3/ 1/05 Tuesday
A judge on the special tribunal that will put Saddam Hussein and
members of his former regime on trial was assassinated today in the
Iraqi capital, according to an Iraqi police official and a media
report. Judge Barwez Mohammed Mahmoud and a relative were killed
in northern Baghdad's Azamyiah district, the official told The
Associated Press, on condition of anonymity.
A closely divided Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for
juvenile criminals today, declaring there was a national consensus
such executions were unconstitutionally cruel and ending a practice
that had brought international condemnation. The 5-4 decision,
which overturns a 1989 high court ruling, throws out the death
sentences of 72 murderers who committed their crimes as juveniles
and bars states from seeking to execute others. Nineteen states
had allowed death sentences for killers who committed their crimes
when they were under 18.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice applied the strongest
American pressure on the Syrians to date, saying at an
international conference in London that they were "out of step" in
the Middle East and there was growing international resolve against
them.
The curtain closed on the 12-year run of ABC's "NYPD Blue" today,
with Detective Andy Sipowicz settling in to what seems like a
thankless job commanding the detectives of the 15th precinct. The
261st and last episode of the groundbreaking police drama aired
after a one-hour retrospective that traced the history of the show.
3/ 2/05 Wednesday
The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq rose to 1,500 today, an
AP count showed, as the military announced the latest death of one
of its troops. The soldier was killed today in Babil province,
just south of Baghdad, part of an area known as the "Triangle of
Death" because of the frequency of insurgent attacks on U.S.- and
Iraqi-led forces there.
With demonstrators shouting religious slogans outside, Supreme
Court justices questioned, argued and fretted today over whether
Ten Commandments displays on government property cross the line of
separation between church and state. Back-to-back arguments in
cases from Texas and Kentucky were the court's first consideration
of the issue since 1980, when justices ruled the Ten Commandments
could not be displayed in public schools.
Kobe Bryant and the 20-year-old woman who accused him of rape
nearly two years ago settled her civil lawsuit against him today,
ending a sordid case that tarnished one of the NBA's brightest
young stars. Terms were not released. A statement faxed to the AP
by Bryant's attorneys said only that the matter had been resolved
"to the satisfaction of both parties."
3/ 3/05 Thursday
Wasting no time, Martha Stewart left prison in the middle of the
night and quickly set her sights on rebuilding her homemaking
empire after serving a five-month sentence for lying about a stock
sale. Stewart was allowed to leave prison at 12:30 a.m Friday in a
two-vehicle motorcade and headed to a nearby airport where she was
to board a private jet for a flight to New York. She will spend
the next five months on home confinement at her 153-acre estate in
Katonah, N.Y.
First by balloon, now by plane, Steve Fossett is once again a
'round-the-world' record holder. The millionaire adventurer today
became the first person to fly around the world alone without
stopping or refueling, touching down in central Kansas after a 67-
hour, 23,000-mile journey that appeared endangered at times by a
troubled fuel system.
Arab leaders grew increasingly impatient at Syria's resistance to a
quick, complete withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon, with Saudi
leader Crown Prince Abdullah sharply telling Syria's president
today to start getting out soon or face deeper isolation, according
to a Saudi official. The unusually tough message came when Syrian
President Bashar Assad met Abdullah and other Saudi leaders in the
kingdom's capital, the Saudi official told the AP by telephone from
Riyadh. Arab League foreign ministers, meeting in Cairo today,
added to the pressure, expressing support for the diplomatic push
by Saudia Arabia and Egypt.
3/ 4/05 Friday
American troops fired on a car rushing Italian journalist Giuliana
Sgrena to freedom today after a month in captivity, killing the
Italian intelligence officer who helped negotiate her release and
wounding the reporter in another friendly-fire tragedy at a U.S.
checkpoint. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, an ally of the
United States who has kept Italian troops in Iraq despite public
opposition at home, demanded an explanation "for such a serious
incident, for which someone must take the responsibility."
Trying to ease incessant Arab and international pressure and the
risk of isolation, Syrian President Bashar Assad is moving to pull
his troops in Lebanon back toward Syria's border. But the step,
short of a full withdrawal, was bluntly rejected today by President
Bush. Assad was expected to announce the pullback in an address to
parliament Saturday in Damascus, a Syrian diplomat said today. The
speech comes after a rough week for Assad, beginning with the
resignation of his allied government in Lebanon and ending with the
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah telling him face-to-face to get all his
forces out of Lebanon quickly.
Enjoying her first day out of prison, Martha Stewart fed treats to
her horses, harvested lemons in her greenhouse and sent out hot
chocolate to chilled reporters as she settled in at her $16 million
country estate for five months of house arrest. Just hours after
completing her five-month stretch at a federal prison in Alderson,
W.Va., for a stock scandal, a smiling Stewart projected the softer,
more approachable image she cultivated behind bars.
President Bush turned to a career scientist today to head the
Environmental Protection Agency and push changes Bush wants in air
pollution and clean water programs. Bush nominated Stephen L.
Johnson, a biologist and pathologist by training, to become the
first person in the agency's 35-year history to rise from within
its ranks to the top job of administrator. The nomination must be
confirmed by the Senate.
3/ 5/05 Saturday
President Bashar Assad today announced a two-stage pullback of
Syrian forces to the Lebanese border, but failed to address broad
international demands that he completely withdraw Syria's 15,000
troops after nearly 30 years in the country. Assad also did not
respond to President Bush's demand just a day earlier that Syria
withdraw all its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon before
its parliamentary elections in May.
No clear picture had formed today of what happened a day earlier
when an Italian hostage was freed by secret agents only to be
injured in a deadly shooting at the hands of U.S. soldiers on the
road to Baghdad airport. Circumstances surrounding the Friday
operation to release journalist Giuliana Sgrena from a month's
captivity by Iraqi insurgents remained as murky as the tidbits that
emerged in two earlier cases involving Italians kidnapped and then
set free in Iraq. Neither the Italian authorities nor Sgrena, a
56-year-old reporter for communist daily Il Manifesto, gave details
of the operation or said whether ransom was paid.
A team of U.S. and Ethiopian scientists has discovered the
fossilized remains of what they believe is humankind's first
walking ancestor, a hominid that lived in the wooded grasslands of
the Horn of Africa nearly 4 million years ago. The bones were
discovered in February at a new site called Mille, in the
northeastern Afar region of Ethiopia, said Bruce Latimer, director
of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in Ohio. They are
estimated to be 3.8-4 million years old.
3/ 6/05 Sunday
Left-wing journalist Giuliana Sgrena claimed American soldiers gave
no warning before they opened fire and said today she could not
rule out that U.S. forces intentionally shot at the car carrying
her to the Baghdad airport, wounding her and killing the Italian
agent who had just won her freedom after a month in captivity. An
Italian Cabinet member urged Sgrena, who writes for a communist
newspaper that routinely opposes U.S. policy in Iraq, to be
cautious in her accounts and said the shooting would not affect
Italy's support for the Bush administration.
Iraqi politicians set March 16 for the opening of the country's
first democratically elected parliament in modern history as a deal
hardened today to name Jalal Talabani, a leader of the minority
Kurds, to the presidency. The more powerful prime minister's job
will go to Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a deeply conservative Shiite who
leads the Islamic Dawa party. His nomination, which the Kurds have
agreed to, has been endorsed by the most powerful Shiite cleric in
Iraq - Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
3/ 7/05 Monday
Syrian soldiers loaded trucks with furniture and other supplies and
drove east from the Lebanese mountain posts they have held for
decades, the first signs of a redeployment to Lebanon's Bekaa
Valley announced today. But no deadline was set for their complete
withdrawal, and Washington rejected the pullback as insufficient.
Lacking a timeline, the plan also was unlikely to satisfy the
Lebanese opposition and the international community, which have
demanded that all 14,000 Syrian soldiers leave the country.
John R. Bolton, a tough-talking arms control official who rarely
muffles his views in diplomatic niceties, was chosen today by
President Bush to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Senate
Democrats immediately assailed the nomination, arguing that it
didn't make sense for the president to pick a diplomat who has
sometimes been critical of the world body at a time when mending
fences with the international community was imperative. Senate
Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Bolton's selection sent
"all the wrong signals."
Sen. John McCain pressed a cable company's case for pricing changes
with regulators at the same time a tax-exempt group that he has
worked with since its founding solicited $200,000 in contributions
from the company. Help from McCain, who argues for ridding
politics of big money, included giving the CEO of Cablevision
Systems Corp. the opportunity to testify before his Senate
committee, writing a letter of support to the Federal Communication
Commission and asking other cable companies to support so-called a
la carte pricing.
3/ 8/05 Tuesday
The heart of President Bush's plan for Social Security, allowing
younger workers to create personal accounts in exchange for a lower
guaranteed government benefit, is among the least popular elements
with the public, Republican pollsters told House GOP leaders
today. The pollsters also stressed the political stakes involved
in pursuing Bush's plan to overhaul the Depression-era program,
according to a memo circulated at a session in the Capitol.
Hundreds of thousands jammed a central Beirut square today,
chanting support for Syria and anti-U.S. slogans in a thundering
show of strength by the militant group Hezbollah - a rally that
greatly outnumbered recent demonstrations against Syria's presence
in Lebanon. The demonstration came hours before Syria began
redeploying its troops within Lebanon to an area closer to the two
countries' border. President Bush, who rejects this as a half-
step, said today that "freedom will prevail in Lebanon" and
demanded that Syria withdraw completely.
More than 40 terror suspects were able to buy firearms in the
United States last year because background checks showed they had
no felony convictions and weren't illegal immigrants, according to
a government report released today. Gun control advocates cited
the Government Accountability Office's study, "Gun Control and
Terrorism," as evidence that stricter laws are needed to prevent
terror suspects from buying firearms. The GAO said the FBI could
do a better job overseeing checks involving terror suspects.
Mount St. Helens released a towering plume of ash today, its most
significant emission in months but one that seismologists did not
believe heralded any major eruption. The volcano has vented ash
and steam since last fall, when thousands of small earthquakes
marked a seismic reawakening of the 8,364-foot mountain.
3/ 9/05 Wednesday
Iraqi authorities found 41 decomposed bodies - some bullet-
riddled, others beheaded - at sites near the Syrian border and
south of the capital, and said today they included women and
children who may have been killed because insurgents thought their
families were collaborating with U.S. forces. In Baghdad, a
suicide bomber driving a garbage truck loaded with explosives and
at least one other gunman shot their way into a parking lot in an
attempt to blow up a hotel used by Western contractors. At least
four people, including the attackers and a guard, were killed.
Bolstered by a massive pro-Syrian demonstration, Lebanese allies of
Syria moved today to reinstate the prime minister, who recently was
forced out by anti-Damascus protests. Their action ensures Syria's
continued dominance of Lebanese politics. Outgoing Prime Minister
Omar Karami was virtually assured nomination after 71 legislators
put forward his name during consultations with pro-Syrian
President Emile Lahoud, parliament members said. Under the
constitution, the president is obliged to comply with the choice of
a majority of the 128-member parliament.
Republicans pushed a $2.57 trillion budget through the House Budget
Committee today, answering record federal deficits by seeking broad
cuts in domestic programs and carving deeper into benefits for the
poor and students than President Bush proposed. Senate Budget
Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., released a similar $2.56
trillion outline that his panel was likely to approve Thursday.
On Demand Crude oil futures briefly rose above $55 a barrel today
as traders shrugged off evidence of rising oil supplies in the
United States and focused instead on strong demand, cold weather
and the weak dollar. Oil prices retreated toward the end of the
day, though prices remain more than 50 percent higher than a year
ago.
3/10/05 Thursday
A man who filed bizarre, rambling lawsuits over his cancer
treatment and shot himself to death during a traffic stop appears
to be the lone killer of a federal judge's mother and husband,
police said late today. DNA on a cigarette butt found after the
killings matches that of Chicago electrician Bart Ross, who claimed
responsibility for the slayings in a suicide note, authorities said
tonight.
Surgeons successfully removed fluid and scar tissue from Bill
Clinton's chest cavity today, cleaning up complications from the
former president's heart bypass operation of six months ago.
Clinton was "awake and resting comfortably" after four hours of
surgery, said Herbert Pardes, president of New York-Presbyterian
Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. "We expect Mr.
Clinton to be walking" within 24 hours.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said today that future
budget deficits pose a bigger risk to the economy than record trade
imbalances and the country's extremely low savings rate. In a
wide-ranging speech, Greenspan said he believed the United States'
flexible economy would be able to deal with current concerns over
trade and savings.
Thanks to a surge in demand for steel, the Internet and
Scandinavian sofas, there are some new names among the very richest
of the world's billionaires. Indian steel mogul Lakshmi Mittal,
Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helu and Ikea founder Ingvar
Kamprad of Sweden knocked several Wal-Mart heirs down a few notches
on Forbes magazine's 2005 rankings of the world's billionaires.
3/11/05 Friday
A man being escorted into court for his rape trial stole a deputy's
gun, killed the judge and two other people and carjacked a
reporter's vehicle to escape, setting off a massive manhunt and
creating widespread chaos across Atlanta, police said. Late today,
police reported that the car had been found in a downtown Atlanta
parking lot, not far from where it was stolen. Hundreds of
officers in cruisers and helicopters swarmed the area in the search
of the suspect, identified as 33-year-old Brian Nichols. The
suspect, a former computer technician, had raised alarm a day
earlier when he was found in court with two handmade knives hidden
in his shoes, prosecutors said.
Cuts in food programs for the poor are getting support in Congress
as an alternative to President Bush's idea of slicing billions of
dollars from the payments that go to large farm operations. Senior
Republicans in both the House and Senate are open to small
reductions in farm subsidies, but they adamantly oppose the deep
cuts sought by Bush to hold down future federal deficits.
As President Bush campaigns to change Social Security, he needs to
win over independents, married women and Southerners - people who
tend to support him on terrorism but have indicated doubts about
his plans for the retirement program. Just over a third of
Americans, 37 percent, approve of Bush's handling of Social
Security, an AP poll found. When it comes to Bush's strong suit -
handling foreign policy and terrorism - 52 percent approve of the
president.
3/12/05 Saturday
A gunman opened fire today at a church service being held at a
suburban Milwaukee hotel, killing seven people before taking his
own life, authorities said. Officers found four people and the
gunman dead when they arrived about 1 p.m. at the Sheraton hotel.
Three others died later at a hospital, said Daniel Tushaus, chief
of the Brookfield Police Department.
The suspect in the courthouse shootings of a judge and two other
people waved a white cloth and surrendered to authorities today,
but not before police say he killed an immigration agent and held a
woman hostage for hours in her own apartment. Brian Nichols, 33,
set off a massive manhunt in the Atlanta area after he allegedly
overpowered a court deputy Friday, took her gun and fatally shot
three people, including the judge on his rape case.
Ukraine withdrew 150 servicemen from Iraq today, beginning a
gradual pullout, as Shiite and Kurdish politicians refined plans to
form a coalition government that officials said includes an
agreement not to turn the country into an Islamic state. In Mosul,
gunmen killed three policemen and wounded a fourth at a funeral
procession, the second time in as many days that mourners have been
targeted in that northern city.
3/13/05 Sunday
The man who fatally shot seven people during a quiet church service
The man who fatally shot seven people during a quiet church service
before turning the gun on himself was on the verge of losing his
job and upset over a sermon he heard two weeks ago, investigators
said today. Terry Ratzmann, 44, left no suicide note and gave no
explanation for the killings during Saturday's weekly meeting at a
suburban Milwaukee hotel. It was unclear what specifically upset
him, but Ratzmann was a member of the Living Church of God, a
denomination whose leader recently prophesied that end times are
near.
Israel's Cabinet today affirmed it will dismantle 24 illegal West
Bank settlement outposts but did not say when they will be removed
and evaded a decision on the fate of 81 other such enclaves. The
decision fell short of U.S. and Palestinian demands for a speedy
dismantling of all outposts, but Cabinet ministers said their
removal must wait until after a planned withdrawal from the Gaza
Strip this summer.
Pope John Paul II was released from the hospital and returned to
his apartment overlooking St. Peter's Square today after reassuring
the world's Roman Catholic faithful with his own raspy voice that
he is on the mend. A gray Mercedes minivan carried the frail, 84-
year-old pontiff back to the Vatican, 2 1/2 weeks after he was
rushed by ambulance to Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic hospital and had
surgery to insert a breathing tube in his windpipe.
Since 1998, many federal departments have been reducing the amount
of information they release to the public - even as the government
fields and answers more requests for information than ever, an AP
review has found. The locations of stores and restaurants that
have received recalled meat, the names of detainees held by the
U.S. overseas and details about Vice President Dick Cheney's 2001
energy policy task force are all among the records that the
government isn't sharing with the public.
3/14/05 Monday
A judge ruled today that California's ban on gay marriage is
unconstitutional - a legal milestone that, if upheld on appeal,
would open the way for the most populous state to follow
Massachusetts in allowing same-sex couples to wed. Judge Richard
Kramer of San Francisco County's trial-level Superior Court likened
the ban to laws requiring racial segregation in schools, and said
there appears to be "no rational purpose" for denying marriage to
gay couples.
Hundreds of thousands of anti-Syrian demonstrators flooded the
capital today in the biggest protest ever in Lebanon, surpassing
the turnout for an earlier pro-Damascus rally organized by the
Islamic militant Hezbollah. In a show of national unity, Sunnis,
Druse and Christians packed Martyrs' Square as brass bands played
and balloons soared skyward. The rally, perhaps the biggest anti-
government demonstration ever staged in the Arab world, was the
opposition's bid to regain momentum after two serious blows: the
reinstatement of the pro-Syrian prime minister and a huge rally
last week by the Shiite group Hezbollah.
3/15/05 Tuesday
Some former employees and investors who lost jobs and billions of
dollars in the collapse of WorldCom said the conviction of former
CEO Bernard Ebbers was a fitting final act to the epic accounting
scandal. "This just proves that when you don't use ethics, when
you take your power and misuse it, that there is a price to pay,"
said Kate Lee, who formed a group of former WorldCom employees and
successfully fought for severance.
Anthrax tests from two Pentagon mailrooms came back negative today,
a day after initial testing indicated the deadly spores might be
present, prompting nearly 900 workers to take antibiotics as a
precaution. Responding to what now appear to have been false
alarms, officials handed out antibiotics and closed three mail
facilities - two that serve the Pentagon and one in Washington that
handles mail on its way to the military.
The Senate unanimously agreed today that strengthening Social
Security was "a vital national priority" but split acrimoniously
along party lines on what to do about it in the first votes on
President Bush's plans. In one exception to the party divide, five
Republicans broke ranks and voted with the Democrats in favor of a
resolution declaring, "Congress should reject any Social Security
plan that requires deep benefit cuts or a massive increase in
debt."
A slow-moving storm dumped nearly 3 feet of snow on parts of
northern and eastern New Mexico, closing major highways, schools
and some government offices today. "I've lived here for all my
life, and this is one of the worst as far as how quick it (snow)
accumulates," said Steve Lucero, owner of a tow truck service at
Las Vegas, where 2 feet of snow had fallen since the storm
developed Monday.
3/16/05 Wednesday
Two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraqi legislators were
sworn in today as members of the 275-seat National Assembly, vowing
to uphold freedom and democracy. But before taking their oath,
they had to endure mortar barrages and wailing air raid sirens as
insurgents made their presence felt. The deputies failed to set a
date to reconvene, did not elect a speaker or even nominate a
president and vice president - all of which they had hoped to do.
Instead, the session was spent celebrating the moment, and the
enormous obstacles Iraq has overcome.
A jury acquitted tough-guy actor Robert Blake of murder today in
the shooting death of his wife four years ago, bringing a dramatic
end to a case that played out like pulp fiction. The jury also
acquitted Blake of one charge of trying to get someone to kill
Bonny Lee Bakley, but deadlocked on a second solicitation charge.
The jury voted 11-1 in favor of acquittal and the judge dismissed
the count.
A closely divided Senate voted Wednesday to approve oil drilling in
an Alaska wildlife refuge, a major victory for President Bush and a
stinging defeat for environmentalists who have fought the idea for
decades. By a 51-49 vote, the Senate put a refuge drilling
provision in next year's budget, depriving opponents of the chance
to use a filibuster to try to block it. Filibusters, which require
60 votes to overcome, have been used to defeat drilling proposals
in the past.
In a press conference, President Bush acknowledged today that U.S.
allies are anxious to get out of Iraq but firmly denied the
coalition was crumbling. He also said patience was needed to find
a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear program. A day after Italy
announced it would begin withdrawing soldiers from Iraq by
September, Bush refused to discuss the timing of any U.S. pullout.
"Our troops will come home when Iraq is capable of defending
herself," he said.
3/17/05 Thursday
Lined up shoulder to shoulder, some of baseball's biggest stars
told Congress today that steroids are a problem for the sport but
denied there is widespread use. Mark McGwire, choking back tears
at times, repeatedly refused to say if he took the drugs when he
was helping fuel a surge in the sport's popularity with his
prodigious home runs. On a day of extraordinary theater, House
Government Reform Committee members professed their love of
baseball before attacking the sport's new drug policy and warning
Congress could get involved if stronger steps aren't taken. Except
for admitted steroid user Jose Canseco, the five players repeatedly
ducked pointed questions. Major League Baseball commissioner Bud
Selig watched from a few feet away, waiting more than eight hours
for his chance to respond.
A registered sex offender named a "person of interest" in the
disappearance of a 9-year-old girl was questioned for a second time
by police today after he was arrested in Georgia, police said.
John Evander Couey, 46, who lived near the home of Jessica Lunsford
before leaving Florida, had been questioned by police in Georgia
over the weekend, and "he is getting more and more interesting to
us as time as goes on," Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said.
In violence around Iraq, six U.S. soldiers were wounded in the
northern city of Mosul when a convoy was attacked by a car bomber,
Capt. Patricia Brewer said in Baghdad. According to a witness,
Faisal Qasim, the bombing was carried out by a suicide bomber who
slammed his car into a convoy of seven armored vehicles, striking
the fourth.
3/18/05 Friday
A registered sex offender admitted today that he kidnapped and
killed a 9-year-old girl who disappeared from her bedroom more than
three weeks ago and told police where they could find her body,
authorities said. John Evander Couey, 46, had been arrested
Thursday and named a "person of interest" in Jessica Lunsford's
disappearance. He confessed to authorities after taking a lie-
detector test, Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Japan to end a costly
boycott on U.S. beef, saying "American beef is safe." She also
offered support for Japanese membership in the U.N. Security
Council as she prepared to visit South Korea, trying to take a less
confrontational approach to persuading North Korea to return to
international nuclear disarmament talks.
Former Conn. Gov. John G. Rowland was sentenced to a year in prison
and four months' house arrest today for selling his office in a
corruption scandal that destroyed his career as one of the
Republican Party's brightest and fastest-rising stars. The judge
imposed the sentence after Rowland pleaded for leniency and
confessed he had lost his way morally and developed "a sense of
entitlement and even arrogance."
3/19/05 Saturday
As a deal in Congress was worked out to have federal courts decide
Terri Schiavo's fate, emotions swelled outside the brain- damaged
woman's hospice room today, with protesters arrested after they
symbolically tried to smuggle in bread and water on her second day
without a feeding tube. President Bush changed his schedule to
return to Washington from his Texas ranch on Sunday to be on hand
to sign the legislation.
The news this small community feared finally came today: police had
found the body of 9-year-old Jessica Marie Lunsford, more than
three weeks after she was snatched from her bedroom. Citrus County
Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said Jessica's body was found during an
overnight search near a mobile home close to the house where she
lived with her father and grandparents. A registered sex offender
confessed Friday to the kidnapping and killing and told authorities
where to look for the missing girl.
Today was the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq,
as the insurgency pressed on with its tactic of targeting Iraqi
security forces, Shiites and Kurds and focusing less on American
troops. Newly elected Shiite and Kurdish leaders marked the March
19, 2003, start of the war with a fresh promise to form a
government by the end of the month, when the National Assembly
convenes for only the second time, nearly two months after
lawmakers were elected.
Anti-war activists marched in the streets of American cities big
and small Saturday, stopping traffic and lying down alongside flag-
draped cardboard coffins to mark the second anniversary of the
start of the war in Iraq. Some of the demonstrators were arrested
in New York as they demanded that U.S. troops be brought home.
3/20/05 Sunday
Congress approved emergency legislation for early Monday to let
Terri Schiavo's parents ask a federal judge to prolong their
daughter's life, capping days of emotional debate over who should
decide life and death. President Bush waited at the White House to
sign the measure permitting a federal review of the case, which
could trigger the reinsertion of feeding tubes needed to keep the
brain- damaged Florida woman alive.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on world leaders today to
approve the most sweeping changes to the United Nations since it
was founded 60 years ago, so it can tackle conflicts and terrorism,
fight poverty and put human rights at the forefront of its work in
the 21st century. After a year of scandals over corruption in the
U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq and sex abuse by U.N.
peacekeepers in Congo, Annan's report also sets out plans to make
the world body more efficient, open, and accountable - including
strengthening the independence of the U.N.'s internal watchdog.
Gas prices jumped nearly 13 cents in the past two weeks, reaching
record levels as retail prices began to catch up with soaring crude
oil prices, an industry analyst said today. Prices should continue
to rise in the weeks ahead on strong demand and supply problems
caused by the transition to cleaner-burning gasoline mixtures as
summer approaches, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the
semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the
country.
3/21/05 Monday
A high school student went on a shooting rampage on an Indian
reservation this afternoon, killing his grandparents at their home
and then seven people at his school, grinning and waving as he
fired, authorities and witnesses said. The suspect apparently
killed himself after exchanging gunfire with police. It was the
nation's worst school shooting since the Columbine massacre in 1999
that killed 13 people.
Armed with a new law rushed through Congress, the attorney for
Terri Schiavo's parents pleaded with a judge today to order the
brain- damaged woman's feeding tube re-inserted. But the judge
appeared cool to the argument. U.S. District Judge James Whittemore
did not immediately make a ruling after the two-hour hearing, and
he gave no indication on when he might act on the request.
3/22/05 Tuesday
Warning that Terri Schiavo was "fading quickly" and might die at
any moment, her parents begged a federal appeals court today to
order the severely brain-damaged woman's feeding tube reinserted.
The appeals court didn't indicate when it might rule, but George
Felos, the attorney for Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, told the
AP that he expected a decision before daybreak Wednesday.
Authorities were trying to determine today what caused a teenager
to gun down his grandfather, put on the man's police- issue belt
and bulletproof vest, and drive his marked squad car to a high
school, where he began shooting his classmates at will. Jeff
Weise, 16, killed nine people and wounded seven Monday before
trading gunfire with a police officer and apparently shooting
himself. His motive still wasn't clear today, but the FBI said the
shootings appeared to have been planned in advance.
Republican Sen. John McCain, sitting alongside President Bush at a
Social Security event today, threw a few punches at those he says
are blocking change. McCain took a jab at AARP, the lobby for
older citizens, which has been buying television and newspaper
advertisements in cities Bush is visiting to oppose his idea to let
younger workers divert some of their payroll taxes into private
investment accounts.
The Federal Reserve, concerned that soaring energy prices could
stoke broader inflation, boosted short-term interest rates today
and signaled rates would probably keep on rising in the months
ahead. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues,
sticking to a course of gradually raising rates, bumped up the
federal funds rate by one-quarter percentage point to 2.75
percent. That marked the seventh increase of that size since the
Fed began tightening credit in June 2004.
3/23/05 Wednesday
Their legal options nearly exhausted, Terri Schiavo's parents made
a desperate appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court today, asking justices
to order resumption of nourishment for their severely brain-damaged
daughter. The late-night appeal followed rapid-fire developments
in the case, with a federal appeals court refusing to order the
reinsertion of Schiavo's feeding tube and the Florida Legislature
deciding not to intervene in the epic struggle. Refusing to give
up, Gov. Jeb Bush sought court permission to take custody of
Schiavo, who was on her fifth day without food or water.
A thunderous explosion tore through a BP oil refinery today in
Texas City, TX, shooting flames and billowing smoke into the sky
and showering the area with ash and chunks of charred metal. At
least 14 were believed dead and more than 100 were injured. The
cause of the explosion was not immediately known.
President Bush and leaders of Mexico and Canada promised new
cooperation today; yet dustups over defense, immigration and trade
- burrs under the saddle, in local slang - continued to strain
North American relations. To demonstrate unity, Bush, Mexican
President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin
appeared together at Baylor University in Waco. Texas, to announce
their neighborhood pact. It's designed to make trade more
efficient and borders more secure without obstructing business and
traffic.
A year after her first reported stay in rehab, Whitney Houston has
again checked into a rehabilitation facility. "Whitney Houston has
re- entered a rehabilitation facility today," her publicist, Nancy
Seltzer, told the AP. She declined to provide details. The news
was first reported by syndicated entertainment TV show "Access
Hollywood."
3/24/05 Thursday
With Terri Schiavo visibly drawing closer to death, her parents
were rebuffed by the U.S. Supreme Court and judges in Florida today
in their battle to reinsert their brain-damaged daughter's feeding
tube. Bob and Mary Schindler held onto the slim hope that Gov. Jeb
Bush would somehow find a way to intervene or a federal judge who
had turned them down before would see things their way. But Bush
warned that he was running out of options.
The death toll in a thunderous explosion at the BP Texas City
refinery climbed to 15 today as investigators tried to determine
the cause of the worst accident in the nation's gas and chemical
industry in nearly 15 years. A worker who was thought to have
checked out and left the refinery was instead found dead near the
site of the fiery blast, BP spokesman Bill Stephens said.
In Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, President Askar Akayev's government
collapsed today after opposition protesters took over the
presidential compound and government offices, throwing computers
and air conditioners out of windows in a frenzy of anger over
corruption and a disputed election. The popular uprising in this
impoverished Central Asian nation of 5 million forced Akayev to
flee and was breathtaking in its speed. It was also relatively
bloodless with three people reported killed and dozens injured..
The government was the third in a former Soviet republic - after
Georgia and Ukraine - to be brought down by people power over the
past year and a half.
3/25/05 Friday
A federal appeals court panel refused to order the reinsertion of
Terri Schiavo's feeding tube today, hours after the severely brain-
damaged woman's father said she was weakening and down "to her last
hours." In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit
Court of Appeals in Atlanta said it had already ruled on most of
the issues raised in the latest appeal, and that other issues
raised did not apply to the case.
He sat silently today, alone in his chapel at the Vatican, his back
to the camera, his face never shown. The crowd in Rome's Colosseum
cheered and waved candles. The ailing pope's image on giant
screens at the Way of the Cross procession was a picture of
solitary suffering on Christianity's most solemn day, which
commemorates Christ's suffering on the cross.
Jennifer Aniston filed for divorce from Brad Pitt today, court
papers showed. The petition filed in Superior Court seeks
dissolution of the actors' marriage based on irreconcilable
differences. A long-rumored split between the "Friends" star and
the "Ocean's Twelve" star was confirmed in January when they
released a joint statement saying they were formally separating.
3/26/05 Saturday
After another round of losses in the courts, Terri Schiavo's
parents kept watch over their dying daughter today, trying in vain
to give her Easter communion as their attorneys acknowledged the
fight to reconnect the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube was
nearing an end. Attorneys for Bob and Mary Schindler decided not
to file another motion with a federal appeals court, essentially
ending their effort to persuade federal judges to intervene -
something allowed by an extraordinary law passed by Congress.
Insurgents continued efforts to thwart political progress by
blowing up a car today near a U.S. military patrol in Baghdad,
killing two American soldiers and wounding two others. A day
earlier, the military said, a U.S. Marine died in action in Anbar
province, the insurgent heartland stretching from west of Baghdad
to the Jordanian and Syrian borders. Meanwhile, the Shiite Muslim
politician likely to be Iraq's next prime minister said today that
the country's long-awaited government could be formed within days,
an accomplishment that would mark the end of nearly two months of
tortured negotiations after the nation's first free elections in a
half-century.
A land mine exploded under a vehicle south of Kabul today, killing
four U.S. soldiers in the deadliest incident for American troops in
Afghanistan in almost 10 months, the military said. The blast
highlighted the dangers still facing foreign and Afghan troops more
than three years after the fall of the Taliban, although there were
conflicting accounts about whether the mine was freshly laid or
left over from Afghanistan's long wars.
3/27/05 Sunday
Their hopes fading and legal options exhausted, Terri Schiavo's
parents appeared quietly resigned today to watching her die but
could claim one Easter victory: the severely brain-damaged woman
received a drop of communion wine on her tongue - her only
sustenance in nine days - after her husband allowed her to receive
the sacrament. Outside the hospice where Schiavo is being cared
for, five protesters were arrested, and about a half-dozen people
in wheelchairs got out of them and lay in the driveway, shouting
"We're not dead yet!"
Pope John Paul II delivered an Easter Sunday blessing to tens of
thousands of people in St. Peter's Square, but the ailing pontiff
was unable to speak and managed only to greet the saddened crowd
with a sign of the cross, bringing tears to many. Aides had
readied a microphone, and the pope tried to utter a few words from
his studio window overlooking the square. But after making a few
sounds, he just blessed the crowd with his hand and the microphone
was taken away.
Declaring himself "completely innocent" of child molestation
charges, Michael Jackson said today that he is the victim of a
conspiracy and asked fans around the world to pray for him. In an
interview with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the entertainer would not
elaborate on his conspiracy belief, citing the court-imposed gag
order that prevents him from discussing his trial in detail.
3/28/05 Monday
A powerful earthquake struck off Indonesia's west coast late today,
killing scores of people whose homes collapsed on them and
spreading panic across the Indian Ocean that another killer tsunami
was on the way. Indonesia's vice president predicted up to 2,000
deaths. Fears of a second tsunami catastrophe in just over three
months eased within hours, as officials in countries at risk
reported their coasts clear of the type of earthquake-spawned waves
that ravaged a dozen countries in Asia and Africa on Dec. 26.
Described by her father as weak and emaciated, Terri Schiavo clung
to life today, as police guarded her hospice room and demonstrators
prayed outside for last-minute government intervention in the
case. Supporters of prolonging the severely brain-damaged woman's
life also carried their protests to the White House, while her
father repeated his plea that she be kept alive by having a feeding
tube reinserted.
The United States is pouring $83 million into upgrading its main
military bases in Afghanistan, an Air Force general said today in a
sign that American forces will likely be needed in the country for
years to come as al-Qaida remains active in the region. Meanwhile,
in a reminder of the instability still facing the 25,000 foreign
troops in the country, a roadside bomb hit a Canadian Embassy
vehicle and another car in Kabul, injuring at least four people.
3/29/05 Tuesday
The death toll from a powerful earthquake that devastated a remote
Indonesian island rose to an estimated 1,000 today, according to
Sumatra's governor, as rescuers searched frantically through
collapsed buildings for survivors. Bodies were still being dug
from ruins of houses and shops early today and laid out in front of
churches and mosques.
A federal appeals court early today agreed to consider a petition
for a new hearing on whether to reconnect Terri Schiavo's feeding
tube. The ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals came as the
severely brain-damaged woman entered her 13th day without
nourishment.
Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., who became a legal superstar after helping
clear O.J. Simpson during a sensational murder trial in which he
uttered the famous quote "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit," died
Tuesday. He was 67. Cochran died of an inoperable brain tumor at
his home in Los Angeles, his family said. Cochran, who was
diagnosed with the tumor in December 2003, was surrounded by his
wife, Dale, and two sisters when he died.
3/30/05 Wednesday
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in the Terri Schiavo
case for the sixth time late today, taking less than two hours to
reject her parents' request that the feeding tube for their brain-
damaged daughter be reinserted. The one-sentence ruling came hours
after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals resoundingly declined
to intervene in the case. Justices did not explain their decision
and there was no indication how they voted.
Aid workers rushed food to quake-stricken Nias island and tried to
restore running water while survivors complained of hunger after
the region's latest big earthquake, which killed an estimated 1,000
people. This remote tropical island bore the brunt of Monday
night's 8.7-magnitude quake, located in the same Indian Ocean
region where a 9.0 temblor three months earlier triggered Asia's
tsunami catastrophe.
The Supreme Court expanded job protections for roughly half the
nation's work force today, ruling that federal law allows people 40
and over to file age bias claims over salary and hiring even if
employers never intended any harm. The decision eases the legal
threshold for about 75 million middle-aged and older people to
contend in court that a policy has a disproportionately hurtful
effect on them.
3/31/05 Thursday
The Vatican said that Pope John Paul II's condition was very
serious, hours after he suffered heart failure. Vatican spokesman
Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement that this afternoon the
pope's heart stopped momentarily during treatment for a urinary
tract infection.
With her husband and parents feuding to the bitter end and beyond,
Terri Schiavo died today, 13 days after her feeding tube was
removed in a wrenching right-to-die dispute that engulfed the
courts, Capitol Hill and the White House and divided the country.
Cradled by her husband, Schiavo, 41, died a "calm, peaceful and
gentle death" at about 9 a.m., a stuffed animal under her arm,
flowers arranged around her hospice room, said George Felos,
Michael Schiavo's attorney.
A damning report by a presidential commission concluded today that
the United States knows "disturbingly little" about nuclear and
biological threats from dangerous adversaries, years after the
Sept. 11 attacks and the nation's intelligence missteps on Iraqi
weapons. Urging dramatic changes in the U.S. spy agencies, the
commission called crucial intelligence judgments on Iraq "dead
wrong" and said the flaws it found "are still all too common."
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