
in the Holy Land, and the cave is potentially a major discovery in
biblical archaeology.
Over two decades, the income gap has steadily increased between the
richest Americans, who own homes and stocks and got big tax breaks,
and those at the middle and bottom of the pay scale, whose
paychecks buy less. The growing disparity is even more pronounced
in this recovering economy. Wages are stagnant and the middle
class is shouldering a larger tax burden. Prices for health care,
housing, tuition, gas and food have soared.
8/17/04 Tuesday
With triple-digit heat and nearly nonexistent rainfall, Phoenix
seems an unlikely spot for this year's West Nile virus epicenter.
Yet, federal health officials say Arizona is the only state where
the mosquito-borne virus is an epidemic. "Minnesota may be the
land of a thousand lakes, but we're the land of thousands of
abandoned swimming pools," says Will Humble, head of disease
control for the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced that the state will set up an
Internet network within the next month to help Illinois residents
buy prescription drugs from Canada, Ireland and the United
Kingdom. Other states, including Minnesota and Wisconsin, already
have Web sites to help residents buy drugs from Canada, but
Illinois is the first to tap into pharmacies in Europe.
Blagojevich has been a leading figure in the push to allow the
purchase of prescriptions drugs from outside the country.
Still smarting over the loss of their homes, Hurricane Charley's
victims turned out by the hundreds in 90-degree heat to cope with
the storm's latest blow to their lives - the mass shutdown of
businesses that has left them without jobs. "Charley laid me off,"
said Rose Vito, a 57-year-old telemarketing assistant in red-plaid
pajamas, lined up outside the Employ Florida mobile benefits
station in Port Charlotte's Harold Avenue Recreational Center
parking lot.
Bill Nylander survived Hurricane Charley, but the storm still
managed to hurt him days after it cut a swath of destruction
through his hometown. Nylander burned his leg while trying to
repair his sun-scorched roof. The 68-year-old retiree needed
treatment at a medical center set up in four tents outside a
hospital closed for repairs. Until the electricity hums again and
the debris is cleared, health officials are worried that there
could be more deaths and injuries in the aftermath of Hurricane
Charley than during the storm itself.
Iraqi delegates delivered a peace proposal to aides of Muqtada
al-Sadr in Najaf, but the militant cleric refused to meet with them
as explosions, gunfire and a U.S. bombing run persisted in the holy
city. The delegation hoped to win an agreement to end nearly two
weeks of fighting but was kept waiting for three hours at the Imam
Ali shrine, where some of al-Sadr's fighters have holed up. The
group was not allowed to meet with the cleric and left Najaf.
Google Inc.'s plans to move ahead with its initial public stock
offering ran into a roadblock when the Securities and Exchange
Commission didn't approve the Internet search giant's regulatory
paperwork as requested. The company had asked that regulators make
its securities registration effective as of 4 p.m. EDT, today.
More than 90 minutes after that time had passed, agency spokesman
John Heine said no decision was made during business hours and none
would be made after.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld conceded that a new, powerful
intelligence director could bring "some modest" improvements to
efforts to safeguard the nation but warned that any changes must
not hurt the flow of information to military commanders. "We need
to remember that we are considering these important matters ...
while we are waging a war," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services
Committee. "If we move unwisely and get it wrong, the penalty
would be great."
8/18/04 Wednesday
The oak tree in Ilyse Kusnetz's back yard caused one headache when
it crashed into her house during Hurricane Charley. Now the tree
is sprouting a second worry: price gouging. Kusnetz, 38, said that
she didn't have enough time to get several estimates from companies
willing to cut it down and haul it away, so she's paying an
Ohio-based crew $2,400. "That might be reasonable and that might
not, but there's no way of knowing," she said. The price could
drop after a couple of weeks.
A Vietnam veteran who claims Sen. John Kerry lied about being under
fire during a Mekong Delta engagement that won Kerry a Bronze Star
was under constant fire himself during the same skirmish, according
to the man's own medal citation, a newspaper reported. The newly
obtained records of Larry Thurlow show that he, like Kerry, won a
Bronze Star in the engagement and that Thurlow's citation said he
also was under attack, The Washington Post reported.
Sporadic gunfire and explosions boomed through Najaf despite a
peace deal in which radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr agreed to disarm
his militiamen and pull them out of a revered Shiite shrine they've
been taking refuge in. As clashes in Najaf continued, Arab
television station Al-Jazeera aired a video showing a militant
group that called itself the Martyrs Brigade vowing to kill a
missing Western journalist if U.S. forces do not leave the holy
city within 48 hours.
An Iraqi Cabinet minister said that Iraqi forces could begin an
offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr within hours, despite the
firebrand cleric's acceptance of a cease-fire proposal. Minister
of State Qassim Dawoud issued a series of demands al-Sadr must meet
to prevent an imminent attack on his forces, who are holed up in
the revered Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf.
8/19/04 Thursday
Sporadic gunfire echoed through Najaf, after heavy U.S. bombing
that saw radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr order his fighters to hand
control of a revered Najaf shrine to top Shiite religious
authorities. U.S. tanks were on the streets and residents reported
seeing some of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia pulling out of the Old
City, but no major skirmishes were reported. Explosions and
gunbattles had raged in Najaf all day.
In a debut vaguely reminiscent of the dot-com boom, shares of
Internet search giant Google Inc. surged in their first day of
public trading, as investors who avoided the company's
auction-based offering readily jumped into the familiar territory
of the stock market. Though the 18 percent jump boosted the paper
worth of Google shareholders and insiders, it also raised questions
about the effectiveness of the unorthodox auction.
In an unprecedented overhaul of the nation's overtime pay rules,
the Bush administration is delivering to its business allies an
election-year plum they've sought for decades. The new rules take
effect Monday after surviving many efforts by Democrats, labor
unions and worker advocates to block them in Congress and kill them
through public and political pressure. The Labor Department says
as many as 107,000 workers could lose overtime eligibility under
its new rules.
Allegedly abandoned by their American mother in Africa, seven
children from Texas begged small change to buy food and shuttled
from a neglectful stranger's care to a concrete-block orphanage,
Nigerians said. Eventually, the children proved their American
citizenship to a passing missionary from Texas by singing "The
Star-Spangled Banner." He notified U.S. authorities, who got the
youngsters home last week as Texas welfare officials investigated
the mother.
8/20/04 Friday
Attacks on John Kerry's war record may be beginning to have an
impact, amid raised voices and new TV ads on a subject at least
temporarily dominating debate in the close presidential race.
Democrats are laboring to deflect the questioning of Kerry's record
with fresh ads touting his fitness for national command, even as
the White House mocks the Massachusetts senator as "losing his
cool" over claims he lied to win military medals in Vietnam.
The Democratic Party launched a costly round of ads to buttress
John Kerry's credentials to be commander in chief as the White
House accused the Massachusetts senator of "losing his cool" over
attacks on his war record. "John Kerry is a fighter and he doesn't
tolerate lies from others," spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter shot back
at President Bush's spokesman. Undeterred, the anti-Kerry group
that provoked the furor distributed a second commercial to the news
media.
Militants loyal to firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said that they
had handed over the keys to a revered Muslim shrine in the holy
city of Najaf to top Shiite religious leaders, a move that marks a
crucial step toward ending two weeks of fighting. The militants,
however, remain in control of the Imam Ali Shrine while final
details of the transfer are worked out, said al-Sadr aide Ahmed
al-Shaibany. The keys were handed over to representatives of
Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali. Despite the
standoff, Najaf remained largely calm. Occasional explosions shook
the city, but the violence was at a far lower level than fierce
fighting that raged in the city earlier this week.
A federal bankruptcy judge has given United Airlines a 30-day "test
period" to show it can cooperate with its unions on a restructuring
plan, rejecting union calls to open the process up to rival
proposals immediately because United has not tried hard enough to
preserve employee pensions. The hearing came a day after the
release of court papers in which United warned it "likely" will
have to terminate those pension funds in order to secure the loans
it needs to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Such a default by
the nation's second largest airline would impact about 119,000
employees and retirees and be the largest ever by a U.S. company.
8/21/04 Saturday
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry urged President Bush
to "stand up and stop" what he called personal attacks on him over
his combat record in Vietnam.. At a fund-raiser attended by about
750 people, Kerry said the attacks by a group of Vietnam veterans
and former Swift Boat commanders have intensified "because in the
last months they have seen me climbing in America's understanding
that I know how to fight a smarter and more effective war" against
terrorists.
In Iraq, militants loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
kept their hold on a revered shrine as clashes flared in Najaf,
raising fears a resolution to the crisis in the holy city could
collapse amid bickering between Shiite leaders. An unofficial
mediator and distant relative of the cleric pleaded with al-Sadr to
disarm his militants, pull them out of the shrine and disband his
militia immediately.
Greek weightlifter Leonidas Sampanis was stripped of his bronze
medal and expelled from the Olympics for a doping offense, another
embarrassment for the host nation. He was the first athlete at the
Athens Games to lose his medal because of doping.
U.S. military review panels have decided not to release 10
Guantanamo Bay detainees, concluding they were properly classified
as "enemy combatants," a military official said. The decision
brought to 14 the number of cases decided by the panels, said Navy
Cmdr. Katy Wright, a spokeswoman at the Pentagon. The panels
decided to hold all 14.
8/22/04 Sunday
in Iraq, explosions and gunfire shook Najaf amid fierce battles
between U.S. forces and Shiite militants, who remained in control
of a revered shrine here as negotiations dragged on for its
handover to religious authorities. In the southern city of
Nasiriyah, U.S. journalist Micah Garen said after his release from
more a week in captivity that he hoped to stay in Iraq to continue
working on a documentary project he'd started about the looting of
archaeological sites.
Senate Intelligence Committee Republicans proposed removing the
nation's largest intelligence gathering operations from the CIA and
the Pentagon and putting them directly under a new national
intelligence director. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., the committee
chairman, unveiled the most sweeping intelligence reorganization
proposal offered by anyone since the Sept. 11 commission called for
major changes. In an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," Roberts
acknowledged that full details had yet to be shared with either the
White House or with Senate Democrats.
Democratic challenger John Kerry says President Bush is standing
silent just as he did four years ago when supporters waged a
campaign of "lies" to destroy the White House hopes of fellow
Vietnam veteran and senator John McCain. Kerry running mate John
Edwards said that Bush needs to tell a veterans group to pull its
anti-Kerry ads, a step the White House and the Bush campaign refuse
to take. McCain, R-Ariz., has said the tactics are the same kind
used on him and asked the president to denounce them.
In Norway, armed, masked thieves burst into a lightly guarded Oslo
museum and snatched the Edvard Munch masterpiece "The Scream" and a
second Munch painting from the walls as stunned visitors watched in
shock. It was the second time in a decade that a version of the
iconic "Scream," which depicts an anguished, opened-mouthed figure
grabbing the sides of its head, had been stolen from an Oslo
museum.
Russia's Irina Korzhanenko was stripped of her shot put gold medal,
the first athlete of the Athens Games to lose an Olympic title
because of doping. Korzhanenko, 30, the first woman to win a gold
medal at the sacred site of Ancient Olympia, tested positive for
the steroid stanozolol after Wednesday's competition. The backup B
sample confirmed the initial finding.
8/23/04 Monday
U.S. and Iraqi forces battled militants in Najaf and Iraqi National
Guardsmen surrounded the holy city's Imam Ali Shrine, where
insurgents loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been holed
up for weeks. However, a raid into the shrine was not imminent,
Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan told Al-Arabiya television.
President Bush criticized a commercial that accused John Kerry of
inflating his own Vietnam War record, more than a week after the ad
stopped running, and said broadcast attacks by outside groups have
no place in the race for the White House. "I think they're bad for
the system," added Bush, who had ignored calls to condemn the ad
while it was on the air.
Salim Ahmed Hamdan says he earned a pittance for his family as
Osama bin Laden's driver prior to the Sept. 11 attack. But U.S.
officials allege he did more, serving as the al-Qaida leader's
bodyguard and delivering weapons to his operatives. The
34-year-old Yemeni and Guantanamo terror suspect is to be arraigned
Tuesday before a U.S. military commission that allows for secret
evidence and no federal appeals, the first person to go before such
a tribunal since World War II.
An Army reservist charged with abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu
Ghraib prison said he will plead guilty to some offenses,
acknowledging he broke the law and saying he accepts responsibility
for his actions. The military judge in the case, meanwhile,
complained of delays in the government investigation and warned he
might dismiss charges against at least one accused soldier unless
the probes were wrapped up by the end of the year.
Several hundred union members marched outside the Labor Department
to protest new overtime pay regulations taking effect today, with
two senators pledging to try to roll them back when Congress
returns from recess. Protesters, many wearing union T-shirts,
carried signs such as "President Bush: Hands off my overtime pay,"
and chanted, "Come on all you billionaires, give us wages that are
fair."
8/24/04 Tuesday
Russian officials searched for clues as to what caused two
airliners to plunge to earth almost simultaneously, killing all 89
people aboard and raising concerns of a terrorist strike.
Officials said one of the jets sent a distress signal that may have
indicated a hijacking. Russia's main intelligence agency, however,
said it had found no evidence of terrorism in initial
investigations at the crash sites. The Federal Security Service,
or FSB, said it was investigating other possibilities such as
technical failures, the use of poor quality fuel, breaches of
fueling regulations and also pilot error, its press service said.
Inattention to prisoner issues by senior U.S. military leaders in
Iraq and at the Pentagon was a key factor in the abuse scandal at
Abu Ghraib prison, but there is no evidence they ordered any
mistreatment, an independent panel concluded. The panel's report,
the first of two expected this week looking at prisoner abuse,
directly blamed the events at Abu Ghraib on the soldiers there and
their immediate commanders.
The father of an Australian cowboy accused of fighting with
Afghanistan's ousted Taliban questioned the fairness of a U.S.
military commission panel on the eve of his son's hearing, while an
earlier hearing ended with another challenge to its impartiality.
David Hicks, 29, faced charges of conspiracy to commit war crimes,
as well as aiding the enemy and attempted murder for allegedly
firing at U.S. or coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric returned home from Britain to
help broker an end to nearly three weeks of fighting in Najaf and
is calling on his followers to join him in a march to reclaim the
holy city, his spokesmen and witnesses said. Grand Ayatollah Ali
Husseini al-Sistani return came as heavy fighting persisted in
Najaf's Old City. U.S. warplanes fired on suspected insurgent
positions, helicopters flew overhead and heavy gunfire was heard in
the streets, witnesses said.
8/25/04 Wednesday
A mortar barrage slammed into a mosque filled with Iraqis preparing
to march on the embattled city of Najaf, killing 27 people and
wounding 63, while the nation's top Shiite cleric headed to the
area in a massive convoy hoping to end three weeks of fighting.
Hours later, unidentified gunmen opened fire from an Iraqi National
Guard base on thousands of Shiite Muslim marchers heading to Najaf,
killing at least three and wounding 46, witnesses said.
The recorders extracted from the wreckage of two planes that
crashed nearly simultaneously have not revealed reliable
information on the disasters' causes, a top Russian official was
quoted as saying. Vladimir Yakovlev, the Russian president's envoy
for the southern region, where one of the planes crashed, also said
that the main theory about the catastrophe "all the same remains
terrorism," the ITAR-Tass news agency said.
Saboteurs have attacked about 20 oil pipelines in southern Iraq,
reducing exports from the key oil producing region by at least one
third, a top oil official said. The cluster of pipelines was
attacked in Berjasiya, 20 miles southwest of the southern city of
Basra, an official with the state-run South Oil Co. said on
condition of anonymity. The pipelines, which connect the Rumeila
oilfields to Berjasiya, were still ablaze, tho.
One of President Bush's top lawyers resigned from his campaign, a
day after disclosing that he had given legal advice to a veterans
group airing TV ads challenging Democrat John Kerry's Vietnam War
service. The guidance included checking ad scripts, the group
said. Benjamin Ginsberg, who also represented Bush in the 2000
Florida recount that made the Republican president, told Bush in a
letter that he felt his legal work for the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth had become a distraction for the re-election campaign.
8/26/04 Thursday
Firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters to lay
down their arms and leave Najaf and neighboring Kufa after agreeing
to a peace deal brokered by Iraq's top spiritual leader to end
three weeks of bloody fighting. Al-Sadr issued the order in a
statement to his Mahdi Army militia that also was broadcast through
loudspeakers at the revered Imam Ali Shrine, which militants have
used as a stronghold and refuge throughout their standoff with a
combined U.S.-Iraqi force.
Amid a heated election-year debate on intelligence reform, the
White House is expected to move soon on executive orders aimed at
implementing a more powerful intelligence director and a new
national counterterrorism center. Bush administration and
congressional officials said drafts of executive orders are
circulating among relevant agencies for approval. One of the
officials said the White House is floating proposed orders, and
asking for feedback by Friday. Another official said the orders
could be issued as early as Friday.
Democrats took aim at President Bush's economic record after
release of a Census Bureau report showing the ranks of the
uninsured and the impoverished grew in 2003 for the third
consecutive year while incomes stayed level. The president's
surrogates came to his defense, noting that the numbers failed to
reflect more recent economic gains, such as the addition of 1.5
million jobs over the past 12 months, or the full effect of the
Bush-backed tax cuts.
Traces of explosives have been found in the wreckage of one of two
Russian airliners that crashed nearly simultaneously earlier this
week, the Federal Security Service said, after a top official
acknowledged that terrorism was most likely behind the crashes. A
Web site known for militant Muslim comment, meanwhile, published a
claim of responsibility for downing the two planes, connecting the
action to Russia's fight against separatists in Chechnya.
8/27/04 Friday
War-weary Iraqis returned to devastated offices and shops in the
holy city of Najaf after three weeks of clashes as U.S. forces
monitored a fragile cease-fire, but violence persisted in Baghdad,
killing at least five people. Dozens of municipal workers were out
for the first time in weeks, sweeping debris off roads lined with
battle-scarred buildings from which U.S. bombs had torn huge
chunks.
In a spy investigation that could strain U.S.-Israeli relations and
muddy the Bush administration's Middle East policy, the FBI is
investigating whether a Pentagon analyst fed to Israel secret
materials about White House deliberations on Iran. No arrests have
been made, said two federal law enforcement officials, speaking on
condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation. A
third law enforcement official, also speaking anonymously, said an
arrest in the case could come as early as next week.
President Bush signed executive orders designed to strengthen the
CIA director's power over the nation's intelligence agencies and
create a national counterterrorism center, responding to
election-year pressures to enact changes called for by the Sept. 11
commission. Democratic critics questioned whether Bush's proposed
changes were too modest. Democratic presidential nominee John
Kerry said Bush had been reluctant to act and still was not doing
enough.
8/28/04 Saturday
Abortion-rights protesters and the first Republican delegates
descended on President Bush's heavily fortified convention city as
campaign officials said their boss would use the nomination
spotlight to defend his hawkish foreign polices and offer a
second-term agenda for health care, education and job training.
"He believes it's important for a candidate to talk about what he's
done and, most important, where he wants to lead," said adviser
Karen Hughes, aboard Bush's campaign bus in Ohio. "The speech is
very forward-looking. It talks about what another four years of a
Bush presidency would look like."
The FBI has spent more than a year covertly investigating,
including with the use of electronic surveillance, whether a
Pentagon analyst funneled highly classified material to Israel,
officials said. Prosecutors were still weighing whether to bring
the most serious charge of espionage. Charges could be brought in
the case as early as this week, said two federal law enforcement
officials speaking on condition of anonymity because the
investigation is ongoing. The case has taken so long in part
because of diplomatic sensitivities between the United States and
its close ally Israel, they said.
A hurricane warning was issued for the South Carolina coast as
forecasters predicted Tropical Storm Gaston would strengthen and
make landfall near Charleston on Sunday. The National Hurricane
Center posted the warning for the South Carolina coast from the
Savannah River to Little River Inlet as Gaston drifted slowly to
the northwest.
Nearly half of the relatives of victims who died in the World Trade
Center attack say the Republican National Convention should have
been held elsewhere, and about a quarter believe the GOP chose New
York "to capitalize on Sept. 11," according to a new survey. But
one out of four of those questioned said the Republican Party
brought its convention to Manhattan "to support the city" and "show
it's safe," according to a survey of victims' relatives conducted
by The New York Times.
8/29/04 Sunday
Republicans marshaled their forces to bolster President Bush's
image as a strong leader in treacherous times as they open their
national convention in the city that felt the brunt of the worst
terrorist attacks in U.S. history. The Republican National
Convention was convening, when more than 100,000 people protesting
Bush's Iraq and domestic policies swarmed past Madison Square
Garden, where the president will accept the party's nomination for
a second term on Thursday.
Insurgent attacks on pipelines have brought oil exports from
southern Iraq to a complete halt, a senior oil official said, part
of a rebel campaign to undermine the nation's post-war
reconstruction efforts. In Baghdad, military officials and
representatives of rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr held talks
aimed at reducing violence in the restive Baghdad slum of Sadr
City. Clashes there killed 10 people on Saturday, officials said.
Stinging rain and howling winds lashed South Carolina after a
second powerful storm hit the state in a month, though residents
apparently weathered it well. Though Tropical Storm Gaston knocked
out power to thousands, officials said there was only one initial
report of a serious injury - a Charleston County resident injured
when a tree fell on a home.
The Russian government's choice for president of war-battered
Chechnya easily won an election that came in the wake of last
week's terrorist destruction of two airliners, the ITAR-Tass news
agency cited election officials as saying. Alu Alkhanov, the
republic's top police official, replaces Kremlin-backed president
Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in a bomb attack in May.
Little things meant a lot in Athens: a tear from Mia Hamm's eye, or
a smile across Jennie Finch's mouth, was as good as gold. A pair of
abandoned wrestling shoes, size 13, signaled goodbye for Rulon
Gardner. A track baton, about a foot long, turned to kryptonite as
the U.S. women's 400-meter relay team fumbled the last medal hopes
of Sydney superwoman Marion Jones. These snapshots make up the
bigger picture in Athens: 17 days of emotion and excitement in the
birthplace of the games, 108 years after the first modern Olympiad
in the same Mediterranean city. Athletes followed the ancient
footsteps of a doomed distance runner from Marathon, or collected
medals in arenas long reserved for Olympic ghosts. The rather
lengthly Olympic games of 2004 were finally done and over.
8/30/04 Monday
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented a detailed timetable for a
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip to his Likud Party, and warned party
rebels that the plan "will be implemented, period." Sharon said
that on Sept. 14, he would seek Cabinet approval for initial
compensation payments to Jewish settlers willing to leave
voluntarily. Sharon aides hope that the payments will encourage a
large number of settlers to leave.
Republicans belittled Democratic Sen. John Kerry as a
shift-in-the-wind campaigner unworthy of the White House, opening
their national convention four miles from Ground Zero of America's
worst terrorist attack. "We need George Bush more than ever," said
former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. "We need a leader with
the experience to make the tough decisions and the resolve to stick
with them," added Arizona Sen. John McCain on a night that
repeatedly stirred painful memories of the terrorism acts of 2001.
Already a box office sensation, filmmaker Michael Moore got another
loud reception the Republican convention. This time, it was boos.
When Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told the delegates about "a
disingenuous film maker who would have us believe that Saddam's
Iraq was an oasis of peace," they knew he was referring to the
maker of "Fahrenheit 9-11." The film, which savages Bush's Iraq
policy, has set a box office record for documentaries, grossing
$115 million so far.
Republicans are turning to conditions at home after saluting
President Bush as a wartime president whose leadership is "rock
solid." California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gets star billing on
the second day of the party's convention as the GOP extends its
outreach to moderate Democrats and independents.
Rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on his followers to end their
uprising against U.S. and Iraqi forces while he considers forming a
political movement, senior al-Sadr officials said. Al-Sadr has
backed off other commitments in the past, but a truce would be a
major victory for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi by removing a
serious insurgency and potentially bringing many of the Shiite
cleric's followers into the effort to build a peaceful democracy.
8/31/04 Tuesday
More than a dozen attackers carrying guns and reportedly wrapped in
suicide-bomb belts seized an elementary school in the Russian
region of North Ossetia and were holding hundreds of hostages,
including some 200 children. The seizure took place on the first
day of the Russian school year, just after a ceremony marking the
start of classes. The attackers drove up in a covered truck of a
type often used for troop transport.
The Justice Department is asking a judge to throw out the
convictions of a suspected terror cell in Detroit because of
prosecutorial misconduct, a dramatic setback for the
administration's war on terror on the eve of President Bush's
re-election pitch at the GOP convention. In a late night court
filing, the department told U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen it
supports the Detroit defendants' request for a new trial and would
no longer pursue terrorism charges against them. The defendants at
most would only face fraud charges at a new trial.
Vice President Dick Cheney was stepping up to denounce Democrat
John Kerry's "confusion of conviction" after President Bush
formally won the Republican nomination for a second term in a
carefully choreographed GOP convention roll call. The second day
of the convention brought out thousands of protesters who set out
on a march to the convention site, getting in the way of a busload
of delegates and engaging in shouting matches with officers around
Manhattan. Nearly 1,000 protesters were arrested, and on at least
two occasions, police snared unruly protesters with orange plastic
netting.
Israeli troops closed off a West Bank city and Palestinian
militants celebrated after Hamas blew up two buses, seconds apart,
in the desert town of Beersheba, killing 16 Israelis and ending a
months-long lull in suicide attacks. The twin bombings shattered
hopes in Israel that the period of suicide attacks - more than 100
in four years - was over. "The nightmare is back," read the main
headline in the Yediot Ahronot daily, above a photo of a burning
bus.
In historic Richmond, Va., giant sections were taken out of roads
where the earth had given way to rushing water beneath the
concrete. An intersection disappeared into a 30-foot sinkhole,
with cars, twisted pieces of fencing and part of a front yard lying
at the bottom. Five people were dead, while others were left
carless, homeless and jobless. As residents and business owners
realized the damage caused by Tropical Storm Gaston, cleanup in the
city's Shockoe Bottom district continued.
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