9/ 1/04 Wednesday
The sexual assault charge against Kobe Bryant has been dropped, but
his accuser - whose reluctance to participate derailed the criminal
trial before it ever really got started - isn't letting the NBA
star off the hook just yet. With jury selection under way, the
criminal case was dropped in the late P.M. by prosecutors who said
the 20-year-old woman accusing Bryant of rape had decided not to
participate. She dropped out following a series of gaffes that led
to the public disclosure of her name and other personal details,
and prosecutors said they would not carry on without her testimony.
Militants released seven foreign hostages after their employer paid
$500,000 ransom, while France mustered support from Muslims at home
and abroad to push for the release of two French journalists still
held captive in Iraq. The U.S. military, meanwhile, said a U.S.
airstrike hit a suspected safehouse used by followers of Jordanian
militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Fallujah. Witnesses said 17
people, including three children, were killed and six injured.
Nearly a half-million people were ordered to evacuate as Hurricane
Frances swirled toward Florida just weeks after Charley's
devastating visit, threatening to deliver the most powerful one-two
punch to hit a state in at least a century. Those planning to ride
out the storm snapped up canned food, water and generators, while
military helicopters and planes were flown out of the area and Cape
Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center said it would close on Thursday.
States of emergency were declared in both Georgia and Florida.
President Bush was reaching out to Americans to keep him on the
job, recalling the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks "when one era
ended and another began," and offering himself as a resolute
wartime commander in chief with ambitious plans for a second term.
The four-day Republican National Convention will come to a close
Thursday with a speech by Bush that will touch off a two-month dash
to the finish line in a nation that seems as closely divided now as
it was four years ago.
In Russia, a respected pediatrician negotiated through the night to
end a standoff with militants who threatened to blow up a school
they seized 24 hours before with about 350 hostages, including
children, trapped inside. Crowds of distraught relatives and
townspeople waited helplessly for news of their loved ones as the
crisis entered its second day with no sign of a resolution. Their
distress was sharpened by the sporadic rattle of gunfire from the
cordoned-off site.
9/ 2/04 Thursday
President Bush pledged "a safer world and a more hopeful America"
as he accepted his party's nomination for a second term in office
and plunged into the final two months of his re-election campaign.
He promptly drew fire from challenger John Kerry that he was "unfit
to lead this country." In the city that transformed his presidency
three Septembers ago, Bush declared to a raucous GOP convention
crowd: "We have fought the terrorists across the earth - not for
pride, not for power, but because the lives of our citizens are at
stake. ... We have led, many have joined, and America and the world
are safer."
President Bush picked apart John Kerry's record on the Iraq war and
tax cuts and summoned the nation toward victory over terrorism and
economic security at home. "Nothing will hold us back," he said in
a Republican National Convention acceptance speech that launched
his fall re-election campaign. "We are staying on the offensive -
striking terrorists abroad - so we do not have to face them here at
home," Bush said in a prime-time address.
In a scathing attack, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry
accused Republicans of hiding President Bush's "record of failure"
behind insults and promised a new direction for the country under a
Kerry-Edwards administration. Kerry, speaking to a midnight rally
as Bush closed the GOP convention in New York with his acceptance
speech, said the president was "unfit to lead this nation" because
of the war in Iraq and his record on jobs, health care and energy
prices.
Residents and tourists in cars, trucks and campers clogged highways
in the biggest evacuation ever ordered in Florida, fleeing inland
as mighty Hurricane Frances threatened the state with its second
battering in three weeks. About 2.5 million residents were told to
clear out ahead of what could be the most powerful storm to hit
Florida in a decade. Other people in the 300-mile stretch covered
by the hurricane warning rushed to fortify their homes with plywood
and storm shutters and waited in line, sometimes impatiently, for
water, canned food and gas.
Camouflage-clad commandos carried crying babies away from a school
where gunmen holding hundreds of hostages freed at least 26 women
and children during a second day of high drama that kept crowds of
distraught relatives on edge. Two new accounts emerged, meanwhile,
that the militants were holding at least 1,000 children, teachers
and parents inside the school, far more than previously thought, a
released hostage and a regional official said. Russian officials
had said that about 350 people were being held by raiders who
seized the school in the North Ossetian city of Beslan on
Wednesday. But a teacher, who was among at least 26 women and
children released, disputed that.
Heavy gunfire broke out at a school where militants were holding
hundreds of people hostage, after three powerful explosions hit the
area and about 30 hostages fled. The Interfax news agency said
Russian commandos had stormed the school. Soldiers shepherded
children away, several of them wounded and on stretchers. Many of
the children were only partly clothed because of the stifling heat
in the gymnasium where they had been held since the militants took
the building Wednesday.
9/ 3/04 Friday
Medicare premiums for doctor visits are going up a record $11.60 a
month next year. The Bush administration says the increase
reflects a strengthened Medicare, while Democrats complain that
seniors are being unfairly socked. Monthly payments for Part B of
the government health care program for older and disabled Americans
- doctor visits and most other non-hospital expenses - will jump to
$78.20 from $66.60, a 17 percent increase, the administration said.
Hurricane Frances lost some steam and hesitated off the Florida
coast, prolonging the anxiety among the millions evacuated and
raising fears of a slow, ruinous drenching over the Labor Day
weekend. Downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane, the storm was
expected to come ashore with up to 20 inches of rain as early as
Saturday afternoon, nearly a day later than earlier predictions.
For the 2.5 million residents told to clear out - the biggest
evacuation in Florida history - it was to prepare for the worst
after a dragged-out process of stocking up on canned goods and
water, putting plywood sheets over windows and finding shelter.
The three-day hostage siege at a school in southern Russia ended in
chaos and bloodshed, after witnesses said Chechen militants set off
bombs and Russian commandos stormed the building. Hostages fled in
terror, many of them children who were half-naked and covered in
blood. Officials said the toll was at least 250. Early Saturday,
531 people remained hospitalized, including 283 children - 92 of
the youngsters in "very grave" condition, health officials said.
Two former Vietnam prisoners of war who appear in ads attacking
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry were appointed by the
Bush administration to a panel advising the Department of Veterans
Affairs. The former POWs in the ad, Kenneth Cordier and Paul
Galanti, serve on the VA's 12-member Former POW Advisory
Committee. VA Secretary Anthony Principi appointed Cordier in 2002
and Galanti in 2003. Cordier said the VA panel has nothing to do
with the Bush campaign or the attack ads.
Bill Clinton said he was "a little scared, but not much" of
undergoing heart bypass surgery, but was looking forward to a swift
recovery and resuming normal activities such as jogging. The
former president was hospitalized with chest pains and shortness of
breath. The upcoming operation could limit his role in campaigning
for fellow Democrat John Kerry, who is making a run for the White
House.
Employers stepped up hiring in August, expanding payrolls by
144,000 and lowering the unemployment rate marginally to 5.4
percent. While the figures didn't amount to a national job fair,
analysts said, they did hold out the promise of stronger growth
following the summer lull. The latest snapshot of the employment
climate, contained in a Labor Department report, came just about
two months before the country votes for a president.
9/ 4/04 Saturday
President Bush and John Kerry battled over the economy and jobs in
a small corner of the campaign's most fiercely contested state as
polls showed a post-convention surge for the Republican in the
White House. Late today, Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of the
Democratic presidential candidate, was taken to a hospital in Mason
City, Iowa, after complaining of an upset stomach, a spokeswoman
said. She was taken to Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa by
ambulance from the airport.
The opinion polls are looking so bleak for Kerry that the
prediction is for Bush to be the 2005 president. All along, the
american public seems to have had a "don't change horses in the
middle of the stream" concept to go by.
Former President Bill Clinton was in good spirits, walking around
his hospital room in street clothes and buoyed by thousands of
get-well messages as he awaited heart bypass surgery early this
coming week, people close to the family said. Clinton was expected
to undergo surgery as early as Monday but probably Tuesday, said
Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who said the former
president was "upbeat" when he spoke to him by phone Friday.
A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside an Iraqi police
academy as hundreds of trainees and civilians were leaving for the
day, killing 20 people and wounding 36 others in the latest attack
designed to thwart U.S-backed efforts to build a strong Iraqi
security force ahead of January elections. U.S and Iraqi forces,
meanwhile, launched an operation in another northern town, Tal
Afar, to flush out a militant cell allegedly smuggling men and arms
in from Syria.
Hurricane Frances crashed ashore at Florida's east coast with
sustained wind of 105 mph and pelting rain, knocking out power to 2
million people and forcing Floridians to endure a frightening night
amid roaring gales that shredded roofs and uprooted trees. The
National Hurricane Center said the eye of the hurricane officially
made landfall near Sewall's Point, just east of Stuart - about 40
miles north of West Palm Beach - at about 1 a.m. Sunday, EDT.
Wails of mourning echoed through the streets of the southern
Russian town, and the region's top police officer reportedly
resigned in the wake of the school hostage-taking that left more
than 350 people dead - nearly half of them children. A shaken
President Vladimir Putin went on national television to make a rare
and candid admission of Russian weakness in the face of an "all-out
war" by terrorists. He said Russians must mobilize against
terrorism.
9/ 5/04 Sunday
Weakened but persistent, Tropical Storm Frances took aim at the
Florida Panhandle after leaving behind flooding and torn rooftops
throughout a wide swath of central and southern Florida. More than
5 million people lost power and at least two people were killed.
More than 13 inches of rain fell along Florida's central east
coast, flooding some areas 4 feet deep, before Frances entered the
Gulf of Mexico in the late P.M. In its wake, the storm left boats
mangled, trees and power lines toppled and gas tanks running on
empty because of tapped out service stations.
A well-wisher from Chicago hoped he would have a speedy recovery..
An admirer who had just read his autobiography felt it was like
having a friend in the hospital. A fan in Omaha warned about
staying away from junk food. Thousands of get-well messages poured
in from around the world as former President Bill Clinton prepared
to undergo heart bypass surgery, a routine procedure that doctors
say he should recover from within a month or two.
Iraqi authorities struggled to clear up confusion over whether the
most wanted member of Saddam Hussein's ousted dictatorship had been
nabbed in a shootout north of Baghdad. Also, a car bomb exploded
on the outskirts of Fallujah and there were reports of U.S.
casualties, a U.S. military official said on condition of
anonymity.
A numb Russia observed the first national day of mourning for the
more than 350 victims of the terrorist school seizure, while
foreign planes delivered medical supplies to this grief-stricken
southern region neighboring Chechnya. In Beslan, townspeople
crowded around the coffins of children, parents, grandparents and
teachers ahead of the 120 burials scheduled in the town cemetery
and adjoining fields.
The presidential candidates and their running mates fanned out
across the Midwest with Labor Day messages promising job creation,
appealing for votes in the territory pivotal to winning November's
election. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were
heading to three states between them; Democratic candidate John
Kerry and running mate John Edwards were venturing to six. Cheney
and Edwards set campaign courses and cross paths in St. Paul, Minn.
9/ 6/04 Monday
U.S. forces battled insurgents loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City, in clashes that left at
least 34 people dead, including one American soldier, and 193
people injured, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said. In a different
part of the Iraqi capital, a roadside bomb explosion targeted the
Baghdad governor's convoy, killing two people but leaving him
uninjured, the Interior Ministry said. Three of Gov. Ali
al-Haidri's bodyguards were also hurt in the attack in the western
neighborhood of Hay al-Adel.
Frances completed its two-day assault on Florida, leaving
storm-weary residents with flooding, frayed nerves and long lines
for everyday items such as gas, ice and water. At least 10 deaths
were blamed on the storm in Florida and Georgia. About 3 million
people had no power in Florida and more than 40,000 more were
without electricity in Georgia because of winds that downed trees,
limbs and power lines. Schools in 56 Georgia counties were closed.
Former President Bill Clinton was recovering after a quadruple
heart bypass operation to relieve arteries so severely clogged that
they posed imminent danger of a major heart attack. His heart
disease was extensive, with blockages in some arteries "well over
90 percent," said Dr. Craig R. Smith, the surgeon who led the
four-hour operation at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia.
Hitting President Bush on the issues of jobs and the war in Iraq,
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is moving aggressively
in the face of polls showing his candidacy lagging. Campaigning in
North Carolina, a state hurt by job losses, Kerry says he would end
tax breaks for companies that outsource overseas.
9/ 7/04 Tuesday
A spate of attacks including a suicide car bombing pushed the
number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq campaign past 1,000,
with the majority inflicted by an insurgency that bloomed after
President Bush declared major combat over. Early today, at least
two people were killed by explosions that rocked the Sunni
insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, hospital officials and witnesses
said. Witnesses said U.S. warplanes swooped low over the city
several times before dawn. Fighting with Sunni and Shiite
insurgents killed eight Americans in the Baghdad area, pushing the
count to 1,003. That number includes 1,000 U.S. troops and three
civilians, two working for the U.S. Army and one for the Air
Force. The tally was compiled by The Associated Press based on
Pentagon records and AP reporting from Iraq.
Hurricane Ivan, the latest in a series of punishing storms to hit
the Caribbean this year, smashed into Grenada with "hellacious
winds" that reduced concrete homes to rubble and sent the island's
red zinc roofs fluttering through the air. Ivan also damaged homes
in Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent. It was dubbed the most
powerful storm to hit the Caribbean in 10 years, just days after
Hurricane Frances rampaged through and went on to cause massive
damage in Florida.
The federal deficit will swell to a record $422 billion this
election year but fall short of even more dire forecasts, Congress'
top budget analysts projected in a report that became instant
fodder for both political parties. The nonpartisan Congressional
Budget Office said the shortfall would shrink to $348 billion next
year - still the third worst ever in dollar terms. Last year's
$375 billion gap was the previous record.
Thousands of residents desperate to return home after fleeing
Hurricane Frances ignored Florida's plea to stay put, jamming
highways, delaying emergency workers and causing tempers to flare
in the sticky heat. One man was so desperate for ice that he shot
the lock off a freezer. Fights broke out in some places. Drivers
waited for hours to fill up their gas tanks. More than 1,000 cars
coiled around several blocks in Stuart, being used as a
distribution center.
Breathing on his own and sipping liquids, former President Bill
Clinton continued to make what doctors called a satisfactory
recovery after undergoing a heart operation to bypass four severely
clogged arteries. Clinton was "resting comfortably" in intensive
care at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia, "awake and alert
and talking with his family," according to a statement by his
office. He was taken off his respirator Monday night.
9/ 8/04 Wednesday
U.S. jets pounded insurgent positions in Fallujah for a third
straight day, killing at least five people in the Sunni city
dominated by militants about 30 miles west of Baghdad, officials
said. Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi security forces launched attacks
to flush out insurgents in northern Iraq, killing 12 people, the
military and Iraqi officials said. The operations are intended to
restore interim government control in Tal Afar.
Newly unearthed memos state George W. Bush was suspended from
flying for the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war
because he failed to meet Guard standards and failed to take his
annual flight physical as required. The suspension came as Bush
was trying to arrange a transfer to non-flying status with a unit
in Alabama so he could work on a political campaign there. A memo
written a year later referred to one military official "pushing to
sugar coat" Bush's annual evaluation.
Democrat John Kerry sought to link the Iraq war to U.S. economic
woes on, calling President Bush's move against Baghdad a
"catastrophic choice" that so far has drained $200 billion in
needed resources at home. At the same time, Democrats intensified
their criticism of Vice President Dick Cheney for suggesting a
Kerry victory could provoke another terrorist attack on the United
States. "It's wrong and it's un-American," said Kerry running mate
John Edwards.
Hurricane Ivan pummeled Grenada, Barbados and other islands with
its devastating winds and rains, causing at least 15 deaths, before
setting a direct course for Jamaica, Cuba and the hurricane-weary
southern United States. The most powerful hurricane to hit the
Caribbean in 10 years damaged 90 percent of the homes in the "spice
isle" of Grenada and destroyed a 17th century stone prison that
left criminals on the loose as looting erupted, officials said.
Scientists with tweezers picked through the twisted wreckage of a
space capsule that crash-landed on Earth, hoping that microscopic
clues to the evolution of the solar system weren't completely lost
in Utah's salt flats. NASA engineers were stunned when neither
parachute deployed aboard the Genesis capsule and the craft
plummeted to the ground at 193 mph, breaking open like a clamshell
and exposing its collection of solar atoms to contamination.
9/ 9/04 Thursday
Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terror group linked to
al-Qaida, purportedly claimed responsibility for a deadly car bomb
attack outside the Australian Embassy in Indonesia, saying it was
punishing Australia for supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Indonesian investigators, meanwhile, said that they believed the
car bombing was a suicide attack, and were investigating if three
of the nine people who died were the bombers.
American warplanes struck militant positions in two insurgent
controlled cities and U.S. and Iraqi troops quietly took control of
a third in a sweeping crackdown following a spike in attacks
against U.S. forces. More than 60 people were reported killed,
most of them in Tal Afar, one of several cities which American
officials acknowledged this week had fallen under insurgent control
and become "no-go" zones.
George W. Bush began flying a two-seat training jet more frequently
and twice required multiple attempts to land a one-seat fighter in
the weeks just before he quit flying for the Texas Air National
Guard in 1972, his pilot logs show. The logs show Bush flew nine
times in T-33 trainers in February and March 1972, including eight
times in one week and four of those only as a co-pilot. Bush, then
a first lieutenant, flew in T-33s only twice in the previous six
months and three times in the year ending July 31, 1971.
Tourists and residents throughout the Florida Keys were sent
packing to avoid the wrath of Hurricane Ivan, even as millions of
disaster-stricken residents struggled to pick up the pieces from
Hurricanes Frances and Charley. Forecasters said Ivan - which
weakened slightly to near 145 mph - could reach the island chain as
early as Sunday, making it the third hurricane to strike Florida in
a month.
Before Florida could catch a breath from a furious hurricane
double-whammy, residents of the Keys were sent scurrying under new
evacuation orders as yet another powerful storm was taking aim at
the state. In South Florida, long lines reappeared at gas stations
while shoppers snapped up hurricane supplies at home building
stores and supermarkets in preparation for the possibility of a
third strike in a month - this time by Hurricane Ivan, which
forecasters said could slam Florida's narrow island chain as early
as Monday. The state has not been hit by three hurricanes in a
single season since 1964.
9/10/04 Friday
Hurricane Ivan slammed coastal areas of Jamaica with waves
two-stories high and torrential rains, but the mighty storm shifted
tack and may now spare the island the worst of its fury. The death
toll elsewhere in the Caribbean rose to 37. Ivan's winds
approached the 155 mph marker that would make it a Category 5, the
most powerful of storms, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in
Miami said. But as it approached Jamaica, the storm wobbled
slightly and lurched west, possibly sparing the island the worst of
its fury. The change in course could be good news for hurricane
weary Florida, since Ivan may now head off into the Gulf of
Mexico. Forecasters warned it could still move back to its
predicted course and hit the state.
President Bush has a slight lead over Democrat John Kerry in an
Associated Press poll, but the president has a big advantage on
protecting the country - the issue voters say they care about
most. "If we don't take care of the terrorists, we certainly won't
have to worry about the economy," said Janet Cross, 57, of
Portsmouth, Ohio, who switched from Democrat to Republican for the
last election. Seven weeks before Election Day, Bush is considered
significantly more decisive.
CBS News mounted an aggressive defense of its report about
President Bush's service in the Air National Guard, with anchor Dan
Rather saying broadcast memos questioned by forensic experts came
from "what we consider to be solid sources." On the "CBS Evening
News," Rather said that "no definitive evidence" has emerged to
prove the documents are forgeries. "If any definitive evidence
comes up, we will report it," Rather said.
Former President Bill Clinton left the hospital and returned home,
four days after undergoing heart bypass surgery, his office said.
Clinton arrived early in the evening at his home in the New York
suburb of Chappaqua, according to his spokesman, Jim Kennedy. "The
President is in good spirits and has taken short walks in the
hospital hallway and in his home today," Kennedy said in a prepared
statement.
As former President Bill Clinton checked out of the hospital where
he had bypass surgery, people across the nation were rushing to
hospitals, seeking to have their own hearts checked out. Many
places around the country are seeing cases of "Clinton syndrome" -
worried, middle-aged men wanting tests for chest pain and other
possible heart disease symptoms.
9/11/04 Saturday
Hurricane Ivan strengthened to a rare Category 5 storm capable of
catastrophic damage, leaving Jamaica and aiming for the Cayman
Islands with winds reaching 165 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane
Center said. Ivan has killed 56 people across the Caribbean so far
this week, including 34 in Grenada and 11 in Jamaica. Millions
more people are in its path, with Ivan projected to go between the
Cayman Islands, make a direct hit on Cuba and move in some NW
direction.
On Key West, Fla., streets, bars, hotels and shops in the normally
bustling island resort were mostly empty, even as officials in the
Florida Keys said they were "cautiously optimistic" Hurricane Ivan
might spare the island chain its worst punishment.
Their voices breaking, parents and grandparents of those lost on
Sept. 11 stood at the World Trade Center site and marked the third
anniversary of the attacks by reciting the names of the 2,749
people who died there. The list took more than three hours,
punctuated by tearful dedications when the readers reached the
names of their own lost loved ones. "We miss you very much, we
love you very much, and we'll never forget you because you're in
our hearts forever," said one.
Strong explosions shook central Baghdad early, and fighting erupted
on a major street in the heart of the city near the U.S.-guarded
Green Zone. Five civilians died and 48 were injured in the
violence, Iraqi officials said. In western Baghdad, a car bomb
killed two Iraqi police officers on patrol, the Interior Ministry
said. Insurgents have regularly attacked police because they are
seen as being collaborators with American troops.
A large explosion occurred in the northern part of North Korea,
sending a huge column of smoke into the air on an important
anniversary of the communist regime, a South Korean news agency
reported. The South Korean government said it was trying to
confirm the report of an explosion at 11 a.m. on Thursday in
Yanggang province near the border with China. The Yonhap news
agency carried conflicting reports from unidentified sources.
9/12/04 Sunday
Insurgents hammered central Baghdad on with one of their most
intense mortar and rocket barrages ever in the heart of the
capital, heralding a day of violence that killed nearly 60 people
nationwide as security appeared to spiral out of control. A series
of explosions rocked the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah and
clouds of smoke rose into the sky, witnesses said. Witnesses said
U.S. warplanes swooped low over the city.
A suspected arson fire raced through an apartment complex in
suburban Columbus, Ohio, killing 10 people who lived in the same
apartment and forcing others to jump from third-story windows to
escape. At least 53 people were left homeless by the blaze in
Prairie Township, which destroyed the building's roof and third
floor, melted siding and left its wooden skeleton exposed. Antonio
Noriega said firefighters pulled him from a ladder as he tried to
rescue his brothers.
Hurricane Ivan battered the Cayman Islands with ferocious 150-mph
winds, flooding homes, ripping off roofs and toppling trees three
stories tall as its powerful eye thundered past. It then
strengthened to Category 5 as it moved on course for Cuba. Ivan
has killed at least 65 people across the Caribbean and was expected
to strike western Cuba, where residents have dubbed the storm "Ivan
the Terrible."
The only whooshing sound Hurricane Ivan stirred in the Keys and
populous South Florida was a sigh of relief from residents no
longer fearful the 160-mph storm would make a direct hit. But even
as Ivan veered west on a course that would take it away from the
120-mile island chain and Florida's east coast, forecasters warned
that the state, already slammed by two powerful hurricanes in a
month, was not out of the woods yet.
A huge mushroom cloud that reportedly billowed up from North Korea
was not caused by a nuclear explosion, South Korean and U.S.
officials said, but they said the cause was a mystery. Secretary
of State Colin Powell confirmed that unusual activity had recently
been detected at some of North Korea's atomic sites, but said there
was no concrete evidence the North's secretive communist regime was
preparing for its first nuclear test explosion.
North Korea said that the large explosion near its border with
China several days ago was a "deliberate detonation of a mountain"
as part of a hydroelectric project, the BBC reported. The
reclusive communist regime responded to a request for information
from British Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell, who is visiting
Pyongyang, the British Broadcasting Corp. quoted Rammell as saying.
US Airways Group Inc., the nation's seventh largest airline, filed
for bankruptcy protection for the second time in two years. The
company's president vowed to continue restructuring the airline
into a low-cost carrier during the bankruptcy process. "We have
come too far and accomplished too much to simply stop the process
and not succeed," said Bruce Lakefield, US Airways' president and
chief executive.
9/13/04 Monday
Whipping winds and walloping waves lashed western Cuba and the
communist country's tobacco-growing region, as Hurricane Ivan
strengthened to a Category 5 storm - the most powerful - and
barreled along on a new course toward the U.S. Gulf Coast. The
wall of Hurricane Ivan's eye brushed the tip of Cuba at about 6:45
p.m. as it moved through the Yucatan Channel on its way to the Gulf
of Mexico, the island's top meteorologist reported.
Hurricane Ivan slammed into Cuba's sparsely populated western tip
with the worst of its 160-mph eyewall, growing to a storm of
catastrophic strength after it smashed giant waves onto Grand
Cayman island and readied to strike the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. oil
interests. Ivan, one of the fiercest storms ever recorded in the
region, smashed away part of a hotel on Cayman's famed Seven Mile
Beach, seen in the fly-over of an AP-chartered aircraft over the
island.
Apprehensive coastal residents from Florida's Panhandle to
Louisiana prepared to flee from massive Hurricane Ivan, which has
entered the Gulf of Mexico and is on a collision course with the
Gulf Coast. Five Florida counties urged or, in some cases, ordered
residents to leave, as Ivan spun out of the Caribbean, where it cut
a deadly swath through Grenada, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and
Cuba.
Sen. John Kerry sought to make President Bush pay a political price
for the expiration of a partial assault weapons ban, but other
Democrats reacted warily on an issue that has hurt the party in
recent elections. "George Bush made a choice today. He chose his
powerful friends in the gun lobby over the police officers and the
families he promised to protect," the Democratic presidential
candidate said a few hours after the end of a decade-old ban on 19
types of military rifles.
In Iraq, U.S. warplanes unleashed devastating airstrikes on a
suspected hideout where operatives from an al-Qaida-linked group
were meeting, and hospital officials said 20 people died. One
strike hit an ambulance as it sped away with wounded, a hospital
official said; the U.S. military said innocent lives were spared.
9/14/04 Tuesday
An electoral battlefield map half its original size is prompting
President Bush and challenger John Kerry to alter their campaign
strategies and reallocate resources in the home stretch to the Nov.
2 election. Both political parties now see as few as 10 states as
truly competitive as Bush pulls ahead in places where the contest
had been neck and neck, including Missouri, Wisconsin and Ohio.
Bush has opened a single-digit lead in national polls taken after
the Republican convention.
Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee are mum or undecided
about whether they will support President Bush's nominee to head
the CIA, saying they're still concerned about his independence and
objectivity. During a 4 1/2-hour confirmation hearing for former
House Intelligence Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., the panel's
Democrats appeared most concerned about his Republican background
and recent politically charged comments.
More than 1.2 million people in metropolitan New Orleans were
warned to get out as 140-mph Hurricane Ivan churned toward the Gulf
Coast, threatening to submerge this below-sea-level city in what
could be the most disastrous storm to hit in nearly 40 years..
Residents streamed inland in bumper-to-bumper traffic in an
agonizingly slow exodus amid dire warnings that Ivan could
overwhelm New Orleans with up to 20 feet of filthy,
chemical-polluted water.
Guerrillas bombed a Baghdad shopping street full of police recruits
and fired on a police van north of the capital in attacks that
killed at least 59 people and struck at the heart of the U.S.
strategy for fighting Iraq's escalating insurgency. The car
bombing and shooting - the latest in violence that has killed
nearly 150 people in three days - were part of an increasingly
brazen and coordinated campaign to bring the battle to Baghdad.
9/15/04 Wednesday
In a bid to "reclaim my good life" and rid her company of a cloud
of scandal, Martha Stewart plans to surrender within weeks to begin
serving her five-month prison sentence. Stewart, at a
choreographed news conference before a brilliant array of color
swatches, said she will continue to appeal her conviction - but
will head for prison anyway to end what she called a personal
nightmare. "I must reclaim my good life," the 63-year-old
millionaire businesswoman declared. "
Hurricane Ivan and its 135-mph winds churned toward the historic
port city of Mobile, Ala., with frightening intensity as the storm
began its assault on the Gulf Coast, lashing the region with heavy
rain and ferocious wind, spawning monster waves that toppled beach
houses and spinning off deadly tornadoes. The storm was expected
to make landfall early Thursday between Gulf Shores and Orange
Beach, and could swamp the coastline with a 16-foot storm surge and
up to 15 inches of rain.
Hurricane Ivan slammed ashore early Thursday AM, with winds of 130
mph, packing deadly tornadoes and a powerful punch of waves and
rain that threatened to swamp communities from Louisiana to the
Florida Panhandle. For the millions of Gulf Coast residents who
were spending a frightening night in shelters and boarded-up homes,
the worst could be yet to come: up to 15 inches of rain and a storm
surge of up to 16 feet.
Gunmen kidnapped two Americans and a Briton from a house in the
heart of the Iraqi capital, the Interior Ministry and witnesses
said. The three were seized from a two-story house surrounded by a
wall in Baghdad's al-Mansour neighborhood at dawn, said Col. Adnan
Abdel-Rahman, a ministry official. Rahman had initially said the
three were all British nationals. He said they were employed by
Gulf Services Company, a Middle East-based construction firm.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, trying to recover
from a brass-knuckles campaign against his character, is attempting
to steer the election to a referendum on President Bush's
leadership. Kerry has less than seven weeks to take over the lead
in the presidential race. Democrats hope a major shift will come
from the debates, but his strategy in the meantime is based less on
building himself up than on tearing down the president.
The National Intelligence Council presented President Bush this
summer with several pessimistic scenarios regarding the security
situation in Iraq, including the possibility of a civil war there
before the end of 2005. In a highly classified National
Intelligence Estimate, the council looked at the political,
economic and security situation in the war-torn country and
determined that - at best - stability in Iraq would be tenuous, a
U.S. official said late today, speaking on the condition of
anonymity.
9/16/04 Thursday
President Bush has a double-digit lead in one new national poll,
but he's tied with Democrat John Kerry in another. Both campaigns
say their own polling has the race close, with Bush's people seeing
a slight lead for the president. Kerry and Bush are tied in a Pew
Research Center poll taken Sept. 11-14, after Bush was up by 12
points or more from a Pew sample taken Sept. 8-10. A Gallup poll
being released has Bush up 54 percent to 40 in a three-way matchup.
Hurricane Jeanne plowed into the Dominican Republic, killing a baby
and forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. The storm
unleashed floods and left two dead a day earlier in Puerto Rico.
Jeanne made landfall at the island's evacuated eastern tip and
weakened to a tropical storm as it raked the north coast. But it
was expected to regain hurricane strength and likely head for the
Bahamas and then Florida, Georgia or the Carolinas.
Fallen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein did not have stockpiles of
weapons of mass destruction, but left signs that he had idle
programs he someday hoped to revive, the top U.S. weapons inspector
in Iraq concludes in a draft report due out soon. According to
people familiar with the 1,500-page report, the head of the Iraq
Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, will find that Saddam was importing
banned materials, working on unmanned aerial vehicles in violation
of U.N. agreements and maintaining a dual-use industrial sector
that could produce weapons.
Hurricane Ivan was the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States
since Floyd in 1999, but it could have been worse. It spared New
Orleans and left millions feeling lucky in Louisiana, Mississippi
and Alabama. But storm-battered Florida was less fortunate. Ivan
flattened homes, swamped streets and spun off at least a dozen
tornadoes in the Panhandle. In all, the hurricane killed 70 people
in the Caribbean and at least 23 along the Gulf Coast, most of them
in Florida.
9/17/04 Friday
A U.N. Security Council vote on whether to threaten sanctions
against Sudan hinged on China and other opponents who fear that the
specter of punishment could ruin efforts to end a crisis that has
killed more than 50,000 and spawned 1.2 million refugees. The
United States submitted a final draft with final changes, making
minor changes in a bid to win support from China and other
opponents including Russia.
A suicide car bomber slammed into a line of police cars sealing off
a Baghdad neighborhood as American troops rounded up dozens of
suspected militants, capping a day of violence across Iraq that
left at least 52 dead. Among the 63 suspects arrested were
Syrians, Sudanese and Egyptians, officials said. Coalition forces
say foreign fighters are playing a major role in the insurgency.
The car bombing, which killed three people and wounded 23, was the
second this week.
The violent remains of Hurricane Ivan pounded a large swath of the
eastern United States, drenching an area from Georgia to Ohio,
washing out dozens of homes, sweeping cars down roadways and
trapping more than 100 students at an elementary school. The
storm, which has killed 70 people in the Caribbean and at least 39
in the United States, retained its destructive power over land even
as its wind speed dropped.
The remnants of Hurricane Ivan left behind a violent mark on the
Southeast, killing several people, washing away scores of roads,
leaving thousands without electricity and sending search teams to
scour damaged areas for stranded residents. Utility companies said
more than 172,000 electricity customers in North Carolina, 17,300
in West Virginia and 92,000 in western Pennsylvania were without
power.
9/18/04 Saturday
Louisiana voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional
amendment banning same-sex marriages and civil unions, one of up to
12 such measures on the ballot around the country this year. With
99 percent of precincts reporting, the amendment was winning
approval with 78 percent of the vote, and support for it was
evident statewide. Only in New Orleans, home to a politically
strong gay community, was the race relatively close.
A retired Texas National Guard official mentioned as a possible
source for disputed documents about President Bush's service in the
Guard said he passed along information to a former senator working
with John Kerry's campaign. Also, a White House official said that
Bush has reviewed disputed documents that purport to show he
refused orders to take a physical examination in 1972 and did not
recall having seen them previously.
An al-Qaida linked group threatened in a videotape to behead two
Americans and a Briton within two days, and insurgents carried out
a new string of car bombings, killing at least 20 Iraqis and two
American soldiers. The unrelenting violence has taken 300 lives in
the past week. The videotape was the first word on the fate of
Americans Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong and Briton Kenneth
Bigley since the three construction workers were kidnapped from
their Baghdad dwelling.
A divided U.N. Security Council approved a resolution threatening
oil sanctions against Sudan unless the government reins in Arab
militias blamed for a killing spree in Darfur and ordered an
investigation of whether the attacks constitute genocide. The vote
was 11-0 with four abstentions - China, Russia, Pakistan and
Algeria. China, a permanent council member, said immediately after
the vote that it would veto any future resolution that sought to
impose sanctions.
Remnants of Hurricane Ivan made a violent mark across the Southeast
and the Appalachians, where several people were killed by falling
trees and floods that washed away scores of roads. Search teams
were sent to scour damaged areas for stranded residents. Ivan and
its remnants had been blamed for 46 deaths in the United States, 16
of them in Florida. The storm also was blamed for 70 deaths in the
Caribbean.
9/19/04 Sunday
The campaigns of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are working on
the final details for a series of presidential debates set to begin
at the end of the month. One person familiar with the debate
negotiations said that the two sides have tentatively agreed to
hold three presidential debates during a two-week period beginning
Sept. 30. The Bush campaign denied there was any deal.
Tropical Storm Jeanne brought raging floodwaters to Haiti, killing
at least 90 people and leaving dozens of families huddled on
rooftops as the storm pushed further out into the open seas,
officials said. Floods tore through the northwestern coastal town
of Gonaives and surrounding areas, covering crops and turning roads
into rivers. U.S.-backed interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue
and his interior minister toured the area in a U.N. truck.
A carnival ride broke apart during a church fair, killing a man and
injuring two other people. Shrewsbury, Mass. police said the
spinning-car ride came apart about 2 p.m. near Saint Mary's Church
and parochial school. Witnesses said they saw one of the men being
thrown from the ride and crashing to the ground. "It was really
just a nightmare, a lot of children crying, mothers crying, more
blood than I've ever seen," said Kathleen Madaus, 44, of
Shrewsbury.
Hu Jintao became the undisputed leader of China as the country
completed its first orderly transfer of power in the communist era
with the departure of former President Jiang Zemin from his top
military post - giving a new generation a freer hand to run the
world's most populous nation. Jiang, whose term was to have run
until 2007, resigned at a meeting of the ruling Communist Party's
Central Committee that ended today.
9/20/04 Monday
CBS News apologized for a "mistake in judgment" in its story
questioning President Bush's National Guard service, claiming it
was misled by the source of documents that several experts have
dismissed as fakes. The network said it would appoint an
independent panel to look at its reporting about the memos. The
story has mushroomed into a major media scandal, threatening the
reputations of CBS News and chief anchor Dan Rather.
In Iraq, the militant group led by al-Qaida ally Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi posted a gruesome video on a Web site showing the
decapitation of a man identified as American civil engineer Eugene
Armstrong and said a second hostage - either an American or a
Briton - would be killed in 24 hours. The grisly beheading was the
latest killing in a particularly violent month in Iraq, with more
than 300 people dead in insurgent attacks and U.S. military strikes
over the past seven days.
The death toll from a tropical storm that devastated parts of Haiti
rose to 573 as search crews recovered hundreds of bodies carried
away by raging weekend floods or buried by mud or the ruins of
their homes, officials said. The bodies of at least 500 people
killed by Tropical Storm Jeanne were filling morgues in Gonaives,
according to Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, a spokesman for the U.N.
mission.
Staking out new ground on Iraq, Sen. John Kerry said he would not
have overthrown Saddam Hussein had he been in the White House, and
he accused President Bush of "stubborn incompetence," dishonesty
and colossal failures of judgment. Bush said Kerry was
flip-flopping. Less than two years after voting to give Bush
authority to invade Iraq, the Democratic candidate said the
president had misused that power by rushing to war without the
backing of allies or a post-war plan.
9/21/04 Tuesday
In Gonaives, Haiti, bodies lay in growing piles outside morgues as
U.N. peacekeepers planned the first major distribution of food and
water in this city devastated by floods that have torn apart
families and left hungry crowds that have mobbed truckloads of
aid. The death toll from deluges unleashed by Tropical Storm
Jeanne climbed to the more than 700, Haitian officials said, with
more than 600 of them in Gonaives alone. More than 1,000 others
were declared missing.
Information on passengers who took a commercial flight within the
United States in June will be turned over to the government so it
can test a new system for identifying potential terrorists. People
will have a chance to tell the government what they think about the
plan during a 30-day comment period, federal officials said. A
previous plan was met with an overwhelmingly negative response.
After two years, the United States and the United Nations had hoped
to take the spotlight off the bitterly divisive war in Iraq. It
didn't happen. At the opening of the U.N. General Assembly,
President Bush and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sparred over
the war that can't escape the headlines. Annan made news last week
when, for the first time, he said the U.S.-led war that toppled
Saddam Hussein was "illegal.". Bush defended his Iraq policy before
world leaders and ministers from 191 countries, saying a ruthless
dictator had been toppled and Iraq is now "on the path to democracy
and freedom."
Federal Reserve policy-makers boosted interest rates for a third
time this year, and economists believe there probably will be
another increase before the year is over depending on how the
economic expansion unfolds. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and his
colleagues pushed up the target for the federal funds rate to 1.75
percent, the third quarter-point upward jog since June. The funds
rate is the interest banks charge each other on overnight loans.
9/22/04 Wednesday
A British hostage appeared on a video posted on an Islamic Web site
weeping and pleading for his life as Iraq's leader and U.S.
officials crushed reports that a high-profile female Iraqi weapons
scientist could be released from jail soon - as demanded by the
kidnappers. The captive, Kenneth Bigley, appealed to British Prime
Minister Tony Blair to intervene. "I think this is possibly my
last chance," he said. "I don't want to die."
Iraq's visiting prime minister, Ayad Allawi, says he shares a
hopeful view with President Bush that things are getting better in
Allawi's tumultuous nation, a conviction the president is putting
on full display to persuade doubting U.S. voters. Allawi,
embarking on a two-day, whirlwind trip, is to make a high-stakes
appearance with Bush on Thursday, where the two leaders are to
assert from the White House Rose Garden that progress is being made
and the future is bright in Iraq.
At a time when restaurants typically put away their patio
furniture, sweaters replace T-shirts and sailboats are plucked from
the water, Midwesterners are out enjoying activities usually
reserved for July and August - not weeks past Labor Day. Summer is
here. Finally. "We're getting the summer we never had and now
we're making up for it," said Bill Snyder, who produces the weather
segments of the WGN-TV news in Chicago.
President Bush's statement that a "handful" of people are willing
to kill to stop progress in Iraq is another blunder that shows he's
avoiding reality, Democrat John Kerry told The Associated Press.
"George Bush let Osama bin Laden escape at Tora Bora," Kerry said
in a brief interview. "George Bush retreated from Fallujah and
other communities in Iraq which are now overrun with terrorists and
threaten our troops. And George Bush said on the record we can't
win the war on terror.
9/23/04 Thursday
It looks like the U.S. billionaire's club isn't quite as exclusive
as it once was. There are now 313 billionaires in the country, the
largest number ever and a huge jump over the 262 counted last year,
according to Forbes magazine, which released its annual ranking of
the 400 richest Americans. The combined net worth of the 400 rose
$45 billion and reached $1 trillion this year for the first time
since 2000, before the dot-com bust wiped out billions of dollars
in wealth. The rich are getting richer.
U.S. warplanes blasted insurgent positions in Sadr City, and
American ground troops pushed into the sprawling Baghdad slum in a
new operation aimed at disarming the militia of a renegade
anti-U.S. Shiite cleric. Despite violence sweeping the country,
Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is
insisting elections promised for January must be held on time, an
aide said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi sees a bright future for Iraqi
democracy, brushing aside skeptics who say elections set for
January may be truncated or canceled altogether because of
violence. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he believes
the elections should go ahead but he suggested the balloting may be
impossible in areas where the potential for violence is too great.
"Nothing's perfect in life," Rumsfeld told a Senate committee.
Ivan's second foray into the United States came with little wind
but plenty of the rain that became the three-week-old system's
calling card as it raked the Caribbean and eastern United States,
while Floridians braced for another possible pounding as Hurricane
Jeanne appeared to be gearing up for a weekend landing. After
looping into the Atlantic and back into the Gulf of Mexico
following its initial strike on the Alabama-Florida coast as a
hurricane last week, Tropical Storm Ivan washed ashore near the
Texas-Louisiana line, bringing heavy rain to both sides of the
border.
9/24/04 Friday
President Bush opened several new scathing lines of attack against
Democrat John Kerry, charges that twisted his rival's words on Iraq
and made Kerry seem supportive of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.
It was not unlike the spin that Kerry and his forces sometimes
place on Bush's words. Campaigning by bus through hotly contested
Wisconsin, Bush sought to counter recently sharpened criticism by
Kerry about his Iraq policies.
Hurricane Jeanne forced the evacuations of more than 800,000
residents as it bore down on Florida with winds near 105 mph and
threatened to strengthen into a major storm. If it hits Florida's
Atlantic Coast on Sunday as predicted, it would be the fourth
hurricane to slam the state this season, a scenario unmatched in
more than a century. It would be a Category 3 storm with winds of
at least 111 mph if it gains strength as predicted.
California air regulators unanimously approved the world's most
stringent rules to reduce auto emissions that contribute to global
warming - a move that could affect car and truck buyers from coast
to coast. Under the regulations, the auto industry must cut
exhaust from cars and light trucks by 25 percent and from larger
trucks and sport utility vehicles by 18 percent. The industry will
have until 2009 to begin introducing cleaner technology.
U.S. warplanes, tanks and artillery units struck the insurgent
stronghold of Fallujah, killing at least eight people and wounding
15 in a day that saw new violence across the country and the U.S.
military announced the deaths of four Marines. The Marines were
killed in three separate incidents while conducting security
operations in Anbar province, the military said. No further
details were provided.
9/25/04 Saturday
In 2000, political pundits summed up the race in three words:
Florida, Florida, Florida. Here's three words to consider this
fall: Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. President Bush is targeting
their combined 27 electoral votes - the same total as Florida,
where a bitterly contested recount settled the last election. The
trio of upper Mississippi River states narrowly backed Vice
President Al Gore in 2000 and are, if anything, slightly more
Republican four years later.
Iran added a "strategic missile" to its military arsenal after a
successful test, and the defense minister said his country was
ready to confront any external threat. The report by state-run
radio did not say whether the test involved the previously
announced new version of the Shahab-3 rocket, capable of reaching
Israel and U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East, or a different
missile.
Hurricane Jeanne sent wind and huge waves crashing ashore as it
slammed into storm-weary Florida late in the P.M., forcing
thousands into shelters and tearing part of the roof from a
hospital. The storm made landfall three weeks after Frances
ravaged the same stretch of the state's central Atlantic coast, and
hurled debris only recently cleared from earlier hurricanes. It
was the state's fourth hurricane of the season - an ordeal no state
has faced since Texas in 1886.
9/26/04 Sunday
Hurricane Jeanne tore a fresh path of destruction and despair as it
continued its march up storm-ravaged Florida, where the fourth
major hurricane in six weeks shut down much of the state and
prompted recovery plans on a scale never before seen in the
nation. At least six people died in the storm, which plowed across
Florida's midsection in a virtual rerun for many residents still
trying to regroup from hurricanes that have crisscrossed the
Southeast since mid-August. Jeanne came ashore in the same area
hit three weeks ago by Hurricane Frances.
It's a classic pre-debate dance, maybe as important as the matchup
itself: lower expectations for your candidate's performance and jab
the other guy while you're at it. While President Bush and
Democrat John Kerry remained secluded half a country apart in
preparation for their prime-time showdown Thursday, representatives
for each side employed their own double-barreled debate strategy..
In central Texas, where the president spent about four hours at his
ranch preparing for the debate, White House communications director
Dan Bartlett called Kerry a seasoned debater against whom Bush
would merely "hold his own." But then Bartlett accused Kerry of
taking more than one position on foreign policy issues - the
subject of the first debate.
U.S. jets pounded suspected Shiite militant positions in the
Baghdad slum of Sadr City, killing at least five people and
wounding 46. In the northern city of Mosul, insurgents set off a
car bomb that killed four National Guardsmen. The U.S. military
said the strikes in Sadr City, a hotbed of insurgents loyal to
renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, struck several "positively
identified" militant hideouts.
Secretary of State Colin Powell sees the situation in Iraq "getting
worse" as planned elections approach, and the top U.S. military
commander for Iraq says he expects more violence ahead. Their
comments followed a week in which President Bush and Iraqi Prime
Minister Ayad Allawi spoke optimistically about the situation
despite the beheadings of two more Americans and the deaths of
dozens of people in car bombings.
Seismologists believe there's an increased likelihood of a
hazardous event at Mount St. Helens due to a strengthening series
of earthquakes at the volcano. "The key issue is a small explosion
without warning. That would be the major event that we're worried
about right now," said Willie Scott, a geologist with the USGS
office in Vancouver.
9/27/04 Monday
Floridians were again settling into the discomforts of a
post-hurricane reality: lines for bags of ice or a hot meal,
damaged homes that will take months to repair, and stifling heat
and darkness amid widespread power outages. Hurricane Jeanne, the
fourth storm to hammer the state in six weeks, has left behind a
trail of death, destruction and frustration. "We're weary. We're
tired. We have been doing this for more than 30 days," said Jay
Clark.
In Vero Beach, people lined up for more than a half-mile for food
and water, while others searched in vain for generators in the
sweltering heat as Florida residents began cleaning up all over
again, demoralized by the fourth hurricane in six weeks to batter
the state. Hurricane Jeanne, with slashing winds reaching 120 mph,
claimed at least six lives in Florida over the weekend as it plowed
through virtually the same area that was bashed by Hurricane
Frances earlier this month.
Small earthquakes rattled Mount St. Helens at the rate of one or
two a minute, and seismologists were working to determine the
significance of some of the most intense seismic activity in nearly
20 years. Early tests of gas samples collected above the volcano
by helicopter did not show unusually high levels of carbon dioxide
or sulfur. "This tells us that we are probably not yet seeing
magma moving up in the system," said Jeff Wynn, a scientist.
Two car bombs killed seven Iraqi national guardsmen and a rocket
barrage hit a police academy as insurgents kept up their offensive
to subdue Iraq's beleaguered security forces. U.S. jets pounded
suspected militant positions in a Baghdad slum. Two U.S. soldiers
with the 1st Infantry Division were killed in separate incidents
near Balad, north of the capital. The first died in a car crash
and the second was killed when a patrol came under fire.
New voters are flooding local election offices with paperwork,
registering in significantly higher numbers than four years ago as
attention to the presidential election runs high and an array of
activist groups recruit would-be voters who could prove critical
come Nov. 2. Cleveland has seen nearly twice as many new voters
register so far as compared with 2000; Philadelphia is having its
biggest boom in new voters in 20 years; and counties are bringing
in temporary workers and employees from other agencies to help
process all the new registration forms.
Coming to cash registers near you: colorful new $50 bills sporting
splashes of red, blue and yellow. The bills, the second
denomination of greenback to get the color treatment, are going
into circulation on Tuesday as part of the government's continuing
effort to thwart counterfeiters.
9/28/04 Tuesday
If Democrat John Kerry has a chance of winning the White House, he
must win over many in the small but central slice of the electorate
known as "persuadable" voters who harbor serious doubts about his
leadership abilities. They tend to like Kerry better on handling
the economy and half say a fresh start would be worth the risk.
But doubts about his leadership skills are mentioned early as an
obstacle to those considering a switch to the Democratic nominee.
A strong earthquake that shook Central California without causing
any significant damage or injuries could be a boon to researchers
who hope intense scrutiny of the state's earthquake capital may
help predict future temblors. The magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck
at 10:15 a.m., about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles,
seven miles southeast of Parkfield and 21 miles northeast of Paso
Robles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Kidnappers released two female Italian aid workers and five other
hostages, raising hopes for foreigners still in captivity. But
insurgents showed no sign of easing their blood-soaked campaign
against the U.S. presence in Iraq, staging a show of defiance in
Samarra and striking twice with deadly force in Basra. Three
Egyptian telecommunications workers abducted last week were among
those freed, their parent company, Orascom, announced in Cairo.
Since Labor Day weekend, Linda Baker and her 4-year-old daughter
have been forced to stay at a Palm Beach County shelter, the
victims of a one-two punch. Hurricane Frances ripped away half of
the roof of their trailer, and last weekend Jeanne finished it
off. Baker would move if she could afford it, but she's hampered
by a $500 monthly rent until her Greenacres trailer is bulldozed
off the property. Her $600 check from the federal government
covered only new clothes, shoes and a one-night stay at a motel.
9/29/04 Wednesday
New immigration barriers and expanded police powers, as well as
making more of the public airwaves available for emergency
services, are some of the issues trying to find a home in a bill to
overhaul U.S. spy agencies. With the political pressure of an
Election Day coming up, Democrats are complaining that too many
items they consider extraneous have gotten tacked onto legislation
designed to enact recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission on
better fighting terrorism.
In Haiti, scores of armed rebels approached Gonaives and some
sneaked into the city despite opposition from U.N. peacekeepers,
ratcheting up more tension in the city of a quarter million
devastated by floods more than a week ago. Barefooted survivors
still walk through sewage and mud. Gangsters are looting food
aid. Widespread damage to crops and livestock has experts fearing
a famine.
A weeping British hostage was shown pleading for help between the
bars of a makeshift cage in a video that surfaced, a sobering
reminder of the grim reality for at least 18 foreign captives still
held by Iraqi militants. U.S. forces attacked a suspected safe
house used by an al-Qaida linked group in rebel-held Fallujah, the
military said. Hospital officials said at least four Iraqis were
killed and eight wounded. Intelligence reports indicated the house
was being used by followers of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi to plan attacks against U.S.-led forces and Iraqi
citizens, the military said in a statement.
Multiple explosions rocked a western neighborhood of Baghdad as a
U.S. convoy passed, killing at least 37 people and wounding more
than 50, hospital and military officials said. It was not known
how many of the dead were soldiers and how many were civilians. A
U.S. helicopter evacuated some of the wounded while other aircraft
circled overhead, an Associated Press photographer reported from
the scene. U.S. forces sealed off the area.
The first presidential debate and its focus on foreign policy and
security gives both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry
opportunities to dig into each other's record and patch their own
weaknesses on Iraq. On the campaign trail, Bush and Kerry describe
Iraq in terms that could make voters wonder if they're talking
about different countries. Bush sees progress toward stability,
democratic elections and civic life. Kerry sees increasing
instability, little reconstruction and terrorist havens.
9/30/04 Thursday
In presidential candidate debates in Coral Gables, Fla., arguing
over who can best lead the nation in war, Sen. John Kerry charges
that Americans have been left with "this incredible mess in Iraq"
while President Bush says U.S. troops look at the Democratic
challenger and wonder, "How can I follow this guy?" Both
candidates were rushing back to the campaign trail trying to
convince voters they each won their opening debate. From the first
question this evening, both candidates went on the offensive in
what turned out to be a well received contest.
U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major assault to regain control of
the insurgent stronghold of Samarra, and hospital officials said at
least 80 people were killed and 100 wounded. Troops of the 1st
Infantry Division, Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi Army moved into
Samarra after midnight, securing government and police buildings in
the city 60 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. command said in a
statement. Residents cowered in their homes as tanks and warplanes
pounded targets in the area.
The Trix Rabbit and that Lucky Charms leprechaun are going on a
whole-grain diet. General Mills announced that it will convert all
of its breakfast cereals to whole grain. The nation's No. 2 cereal
producer behind Kellogg Co. is the latest food company to give its
products a nutritional makeover as pressure grows from the
government and consumer groups to make children's food healthier.
Merck & Co. is pulling its blockbuster Vioxx from the market after
new data found the arthritis drug doubled the risk of heart attacks
and strokes. Merck's stock plunged almost 27 percent as the
pharmaceutical giant said the recall will hurt its earnings. Merck
said the clinical trial data showed an increased risk of heart
attack and other cardiovascular complications 18 months after
patients started taking Vioxx, which is prescribed for acute pain.
Despite its clear risks and bad press, hormone therapy remains the
best treatment for some women suffering miserable menopause
symptoms - and it is inappropriate for doctors to withhold, says a
new guide to help doctors and patients with the difficult
decision. Women who do try estrogen should use the lowest possible
dose for the shortest period of time, the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists stressed in a new menopause hormone
therapy guide.
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