11/ 1/04 Monday
The first presidential election since the United States plunged
into its epochal war on terrorism is to be finally handed off to
voters Tuesday, President Bush declaring the "safety and prosperity
of America" is at stake and Democratic challenger John Kerry
saying, "the hopes of our country are on the line." A dizzying
final dash across the Midwest and points south capped a campaign
that found the contenders deadlocked at every vital turn and
stirred expectations that Americans, for once, were highly
motivated to vote.
Israeli troops destroyed the homes of a teen suicide bomber and two
men who dispatched him to a crowded Tel Aviv market where he killed
three Israelis and wounded 32. The relatively muted response came
after Israel pledged to show restraint in the wake of Yasser
Arafat's illness.
The Supreme Court meets this week with just eight members, as its
notoriously tenacious leader undergoes chemotherapy and radiation
treatment for an apparently serious type of thyroid cancer. Chief
Justice William H. Rehnquist backtracked from an earlier plan to
return to work today. Instead, he issued a statement from home
about the treatment.
Lawyers, election-rights activists and computer scientists fearing
mayhem at the polls will descend on Florida, Ohio and other
battleground states Tuesday, vigilant for trouble with such
contentious matters as provisional ballots and electronic voting
machines. New rules, new voters and a tight presidential contest
combined to create "a recipe for problems" and the likelihood that
results won't be known for weeks, said Sean Greene, who was
assigned to watch Cleveland polls for the Election Reform
Information Project.
11/ 2/04 Tuesday
President Bush crept close to re-election, leading challenger John
Kerry in a campaign cliffhanger framed by war in Iraq and
joblessness at home. Ohio held the key, stirring echoes of Florida
in 2000, but this time Bush's advantage was substantial. With a
majority of the popular vote in hand, the Republican president
planned to declare victory early Wednesday.
Republicans toppled Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, winning
their biggest Senate prize after sweeping through the South to
enlarge the GOP majority. Republicans were assured of 53 Senate
seats after winning races in Georgia, North Carolina, South
Carolina and Louisiana - where the GOP won its first seat since
Reconstruction.
The power of incumbency and an advantageous GOP redistricting in
Texas swept Republicans to another two years of control over the
House of Representatives. Virtually all sitting representatives in
the 435-member House won re-election, leaving Speaker Dennis
Hastert, Majority Leader Tom DeLay and their GOP majority firmly in
charge.
Ohio emerged as the likely setting for another overtime
presidential court fight, with the focus this time on tens of
thousands of uncounted ballots cast by people who would otherwise
have been turned away from the polls. Lawyers for President Bush
boarded a plane in Washington, bound for Ohio. They will join
hundreds of Republicans lawyers already there.
The big surprise of the 2004 election: For the most part, voters
got to do their business smoothly. By the close of polls across
the country, despite heavy turnout and hints of a vote-counting
saga dead ahead, there were only scattered reports of headaches at
voting stations themselves. And none were major. Educated and
dedicated voters deserve most of the credit, said Doug Chapin,
director of the nonpartisan Election Reform Information Project.
11/ 3/04 Wednesday
His second term secured, President Bush is reaching out and asking
the 55 million people who voted to oust him from office to get
behind the ambitious agenda he's laid out for the next four years.
The work of making good on a raft of tough-to-keep campaign
promises begins Thursday, when Bush sits down with his Cabinet for
their first such meeting since Aug. 2.
Yasser Arafat has lapsed into a coma in French hospital, a senior
Palestinian official said, a day after the Palestinian leader was
rushed to intensive care following a sharp deterioration in his
health. The official would not say when Arafat lost
consciousness. Two Arafat aides denied he was in a coma, but the
senior Palestinian with close access to the medical team insisted
Arafat was comatose.
U.S. jets pounded parts of Fallujah, targeting insurgents in a city
where American forces were said to be gearing up for a major
offensive. Al-Jazeera television broadcast a threat by an
unspecified armed group to strike oil installations and government
buildings if Americans launch an all-out assault on Fallujah. The
report was accompanied by a videotape showing about 20 armed men
brandishing various weapons including a truck-mounted machine gun.
In a grim report on the 20-month conflict in Sudan's Darfur region,
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says violence intensified in
October and there are strong indications of war crimes "on a large
and systematic scale." He accused the government and rebels of
trying to take more territory in Darfur instead of complying with
U.N. demands to end the violence, disarm government-backed Arab
militias blamed for many attacks and punish the perpetrators.
11/ 4/04 Thursday
Bolstered by a hard-fought election victory, President Bush says
the United States will vigorously pursue wars in Iraq and against
terror and will not retreat from trying to spread democracy through
the Middle East. "I understand, in certain capitals and certain
countries, those decisions were not popular," Bush said at his
first post-election news conference. But he was unapologetic about
the course he has set and said he would not back down.
With federal deficits already running amok, it is unclear how
President Bush will pay for his second-term agenda, a potentially
multitrillion-dollar smorgasbord that includes overhauling Social
Security and revamping the tax system. Bush laid out lofty goals
at his first news conference since his election day triumph. He
said he wanted to buttress Social Security, simplify the tax
system, strengthen the economy, fight terrorism, bolster education,
and battle AIDS and poverty abroad. Some believe he will merely
bankrupt the federal government and wreak ruin on foreign policy.
Doctors fought to keep Yasser Arafat alive as anxious Palestinian
officials looked for ways to prevent unrest if their 75-year-old
leader, said to be in a coma, dies. A swirl of reports saying
Arafat had died were quashed by doctors at the French military
hospital where he has been treated since being airlifted to France
last week. Arafat's aides, however, acknowledged his condition was
very serious.
Three British soldiers were killed and eight were wounded in a
suicide bomb and mortar barrage south of Baghdad just days after
they gave up the relative safety of southern Iraq for the more
dangerous mission of helping U.S. troops in violence-wracked
central Iraq. Three American troops were killed and five were
wounded in the same region.
11/ 5/04 Friday
Long convoys of American soldiers rolled onto a dust-blown base on
the outskirts of Fallujah as U.S. warplanes intensified attacks in
preparation for a wider assault on the city, a symbol of Iraqi
resistance. More than 10,000 American soldiers and Marines massed
for an expected offensive, and Iraq's prime minister warned the
"window is closing" to avert an attack.
Having lapsed into a coma, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was
clinging to life at a French military hospital as aides voiced
increasing concern about the lack of improvement in his condition.
Doctors said late Friday there had been no change - for better or
worse - in the 75-year-old patient's health. They have yet to
offer any official public diagnosis.
Israel remains determined to deny Yasser Arafat burial in
Jerusalem, though Palestinian officials say such a generous gesture
could go a long way toward building trust destroyed in four years
of fighting. Israel fears acceding to Arafat's request to be
buried in Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque would strengthen Palestinian
claims to the traditionally Arab sector of the city as a future
capital.
11/ 6/04 Saturday
Insurgents attacked police stations, gunned down government
officials and set off bombs in central Iraq, leaving more than 50
people dead and more than 60 injured over two days in a dramatic
escalation of violence as U.S. forces prepare to storm rebel-held
Fallujah. The wave of violence sweeping the troubled Sunni
Triangle north and west of Baghdad may be aimed at relieving
pressure on Fallujah, where about 10,000 American troops are
massing for a major assault if Prime Minister Ayad Allawi gives the
order.
Yasser Arafat was not in a coma but remained in intensive care
after undergoing more medical tests, a senior aide to the ailing
Palestinian leader said. Test results were expected within days.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, Arafat's spokesman, would not say whether his
announcement meant Arafat had emerged from a coma or whether he had
not been comatose at all. He also refused to say whether he saw
Arafat personally, and he did not specify the nature of the new
medical tests.
Iran and European nations reached a provisional agreement over
Iran's nuclear program at talks aimed at avoiding a U.N. showdown,
but all parties involved still must approve it, Iran's chief
negotiator said. The agreement worked out with Britain, France and
Germany could be finalized in the next few days, Hossein Mousavian
told state-run Iranian television from Paris, where talks wrapped
up.
11/ 7/04 Sunday
With warplanes and artillery pounding the city, U.S. troops fought
their way into the western outskirts of Fallujah, seizing a
hospital and two bridges over the Euphrates River in the first
stage of a major assault on the insurgent stronghold. Iraqi
interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said he had given the green
light for international and Iraqi forces to rid Fallujah of
"terrorists," who he said were using mosques and hospitals as
refuges. Thirty-eight people were killed and four foreigners
captured when Iraqi forces swept into Fallujah's main hospital, he
said.
Yasser Arafat's wife accused his top lieutenants of seeking to grab
control from her ailing husband, nearly torpedoing a visit by three
top Palestinian officials in the first sign of an open power
struggle while Arafat clings to life. In a screaming telephone
call from Arafat's hospital bedside, Suha Arafat told Al-Jazeera
television that Arafat's aides were conspiring to usurp her
husband's four-decade-long role as Palestinian leader.
Odd things can happen when presidents no longer have to worry about
re-election. George W. Bush embarks on another four years in the
White House unleashed from election concerns for the first time in
his presidency, raising questions about what he will do with the
freedom of a second term. Past presidents have often reached big
in their second term, with some accomplishments that build on
earlier ones and others that can appear to contradict them.
Regardless, with their eyes trained away from the voting booth and
toward the history books, many have taken the chance to gamble.
Most American voters say the decisive presidential election last
week has given them renewed confidence about the nation's electoral
system and they're hopeful about the next four years, an Associated
Press Poll finds. At the same time, they feel a sense of urgency
about Iraq, their top priority for President Bush to tackle after
his re-election, questioning disclosed. Iraq was followed by
terrorism among voters' leading concerns.
11/ 8/04 Monday
U.S. Army and Marine units thrust into the heart of the insurgent
stronghold of Fallujah, fighting fierce street battles and
conducting house-to-house searches on the second day of a major
assault to retake the city from Islamic militants. The U.S.
military said three troops had been killed and another 14 wounded
in and around Fallujah during the past 12 hours. A total of five
U.S. troops have died since the offensive began.
Yasser Arafat is in a coma and his condition worsened overnight, a
hospital spokesman said, as Palestinian officials sought to visit
their critically ill leader over his wife's angry objections. The
announcement by Gen. Christian Estripeau, spokesman for the Percy
Military Training Hospital outside Paris, was the first time the
French medical team treating Arafat publicly acknowledged that the
75-year-old is in a coma.
A federal judge has ordered a civilian court hearing for Osama bin
Laden's driver, a landmark ruling that throws into question the
Bush Administration's plans to bring alleged terrorists to justice
through military tribunals by denying them prisoner-of-war status.
The Justice Department said it would seek an immediate stay of the
ruling by U.S. District Judge James Robertson and file an appeal.
Police patrol the Capitol armed with rifles and wearing biological,
chemical and radioactive attack gear. One senator was so concerned
about the terrorist threat that he temporarily shut down his office
during the recent pre-election recess. But more than three years
after Sept. 11, Congress has yet to decide how it would respond to
a catastrophic event that kills or incapacitates many or most of
its members. "The Capitol building has to be one of the prime
targets in the world," said Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., a crusader
for better congressional preparedness. "But we have yet to make
true provisions either for congressional continuity or presidential
succession."
11/ 9/04 Tuesday
American forces bottled up guerrillas in a narrow strip of
Fallujah's alleys and streets after a stunningly swift advance that
seized control of 70 percent of the insurgent stronghold. In
Baghdad, kidnappers abducted two members of Prime Minister Ayad
Allawi's family, the government said. A militant group calling
itself Ansar al-Jihad claimed in a Web posting to have carried out
the kidnapping and threatened to behead the hostages within 48
hours unless the siege of Fallujah was lifted and prisoners were
freed. The claim's authenticity could not immediately be verified.
They served President Bush in different ways, but both will leave
large, empty chairs in the Cabinet Room: Attorney General John
Ashcroft, the face of the administration's tough tactics against
terrorism, and Don Evans, the longtime friend who headed the
Commerce Department, are leaving the president's team. Both
resigned today, the first members of the Cabinet to leave as Bush
heads from re-election into his second term.
France and the United Nations began evacuating thousands of French
and other expatriates trapped at U.N. offices and a French military
base amid days of anti-foreigner rampages in Ivory Coast's largest
city, French and U.N. officials said. France alone expected to fly
out between 4,000 to 8,000 of its citizens from across Ivory Coast
- potentially the majority of the 14,000 French still in the former
French colony, a French official
A top Islamic cleric rushed from the West Bank to Yasser Arafat's
hospital bedside in what an aide to the Palestinian leader called
the "final phase" of his life. "I'm here to be by my long time
friend's side in his time of need and to pray for his speedy
recovery," the cleric, Taisser Bayoud Tamimi, said by phone shortly
before arriving at the hospital.
11/10/04 Wednesday
Yasser Arafat, revered as the beacon of Palestinian statehood but
reviled as a sponsor of terrorism, died at the age of 75. His
passing marked the end of an era in modern Middle East history, and
prompted calls from President Bush and other world leaders to seize
the moment to spur new efforts at Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
Mahmoud Abbas, a former prime minister and a veteran peace
negotiator, was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation
Organization within hours of Yasser Arafat's death, putting him on
a track to become the next overall leader of the Palestinians. The
69-year-old Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen and who long worked in
Arafat's shadow as the PLO's No. 2 official, takes the most
powerful of the three titles Arafat held - president of the
Palestinian Authority, leader of the Fatah movement and head of the
PLO.
U.S. forces hammered southern Fallujah with renewed airstrikes and
artillery, hitting mortar positions and sniper nests, in
preparation for a ground assault on insurgents trapped in this part
of the former militant stronghold. Meanwhile, U.S. troops found a
hostage imprisoned in Fallujah, the military said. The man, who
appeared not to be a Westerner, was chained and malnourished.
Alberto Gonzales has played a central role in some of the Bush
administration's most controversial moves in the war on terror. As
President Bush's pick to be the nation's next attorney general,
that work could place some bumps in Gonzales' road to Senate
confirmation. Bush announced that he had chosen Gonzales, his
49-year-old White House counsel for almost four years, to be the
first Hispanic to be the nation's top law enforcement officer.
Most believe Gonzales will be confirmed.
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the fourth time this
year and left the door open to more increases in coming months..
The rate is now 2.0%.
11/11/04 Thursday
Yasser Arafat's funeral service began with humble prayers and ended
with a military procession, his wooden coffin borne on a
horse-drawn gun carriage and draped in the Palestinian flag,
followed by presidents and kings. His veiled widow, Suha, and
their rarely seen 9-year-old daughter, Zahwa, wept as a band
dressed in scarlet played the Palestinian and Egyptian national
anthems at a military airfield in northern Cairo.
American forces pushed deeper into the southern reaches of
Fallujah, cornering militants backed into smaller pockets of the
city. Hundreds of men trying to flee were turned back by U.S.
troops. In Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, guerrillas launched
mass attacks against police stations and political party offices in
what could be a bid to relieve pressure on their allies here.
Convinced that the road to Jerusalem doesn't run through Baghdad,
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is trying to turn President
Bush's attention from Iraq to the stalled Mideast peace process.
Blair, who dined with Bush tonight and will hold formal talks with
him on Friday, lost political ground at home for being Bush's
steadfast comrade in the U.S.-led war in Iraq that was unpopular in
Europe. Now, Blair wants the newly re-elected Bush to push more
aggressively for a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -
an issue of keen interest to Europeans.
11/12/04 Friday
Fearing an uprising in support of embattled insurgents in Fallujah,
the Iraqi government rushed reinforcements to the key city of Mosul
after police fled and gangs brandishing automatic weapons seized
control of the streets. The surge of violence in Mosul, Iraq's
third largest city, came as U.S. troops on tightened control over
most of Fallujah - cornering the largest pocket of remaining
resistance fighters in the city's southwest as airstrikes and
strafing runs continued.
In Ramallah, West Bank, as mourners filed past Yasser Arafat's
tomb, the Palestinian leadership ordered preparations for new
presidential elections to start immediately and appealed to the
United States to take an active role in securing a vote in 60
days. Arafat was buried today in the compound where he spent his
last years as a virtual prisoner. He was seen off in a chaotic
outpouring of grief honoring the man who embodied the Palestinian
people's dream of statehood.
At the White House, British Prime Minister Tony Blair joined Bush
in suggesting that Arafat's death created an opportunity to create
a Palestinian state after decades of failed attempts at brokering
peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Education Secretary Rod Paige, whose tenure has been defined by the
biggest school law in a generation, plans to leave his job, a Bush
administration official says. "The secretary has been looking at
leaving, and he's been in discussion with the White House about the
right time to do so," said the official, who spoke on the condition
of anonymity because Paige has not formally resigned.
11/13/04 Saturday
The U.S. military's ground and air assault of Fallujah has gone
quicker than expected, with the entire city occupied after six days
of fighting, Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski said. Natonski, who
designed the ground attack, said he and other planners took lessons
from the failed three-week Marine assault on the city in April,
which was called off by the Bush administration after a worldwide
outcry over civilians deaths. This time, the military sent in six
times as many troops and 20 types of aircraft. Troops also faked
attacks before the assault to confuse enemy fighters.
Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble,
went to a hospital after experiencing shortness of breath. Tests
found no abnormalities, an aide said, and Cheney left after three
hours. "I feel fine," the 63-year-old vice president said as he
walked out with his wife, Lynne.
Palestinian officials pushed forward with plans for life without
Yasser Arafat, meeting to set a date for elections to replace their
longtime leader after his death. The presidential elections are a
key test for the Palestinians, who want a smooth transition of
power and hope for renewed international involvement in Mideast
peacemaking. Arafat, who died Thursday, led the Palestinians for
four decades and refused to appoint a successor.
11/14/04 Sunday
In April, 2,000 Marines fought for three weeks and failed to take
Fallujah from its insurgent defenders. This time, war planners
sent six times the troops, who fought their way across the rebel
city in just six days - far more quickly than expected, the Marine
general who designed the ground attack said. A military statement
said that 38 U.S. troops had been killed and 275 were wounded so
far in the operation. There is still no estimate of civilians
killed or wounded in the assault.
Sen. Arlen Specter's move up to chairman of the committee that
handles the president's judicial nominees is on the line this week
when lawmakers return to the Capitol to clean up the unfinished
work of this Congress and prepare for the next one. Following
their election triumphs, Republicans are eager to wrap up the
lame-duck session as quickly as possible, to clear the path for
President Bush's second-term initiatives of tax simplification,
Social Security overhaul and lawsuit limitations.
African leaders backed an arms embargo against Ivory Coast, where
thousands of Westerners are fleeing anti-foreigner violence, giving
approval to a U.N. Security Council vote on sanctions that could
come as early as Monday. The African leaders also backed other
U.N. sanctions against Ivory Coast, isolating President Laurent
Gbagbo's hard-line government even further in its deadly
confrontation with its former colonial ruler, France.
11/15/04 Monday
President Bush has selected Condoleezza Rice, his national security
adviser and trusted confidant, to replace Colin Powell as secretary
of state, officials said, in a major shakeup of the president's
national security team. Three other Cabinet secretaries also
resigned. Powell, a retired four-star general who often clashed on
Iraq and other foreign policy issues with more hawkish members of
Bush's administration, said he was returning to private life once
his successor was in place.
A U.S. Marine shot and killed a wounded and apparently unarmed
Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in the former insurgent stronghold of
Fallujah, according to dramatic pool television pictures
broadcast. A Marine spokesman in Washington said the shooting was
under investigation. The shooting Saturday was videotaped by pool
correspondent Kevin Sites of NBC television, who said three other
previously wounded prisoners in the mosque apparently also had been
shot again by the Marines inside the mosque.
U.S. soldiers battled insurgents in the Sunni Muslim strongholds
around Baghdad and in the north of Iraq in clashes that killed more
than 50 people. Some guerrillas were said to be "fighting to the
death" inside Fallujah, where American forces struggled to clear
pockets of resistance. At least five suicide car bombers targeted
American troops elsewhere in volatile Sunni Muslim areas north and
west of the capital, wounding at least nine Americans. Three of
those bombings occurred nearly simultaneously in locations between
Fallujah and the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, the U.S. command
said.
The top two officials in the CIA's clandestine service have
resigned after confrontations with the agency's new leadership in
an unusually public shake-up at the nation's spy service. The
CIA's Deputy Director for Operations Stephen Kappes and his
immediate deputy, Michael Sulick, told colleagues at a morning
meeting that they are leaving the agency. It's unclear if they
elected to depart or were asked to step down.
11/16/04 Tuesday
Margaret Hassan, the British aid worker kidnapped after decades of
helping Iraqis, is believed to have been murdered by her captors, a
British government official said, based on a video that showed a
hooded militant shooting a blindfolded woman in the head. No other
female hostage is known to have been killed in the wave of
kidnappings that have beset Iraq.
President Bush picked National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice,
who once tutored him on global affairs, to be his top diplomat,
saying her foreign-policy experience and struggle against racism
uniquely qualified her to be America's "face to the world" as
secretary of state. "In Dr. Rice, the world will see the strength,
the grace and the decency of our country," Bush said.
U.S. and Iraqi troops fought to crush the spreading insurgency in
Iraq's third largest city, recapturing police stations and securing
Tigris River bridges as they battled to oust fighters who had moved
into Mosul as a distraction to the Marine offensive in Fallujah.
Troops met "very little resistance" in securing several of the
dozen or so police stations that had been captured by insurgents,
the U.S. military command said. Nineveh province's deputy governor
said militants blew up the Zuhour police station ahead of the U.S.
advance, but the U.S military denied any stations were destroyed.
The fatal shooting of a wounded and apparently unarmed man in a
Fallujah mosque by a U.S. Marine angered Sunni Muslims in Iraq and
raised questions about the protection of insurgents once they are
out of action. International legal experts said the Marine may
have acted in self-defense because of a danger that a wounded
combatant might try to blow up a hidden weapon; a key issue was
whether the injured man was a prisoner at the time.
11/17/04 Wednesday
A suicide car bomber blasted an American convoy north of Baghdad
and U.S. troops battled insurgents west of the capital as a wave of
violence across Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland killed at least 27
people. American forces pursued their search-and-destroy mission
against the remaining holdouts in the former insurgent bastion of
Fallujah, and to the north, American forces pressed an offensive to
reclaim part of the city of Mosul from militants.
A resurgent Kmart, home of the blue light special, is buying the
once-dominant Sears department store chain in a surprising $11
billion gamble it is counting on to help both better compete with
Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers.
House Republicans demonstrated their loyalty to Majority Leader Tom
DeLay, changing a party rule that would have cost him his
leadership post if he were indicted by a Texas grand jury that has
charged three of his associates. DeLay watched from the back of
the room but did not speak as GOP lawmakers struggled in closed
session before ending a requirement that leaders indicted on felony
charges relinquish their positions. Republicans will now decide a
House leader's fate in a case-by-case review.
11/18/04 Thursday
At least five medications now sold to consumers pose such risks
that their sale should be limited or stopped, said a government
drug reviewer who raised safety questions earlier about the
arthritis drug Vioxx. In testimony before the Senate Finance
Committee, Food and Drug Administration reviewer David Graham cited
Meridia, Crestor, Accutane, Bextra and Serevent. Drug makers
defended the use and safety of their products.
U.S. troops sweeping through Fallujah on found what appeared to be
a command center used by followers of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, and a U.S. general expressed confidence the battle for
the city has "broken the back of the insurgency." A separate raid
near the suspected command center uncovered a bomb-making workshop
where an SUV registered in Texas was being converted into a car
bomb and a classroom that held flight plans and instructions on
shooting down planes, according to a CNN crew embedded with the
U.S. Army.
Bill Clinton, America's first baby boomer president, opened his
library with a rock 'n' roll gala that hailed the $165 million
glass-and-steel museum as "a gift to the future by a man who always
believed in the future." Despite a steady, bone-chilling rain,
nearly 30,000 people joined a celebration that included tributes
from President Bush, his father and former President Carter. Rock
stars Bono and The Edge of the band U2 performed a three-song set
before Clinton spoke to a crowd that included dignitaries and
ordinary folk. Poetry and gospel singing added a down-home flavor.
11/19/04 Friday
Iraqi forces backed by American soldiers raided one of the
country's most important Sunni mosques as worshippers were leaving
after Friday prayers - part of a crackdown on militant clerics
opposed to the U.S.-led attack on Fallujah. Witnesses said at
least three people were killed and 40 arrested. Congregants at the
Abu Hanifa mosque said they heard explosions inside the building,
apparently from stun grenades. Later, a reporter saw a computer
and books, including a Quran, scattered on the floor of the imam's
office near overturned furniture. U.S. soldiers were seen inside
the mosque compound.
White House and congressional bargainers agreed to the last details
of an overdue $388 billion spending bill late today, a measure that
would slice President Bush's priorities and curb a wide range of
programs. Leaders planned to push the mammoth measure through the
House and Senate on Saturday and edge Congress toward the end of
its weeklong postelection session.
In Chile, more than 25,000 protesters marched through downtown
Santiago, demonstrating against an economic summit of Pacific Rim
leaders, the attendance of President Bush and the U.S.-led war in
Iraq. Protests elsewhere turned violent and dozens were arrested.
The march opposing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit was
peaceful, but riot police used water cannons and tear gas earlier
to break up an unauthorized demonstration by hundreds of rock
throwing protesters.
Yasser Arafat's widow took possession of his widely sought medical
records, and was deciding whether to release the information
publicly to "stop all these false ideas" of what caused the
Palestinian leader's death, her lawyer said. Suha Arafat obtained
the file from the Percy military hospital in suburban Paris in
mid-afternoon, and was studying it, attorney Jean-Marie Burguburu
told The Associated Press by telephone.
11/20/04 Saturday
Insurgents battled American troops in the streets of Baghdad -
killing a U.S. soldier in an ambush and 4 government workers -
evidence that the guerrillas are still a potent force after the
fall of Fallujah. Iraqi guerrillas, fleeing from Fallujah, were
quoted to say that they had run short of ammunition and many
fighters who stayed behind were badly wounded
The Paris Club of creditor nations, to whom Iraq owes some $42
billion, is debating a plan to write off as much as 80 percent of
Iraq's debt.
At the economic summit meeting in Chili, Bush pushes for a united
world front against the development of nuclear weapons in North
Korea and Iran.
11/21/04 Sunday
Unwilling to concede defeat, congressional leaders expressed hope
that lawmakers could return next month to resolve a turf battle
that has blocked passage of an overhaul of the nation's
intelligence agencies. President Bush pledged to work with them
for passage. Congressional leaders said prospects depended on how
successful Bush was in lining up support.
President Bush, trying to mend relations with Latin America,
pledged to make a fresh push for stalled immigration reforms and
defended the U.S. invasion of Iraq, saying that "history will prove
it right." While the Iraq war is widely opposed in Latin America,
Bush said, "The United States of America will stay the course and
we will complete the task."
Scientists flooded the Grand Canyon to restore beaches and save
fish and plants that have been disappearing since sediment-free
water began flowing from a man-made dam 40 years ago. A torrent of
gushing water raced down the Colorado River and into the canyon,
carrying badly needed natural sediment with it, as four giant steel
tubes at the base of Glen Canyon dam were opened.
11/22/04 Monday
Iran said it has frozen all uranium enrichment programs, weakening
a U.S. effort to refer Tehran's suspect nuclear activities to the
U.N. Security Council. President Bush said he hoped the statement
is true but "there must be verification." Iran's claim was
welcomed by Europe and cautiously endorsed by the International
Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. atomic watchdog agency. But even if
verified by the IAEA, such a freeze falls short of European and
U.S. hopes of an Iranian commitment to scrap enrichment ambitions.
Iraq's interim prime minister said he's confident only a small
number of people will boycott the Jan. 30 elections despite anger
among many Sunni Muslims over the Fallujah offensive and a deadly
U.S.-Iraqi raid on a Baghdad mosque. "The forces of darkness and
terrorism will not benefit from this democratic experience and will
fight it," Ayad Allawi told The Associated Press. "But we are
determined that this experiment succeeds."
In Cartagena, Colombia, under a security web of warplanes, ships
and 15,000 troops, President Bush praised Colombia's battle against
drugs and Marxist guerrillas and pledged to keep U.S. aid flowing
so "this courageous nation can win its war against narco
terrorists." In a country that is the world's largest producer of
cocaine and a major supplier of heroin, Bush said President Alvaro
Uribe is achieving results with a massive aerial fumigation program
against coca - the main ingredient in cocaine - and an aggressive
military buildup against insurgents, who fund themselves through
drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion.
Three U.N. workers kidnapped in Afghanistan have been released
unharmed after more than three weeks in captivity, officials said.
"They are out," U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said.
Officials said the three were freed overnight and were in the
Afghan capital. One Western official said doctors were examining
the three at a NATO field hospital in Kabul.
As several deer hunters made their way through the woods of
northern Wisconsin, they were startled to come upon a stranger in
their tree stand. Asked to leave, the trespasser, wearing
blaze-orange and carrying a semiautomatic assault rifle, opened
fire on the hunters and didn't stop until his 20-round clip was
empty, leaving five people dead and three wounded, authorities
said. One of the injured hunters died today. The shooter was
eventually captured.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators jammed downtown Kiev in freezing
temperatures tonight, denouncing Ukraine's presidential runoff
election as fraudulent and chanting the name of their reformist
candidate who authorities said was trailing in the vote count.
Viktor Yushchenko stood beaming on a platform with campaign aides
and flashed a "V" for victory sign - even though the Central
Election Commission said earlier that with nearly all the votes
counted, he was losing to Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor
Yanukovych.
11/23/04 Tuesday
Some 5,000 U.S. Marines, British troops and Iraqi forces launched a
new offensive aimed at clearing a swath of insurgent hotbeds across
a cluster of dusty, small towns south of Baghdad. The series of
raids and house searches was the third large-scale military
operation this month aimed at suppressing Iraq's Sunni Muslim
insurgency ahead of crucial elections set for Jan. 30.
Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma called for negotiations in
Ukraine's spiraling political crisis, hours after the leader of the
opposition declared himself the winner of a disputed presidential
election to the approval of tens of thousands of protesters.
Another top opposition figure accepted Kuchma's proposal even
though she had declared earlier on a third day of high tensions
that negotiations were unthinkable.
Dan Rather, the hard-charging embodiment of CBS News who saw his
reputation damaged by an ill-fated report on President Bush's
National Guard service, said he will step down as "CBS Evening
News" anchor in March after nearly a quarter-century in the job.
Rather, 73, will become a correspondent for both editions of "60
Minutes," saying he looked forward to "pouring my heart" into
investigative reporting.
Despite soaring deficits, the government spending plan awaiting
President Bush's signature is chock-full of special items for
industries and communities. Consider $443,000 to develop
salmon-fortified baby food, or $350,000 for the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame. Lawmakers from both parties who approved the $388 billion
package last weekend set aside plenty of money for projects certain
to sow good will in their home districts.
11/24/04 Wednesday
Opposition leaders called for a nationwide strike to shut down
factories, schools and transportation after officials declared
Ukraine's pro-Kremlin prime minister the winner of a presidential
runoff election that many countries denounced as rigged. The call
by reformist candidate Viktor Yushchenko and his allies for an
"all-Ukrainian political strike" risked provoking a crackdown by
outgoing President Leonid Kuchma's government, which has said the
opposition's actions in the aftermath of Sunday's bitterly disputed
runoff were, in effect, preparations for a coup d'etat.
U.S. Marine officers said that U.S. and Iraqi troops sweeping
Fallujah have uncovered enough weapons to fuel a nationwide
rebellion and that clearing the former insurgent bastion of arms is
holding up the return of civilians. Most of Fallujah's estimated
250,000 civilians left the central Iraq city ahead of the
devastating Nov. 8 assault and "it will be probably several more
weeks" before significant numbers of them can return, said Lt. Col.
Dan Wilson of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
A fierce snowstorm pummeled the Midwest on one of the busiest
travel days of the year today, snarling roads and causing long
delays at airports as millions of Thanksgiving travelers tried to
make it home for the holiday weekend. The National Weather Service
said parts of Illinois got up to 8 inches of snow, while 7 inches
were reported outside Kansas City in the Midwest's first major
snowfall of the season. The region was also hit by strong
thunderstorms, high winds and icy conditions that made driving
treacherous.
11/25/04 Thursday
Ukraine's Supreme Court gave the political opposition some
breathing room, ruling that the results of a presidential election
are not official until it hears an appeal from a Western-leaning
candidate who says it was stolen from him. But there were no
indications that opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko's call for a
national strike was taking hold, and it was unclear whether the
high court even has the right to annul the vote count that gave
victory to the Kremlin-backed candidate, Prime Minister Viktor
Yanukovych.
Leading Sunni Muslim politicians urged postponement of the Jan. 30
Iraq national elections, and a senior official said the government
had agreed to meet outside the country with Saddam Hussein
supporters to try to convince them to abandon the insurgency.
Elsewhere, U.S. troops said they had uncovered the largest weapons
cache to date in Fallujah, where Iraqi officials said more than
2,000 people died in the weeklong U.S.-led offensive aimed at
curbing the insurgency so that elections could be held nationwide.
Skeptical markets drove the U.S. dollar to another all-time low
against the euro, with the European currency climbing above $1.32
for the first time. The euro rose to a new high for a third
consecutive day, breaking through Wednesday's record of $1.3178.
It spiked up to $1.3237, then subsided slightly to trade at $1.3217
by late afternoon.
Across the country, millions of Americans gathered with family and
friends on Thanksgiving to enjoy gut-busting feasts and take in
holiday traditions such as football and parades. While U.S. forces
still under enemy fire in central Iraq sought a hot meal while
remembering fallen comrades and offering thanks for the safety of
their friends and family stateside.
11/26/04 Friday
Leading Iraqi politicians called for a six-month delay in the Jan.
30 election because of the spiraling violence as U.S. forces
uncovered more bodies in the northern city of Mosul, apparent
victims of an intimidation campaign by insurgents against Iraq's
fledgling security forces. Asked about their demand for the
election to be postponed, President George W. Bush, at his vacation
home in Texas, said, "The Iraqi Election Commission has scheduled
elections in January, and I would hope they'd go forward in
January."
Shoppers swarmed the nation's malls and stores today, even before
the sun rose, to grab early bird deals on hot items like
flat-screen TVs and DVD players as the holiday shopping season
officially began. Despite freezing temperatures in some places,
and huge crowds everywhere, shoppers came armed with lists, credit
cards and game plans with almost military precision. They created
shortages already in some popular gadget gifts.
President Bush declared that charges of voter fraud have cast doubt
on the Ukrainian election, and warned that any European-negotiated
pact on Iran's nuclear program must ensure the world can verify
Tehran's compliance. "The only good deal is one that's
verifiable," the president told reporters as he emerged from his
Texas ranch for a brief visit to a coffee shop.
The World Trade Organization imposed penalties on U.S. exports
ranging from apples to textiles, escalating a trade dispute the
Bush administration has struggled to defuse by unsuccessfully
urging Congress to repeal legislation aimed at protecting American
steelmakers. The administration signaled it would accept the
penalties short term, but also warned that the United States would
aggressively protect its own trading interests and expects fair
treatment from the WTO.
11/27/04 Saturday
Ukraine's parliament declared the country's disputed presidential
election invalid amid international calls for a new vote, fueling
what has become a political tug-of-war between the West and Moscow
over the future of this former Soviet republic. The elections
commission chief also said he was not opposed to a revote.
The Iraqi government brushed aside Sunni Muslim demands to delay
the Jan. 30 election, and a spokesman for the majority Shiite
community called the date "nonnegotiable." Insurgents stepped up
attacks, blasting U.S. patrols in Baghdad and killing a U.S.
soldier north of the capital. Clashes also occurred north of
Baghdad, where U.S. and Iraqi forces fought a three-hour gun battle
with insurgents who overran a town hall and two police stations,
local officials said.
A tanker spilled 30,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware
River between Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, creating a
20-mile-long slick that killed dozens of birds and threatened other
wildlife, federal officials said. Private contractors were called
in to skim oil from the surface of the water and place thousands of
feet of boom to contain the floating slick.
11/28/04 Sunday
The crisis over Ukraine's disputed presidential election
intensified today, as a key eastern province called a referendum on
autonomy and the opposition demanded the current president fire his
prime minister, the official winner of last week's vote that has
bitterly divided this former Soviet republic. The opposition
warned President Leonid Kuchma it would block his movements unless
he fired Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and fulfilled other
demands within 24 hours.
Iraq's most feared terror group claimed responsibility for
slaughtering members of the Iraqi security forces in Mosul, where
dozens of bodies have been found. The claim raises fears the terror
group has expanded to the north after the loss of its purported
base in Fallujah. Meanwhile, insurgents attacked U.S. and Iraqi
targets in Baghdad and in Sunni Arab areas. Iraq's deputy prime
minister, Barham Saleh, said sticking to the Jan. 30 election
timetable would be a challenge, but delaying it would bolster the
insurgents' cause.
The holiday shopping season began with a solid show of spending on
Friday, but consumers faded by the weekend's close and many
retailers were facing decent but hardly impressive sales. Big
chains including J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Sears, Roebuck and Co.
were pleased with their sales. But Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was less
fortunate - the industry leader said its sales in the seven days
that ended Friday were disappointing, and the company lowered its
sales forecasts for November.
The fate of an overhaul of U.S. intelligence agencies rests with
President Bush, who must exert more pressure on holdout Republicans
if he wants compromise legislation to pass this year, a lead Senate
negotiator said. "If the president of the United States wants this
bill, as commander in chief in the middle of a war, I cannot
believe Republicans in the House are going to stop him from getting
it," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., on ABC's "This Week."
11/29/04 Monday
The U.S. military death toll in Iraq rose by at least three today
and the November total is approaching the highest for any month
since the American-led invasion was launched in March 2003. At
least 133 U.S. troops have died in Iraq so far this month - only
the second time it has topped 100 in any month. The deadliest
month was last April when 135 U.S. troops died as the insurgency
flared in Sunni-dominated Fallujah, where dozens of U.S. troops
died this month.
Facing a relentless tide of opposition protests, embattled
President Leonid Kuchma said that a new election might be the only
way out of a spiraling crisis that threatens to split this former
Soviet republic into a pro-Russian east and a pro-Western rest of
Ukraine. Kuchma warned that "we cannot in any instance allow the
disintegration or division of Ukraine," and Secretary of State
Colin Powell said he had telephoned the Ukrainian president to
express concern about reports of a possible splintering of the
country.
President Bush picked Carlos Gutierrez, the chief executive officer
of cereal giant Kellogg Co., as commerce secretary, working to
build a new economic team to help sell second-term overhauls of
Social Security and the tax code. The nomination was Bush's first
step in replacing his economic advisers. The White House offered
no promise of job security to Treasury Secretary John Snow, who has
made clear he wants to remain.
11/30/04 Tuesday
Tom Ridge, the nation's first homeland security secretary,
announced that he is resigning after three years of reworking
American security and presiding over color-coded terror alerts.
He's the seventh Bush Cabinet officer leaving so far. Ridge
oversaw the most significant government reorganization in 50
years. He'll be remembered for his terror alerts and tutorials
about how to prepare for possible attacks, including the
controversial "disaster kits" that caused last year's run on duct
tape and plastic sheeting.
President Bush tried to repair U.S.-Canadian relations strained by
years of bickering over trade and Iraq, although he stood by
policies that have irritated Canadians. He did promise Prime
Minister Paul Martin to work toward easing a U.S. ban on Canadian
beef.
Ukraine's shivering but determined political opposition dug in its
heels in Kiev's frigid central square, rejecting an offer of the
prime minister's job from the declared winner of disputed
presidential election and withdrawing from talks aimed at reaching
a compromise. The election dispute sparked a struggle at Ukraine's
parliament, with throngs of opposition supporters trying to storm
inside after lawmakers tentatively approved a resolution that would
cancel Saturday's nonbinding decision to declare the election
results invalid. Protesters - some crawling on each other's
shoulders - got as far as the lobby before police pushed them back.
Insurgents targeted U.S. troops in Baghdad and in and around Beiji,
a city north of the capital, killing four Iraqi civilians and
wounding at least 20 other people, including three U.S. soldiers.
Three Iraqi children aged 3, 4 and 5 were killed when two mortar
rounds struck their neighborhood in Baqouba, the U.S. military
said.
The Coast Guard said that investigators believe much more oil
spilled from a ruptured tanker in the Delaware River near
Philadelphia than the 30,000 gallons initially reported. Coast
Guard Lt. Buddy Dye said 473,500 gallons from the tanker Athos I
are unaccounted for, but called a leak of that size a "worst-case
scenario."
A bright symbol of the holiday burst to life in Rockefeller Center
tonight as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and three Olympians turned on
the 30,000 lights decorating the center's famed Christmas tree.
Three Olympic gold winners - ice skater Sarah Hughes and gymnasts
Paul Hamm and Carly Patterson - joined the mayor to light the tree
at the annual ceremony in midtown Manhattan.
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