6/ 1/05 Wednesday
President Bush intends to nominate California Rep. Christopher Cox
to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, Republican
officials said today following the resignation of William
Donaldson. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying
the White House wanted to make a public announcement. They said
that announcement could come as early as Thursday.
A landslide sent 17 multimillion-dollar houses crashing down a hill
in Southern Californian Laguna Beach, early today as homeowners
alarmed by the sound of walls and pipes coming apart ran for their
lives in their pajamas. Five people suffered minor injuries.
About 1,000 people in 350 other homes in the Blue Bird Canyon area
were evacuated as a precaution.
Dutch voters worried about social benefits and immigration
overwhelmingly rejected the European Union constitution today in
what could be a knockout blow for a charter meant to create a power
rivaling the United States. With nearly all votes counted, the
charter lost 62 percent to 38 percent, an even worse defeat than
the 55 percent "no" vote delivered in a French referendum Sunday.
A record 49.6 million students filled U.S. schools in 2003,
breaking a mark set by their baby boomer parents and giving
educators a new generation of challenges. The growth is largely
due to all the children who were born in the late 1940s to early
1960s and have since become parents themselves, the Census Bureau
said today. Rising immigration played a part, too, in pushing
enrollment past the 1970 record of 48.7 million.
6/ 2/05 Thursday
U.N. satellite imagery experts have determined that material that
could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned
long- range missiles has been removed from 109 sites in Iraq, U.N.
weapons inspectors said in a report obtained today. U.N.
inspectors have been blocked from returning to Iraq since the U.S.-
led war in 2003 so they have been using satellite photos to see
what happened to the sites that were subject to U.N. monitoring
because their equipment had both civilian and military uses.
In Laguna Beach, hundreds of evacuated residents were allowed to
return to their homes today, a day after multimillion-dollar houses
with vistas of the Southern California coastline went slipping down
a canyon in a landslide. Though 48 homes remained at least
temporarily off- limits, people were allowed back to about 310
undamaged homes as crews worked to restore gas and phone service to
the area, City Manager Ken Frank said. Electricity was back on in
most homes Thursday.
Actress Cameron Diaz is suing The National Enquirer for more than
$10 million, alleging the celebrity tabloid libeled her in a story
that claimed she cheated on boyfriend Justin Timberlake by kissing
another man. The suit filed Wednesday in Superior Court concerned
the tabloid's May 23 issue, which featured a photograph in which
Diaz and Shane Nickerson, an MTV producer who works on her reality
show, "Trippin," were shown outside a Los Angeles sound studio.
6/ 3/05 Friday
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld issued a blunt challenge to
China at a regional security conference, saying Beijing must
provide more political freedom to its citizens and questioning its
recent military buildup. Rumsfeld said the Pentagon's annual
assessment of China's military capabilities shows China is spending
more than its leaders acknowledge, expanding its missile
capabilities and developing advanced military technology. China
now has the world's third-largest military budget, he said, behind
the United States and Russia.
The child molestation case against Michael Jackson went to the jury
today after the defense begged the panel to acquit the singer,
portraying Jackson as a victim of grifters trying to pull "the
biggest con of their careers." Prosecutors painted a vastly
different picture during their closing argument - one of Jackson as
a serial child molester and his Neverland Ranch as a predator's
lair.
The mother of a missing Alabama teenager tearfully called for more
help from U.S. authorities today in the search for her daughter,
who disappeared on the last day of a high school graduation trip to
Oranjestad, on the Caribbean island of Aruba. Police and
volunteers combed beaches and scrubland for any sign of Natalee
Holloway, putting up posters with a photo of the 18-year-old honor
student. The wording on the posters was changed today to add a
photo caption saying: "Kidnapped since 1:30 a.m. May 30."
6/ 4/05 Saturday
A car plunged off a bridge early today and burst into flames,
killing five men in suburban Milwaukee. The car was traveling
south at Interstate 794 around 3 a.m. and didn't stop at the end of
the freeway, which is an off-ramp to Layton Avenue in Cudahy,
according to a police department news release. The car went across
Layton Avenue, smashed through a cement barrier and fence on the
bridge and fell 40 feet to the gravel road below that is being
constructed as an extension to the interstate. The car burst into
flames.
The Mars rover Opportunity resumed rolling freely across the
Martian surface today after scientists freed it from a sand dune
where it had been mired for nearly five weeks, NASA officials
said. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages
the mission, cheered when images beamed back to Earth showed the
rover's wheels were free.
Three men who said they dropped off an Alabama teenager at her
hotel have emerged as "the most important lead" in the honor
student's disappearance on the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba,
police said today. Police, Dutch troops and hundreds of volunteers
scouring coastline and beaches for six days have found no trace of
Natalee Holloway, 18.
6/ 5/05 Sunday
In Oranjestad, Aruba, two men were charged today in connection with
the disappearance last week of an Alabama teenager who was visiting
the island with classmates to celebrate their high school
graduation, Aruba's attorney general said. Authorities on the
Dutch Caribbean island also requested a special diving team from
the FBI because of rough currents in some areas, said Attorney
General Caren Janssen. The arrests came nearly a week after 18-
year-old Natalee Holloway disappeared during a five-day trip to
Aruba with more than 100 other classmates from Mountain Brook High
School, near Birmingham, Ala.
A Texas A&M University student who had been feared murdered after
disappearing nearly seven years ago has been found alive and
working in Kentucky, according to authorities. Brandi Stahr went
missing in October 1998, and police spent hours searching for her
body in wooded areas. They questioned a serial rapist and murderer
about her just hours before he was executed last year.
6/ 6/05 Monday
President Carlos Mesa, his 19-month-old government unraveling amid
swelling street protests and a crippling blockade of the Bolivian
capital, announced his resignation in a nationally televised
address. Mesa addressed his countrymen late today, hours after
riot police fired tear gas to scatter demonstrators trying to lay
siege to the Government Palace.
Anyone who lights up a joint for medicinal purposes isn't likely to
be pursued by federal authorities, despite a Supreme Court ruling
that these marijuana users could face federal charges, people on
both sides of the issue say. In a 6-3 decision, the court on today
said those who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it
to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws,
overriding medical marijuana statutes in 10 states.
A U.S. commitment to providing $674 million for famine relief in
Africa may take some of the sting out of President Bush's
opposition to a proposal by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to
spend even more money. However, the other issue topping Blair
foreign policy this year - fighting global warming - may further
strain his relationship with Bush. Blair has made the issues the
twin focus of Britain's yearlong chairmanship of the G-8 group of
wealthy nations, yet Bush has rejected many of his close ally's
ideas on Africa and the environment.
6/ 7/05 Tuesday
President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair today embraced
a tentative plan to forgive the debt of poor African nations "on a
path to reform" but failed to come together on Blair's calls to
double aid to the troubled continent and tackle global warming.
The leaders expressed confidence that the remaining details of a
deal on African debt relief could be worked out among them and with
the other countries attending next month's summit of major
industrialized nations in Gleneagles, Scotland.
Violent street protests choked off Bolivia's crippled capital
today, as the collapse of President Carlos Mesa's government failed
to quell demands by the poor Indian majority for more power from
the white elite that has ruled the country for decades. Riot
police firing arcing tear gas canisters sent thousands of
demonstrators fleeing down the cobblestoned streets of La Paz's old
colonial center.
General Motors Corp. plans to close plants and eliminate 25,000
manufacturing jobs in the United States by 2008 in an attempt to
restore profitability at the world's largest automaker, its
chairman said today as he fended off calls for his resignation.
Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner told shareholders at GM's
97th annual meeting in Delaware that the capacity and job cuts
should generate annual savings of roughly $2.5 billion. About one
out of six jobs in the United States will be eliminated.
6/ 8/05 Wednesday
Lodi, Calif.: a terrorism investigation in this quiet farming town
has led to the arrests of a father and son who said he trained at
an al-Qaida camp in Pakistan and planned to attack U.S. hospitals
and supermarkets, authorities said. Federal investigators believe
a number of people committed to al-Qaida have been operating in and
around Lodi, a wine-growing region about 30 miles south of
Sacramento, FBI Agent Keith Slotter said today. He would not
elaborate.
The Army appears likely to fall short of its full-year recruiting
goal for the first time since 1999, raising longer-term questions
about a military embroiled in its first protracted wars since
switching from the draft to a volunteer force 32 years ago. Many
young people and their parents have grown more wary of Army service
because of the likelihood of being dispatched on combat tours to
Iraq or Afghanistan, opinion polls show. U.S. troops are dying at
a rate of two a day in Iraq, more than two years after President
Bush declared that major combat operations had ended.
President Bush today left open the possibility that the U.S. prison
camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be shut down. "We're exploring
all alternatives as to how best to do the main objective, which is
to protect America," Bush told Fox News Channel's Neil Cavuto in an
interview.
6/ 9/05 Thursday
President Bush, facing efforts by some in his own party to scale
back the post-Sept. 11 Patriot Act, says it has made America safer
and should be made permanent. "The Patriot Act closed dangerous
gaps in America's law enforcement and intelligence capabilities,
gaps the terrorists exploited when they attacked us on September
the 11th," Bush said.
The FBI missed at least five opportunities before the Sept. 11
attacks to uncover vital intelligence information about the
terrorists, and the bureau didn't aggressively pursue the
information it did have, the Justice Department's inspector general
says in a newly released critique of government missteps. The IG
faulted the FBI for not knowing about the presence of two of the
Sept. 11 terrorists in the United States and for not following up
on an agent's theory that Osama bin Laden was sending students to
U.S. flight training schools. The agent's theory turned out to be
precisely what bin Laden did.
The Atlantic hurricane season's first named storm headed north
today toward the Gulf Coast as Florida residents, still recovering
from last year's devastation, watched with a wary eye. Tropical
Storm Arlene, which strengthened from a tropical depression that
formed Wednesday, was centered about 75 miles south-southeast of
the western tip of Cuba at 11 p.m. EDT. It was moving north at
about 8 mph, which could bring the storm's center near Cuba by late
today, forecasters said.
6/10/05 Friday
Police investigating the disappearance of an Alabama teenager in
Aruba said late today that one of three young men in custody has
admitted "something bad happened" to her during her island visit.
Deputy Police Commissioner Gerold Dompig told The AP that the man
was leading police late today to the scene. He refused to identify
which young man had made the statement.
President Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun pressed
North Korea to rejoin deadlocked talks on its nuclear weapons
program today and tried to minimize their own differences over how
hard to push the reclusive communist regime. "South Korea and the
United States share the same goal, and that is a Korean peninsula
without a nuclear weapon," Bush said with Roh at his side in the
Oval Office.
The parents of a Texas 12-year-old cancer patient decided today to
drop their objection to radiation treatment for their daughter
after new medical tests show she is no longer in remission. Their
decision came after the tests were disclosed during a juvenile
court hearing Texas. The judge ordered the therapy to begin as
soon as possible for Katie Wernecke.
6/11/05 Saturday
Three young men who took an Alabama honors student to the beach
before she disappeared must stay in jail, a judge ruled today, as
Aruba's attorney general and others denied reports that one had
confessed and said he would take police to the body. As rumors
mounted about the fate of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, a
spokeswoman for her family, Carla Caccavale, told The AP: "The
family confirms that a body has not been found."
Tropical Storm Arlene weakened as it blew ashore today on the Gulf
Coast, but still packed enough punch that it brought sheets of
rain, 20-foot waves and heavy wind to the same area that was
devastated by Hurricane Ivan nine months ago. The first named
storm of the Atlantic hurricane season had threatened to strengthen
to a hurricane but had sustained wind of only about 60 mph when it
made landfall at around 3 p.m., just west of Pensacola.
A staff paper prepared for British Prime Minister Tony Blair eight
months before the invasion of Iraq concluded that U.S. military
officials were not planning adequately for a postwar occupation,
The Washington Post reported. "A post-war occupation of Iraq could
lead to a protracted and costly nation-building exercise,"
authorities of the briefing memo wrote, according to the Post. "As
already made clear, the U.S. military plans are virtually silent on
this point. Washington could look to us to share a
disproportionate share of the burden."
6/12/05 Sunday
The military announced the killing of four more U.S. soldiers
today, pushing the American death toll past 1,700, and police found
the bullet-riddled bodies of 28 people - many thought to be Sunni
Arabs - buried in shallow graves or dumped streetside in Baghdad.
The bodies were discovered as the Shiite-led government pressed to
open disarmament talks with insurgents responsible for relentless
violence that has taken on ominous sectarian overtones with
recurring tit-for-tat killings.
Vice President Dick Cheney, reacting to a growing chorus of calls
to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay where terrorism suspects
are held, says there are no present plans to do so. "The important
thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo
are bad people," he said. "I mean, these are terrorists for the
most part. These are people that were captured in the battlefield
of Afghanistan or rounded up as part of the al-Qaida network," he
said in an interview to be aired Monday on Fox News Channel's
"Hannity & Colmes."
Off-screen couple or not, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had enough
on-screen chemistry to lift their assassin tale "Mr. and Mrs.
Smith" to a robust $51 million opening weekend. The other new wide
releases, "The Honeymooners," "The Adventures of Sharkboy and
Lavagirl in 3-D" and "High Tension," opened weakly, contributing to
Hollywood's 16th-straight weekend of declining revenues compared to
last year, according to studio estimates today. "Mr. and Mrs.
Smith" debuted amid a tabloid fury about whether Pitt and Jolie
were an item.
6/13/05 Monday
Wanly blowing kisses of gratitude to his screaming fans, Michael
Jackson left court a free man this afternoon and went back to
Neverland to pick up the pieces of his shattered career after he
was cleared of all charges in his child-molestation trial.
Jackson, 46, heard the words "not guilty" uttered 14 times in a
deathly still courtroom. The Peter Pan of pop music could have
gotten nearly 20 years behind bars if convicted of charges that he
molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003.
In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a World War II-era cargo plane crashed
and burned today in the middle of a street in a residential
neighborhood, authorities said. All three people on board
survived. Though hospitalized, the three were "sitting up, talking
on their cell phones" hours after the crash, hospital spokeswoman
Maria Soldani said.
6/14/05 Tuesday
A major earthquake struck about 80 miles off the coast of northern
California tonight, briefly prompting a tsunami warning along the
Pacific coast. The 7.0-magnitude quake struck at about 7:50 p.m.
southwest of the coastal community of Crescent City and 300 miles
northwest of San Francisco, according to the U.S. Geological Survey
Web site.
Prominent Senate Republicans said today that closing the Guantanamo
Bay prison will not fix a U.S. image tarnished by allegations of
American troops mistreating terrorism suspects. "To cut and run
because of image problems is the wrong, wrong thing to do," Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist said.
Michael Jackson's lawyer said today that the pop star is going to
be more careful from now on and not let children into his bed
anymore because "it makes him vulnerable to false charges." In an
interview with The AP the morning after Jackson's acquittal on all
counts, Thomas Mesereau Jr. said he is convinced that the pop star
"has never molested any child." But he said Jackson will continue
to be "a convenient target for people who want to extract money or
build careers at his expense."
6/15/05 Wednesday
The autopsy of Terri Schiavo backed her husband's contention that
she was in a persistent vegetative state, finding she was severely
and irreversibly brain-damaged and blind as well. The report,
released today, also found no evidence that she was strangled or
otherwise abused before she collapsed. Yet medical examiners could
not say for certain what caused her sudden 1990 collapse, long
thought to have been brought on by an eating disorder.
In a slap at President Bush, lawmakers voted today to block the
Justice Department and the FBI from using the Patriot Act to peek
at library records and bookstore sales slips. The House voted 238-
187 despite a veto threat from Bush to block the part of the anti-
terrorism law that allows the government to investigate the reading
habits of terror suspects.
In Noord, Aruba, authorities today searched the home of a high-
ranking Dutch judicial official whose son was with an Alabama
honors student the night she disappeared. Police carried away the
results of their search in several garbage bags and towed two
cars. Earlier, the official, Paul van der Sloot, asked a judge for
permission to see his 17-year-old son, Joran, who remains in police
custody with two other young men in the May 30 disappearance of
Natalee Holloway, 18.
6/16/05 Thursday
A moderate earthquake shook most of Southern California today,
startling people and knocking items off shelves and desks, but
there were no immediate reports of significant damage or injuries.
"All of a sudden it just started rocking," said John Napolitano,
45, a campus police officer at Crafton Hills College. "I just sat
there and rode it out."
A U.S. general today blamed Iraq's recent spike in bloodshed on a
terrorist leader condoning the killing of fellow Muslims, while a
suicide car bomber rammed into a truck in Baghdad, killing at least
eight police officers and wounding 25 others. The U.S. military
also reported that five Marines and a sailor were killed Wednesday
near the volatile western city of Ramadi. Separately, Staff Sgt.
Alberto B. Martinez was charged with murder Wednesday in the deaths
last week of two Army officers at a base north of Baghdad, the
military said today.
A 23-year-old sergeant with the Kentucky National Guard today
became the first female soldier to receive the Silver Star - the
nation's third-highest medal for valor - since World War II. Sgt.
Leigh Ann Hester, who is from Nashville, Tenn., but serves in a
Kentucky unit, received the award for gallantry during a March 20
insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq. Two men from her unit, the
617th Military Police Company of Richmond, Ky., also received the
Silver Star for their roles in the same action.
6/17/05 Friday
The names, banks and account numbers of up to 40 million credit
card holders may have been accessed by an unauthorized user,
MasterCard International Inc. said today. The credit card giant
said the security breach involves a computer virus that captured
customer data for the purpose of fraud and may have affected
holders of all brands of credit cards.
None of the seven candidates in Iran's presidential election won an
outright majority, setting the stage for the first presidential
runoff in the country's history, a government official said. With
one-third of the votes counted, the favorite candidate Ayatollah
Hashemi Rafsanjani was in a virtual dead heat with conservative-
turned-reformer, Mahdi Karroubi, according to the state-run Islamic
Republic News Agency, or IRNA.
In New Yprk, a helicopter carrying the CEO of MBNA Corp. and other
top executives plunged into the East River today, the second
helicopter crash in four days in the waters off Manhattan.
Rescuers pulled all eight people onboard out of the choppy water.
One of the pilots took salt water into his lungs and was in
critical condition, authorities said. The other seven were
released from the hospital tonight, including the company's chief
executive, Bruce Hammonds.
6/18/05 Saturday
Helicopter gunships and fighter jets streaked across the desert sky
today as American and Iraqi forces battled insurgents near the
Syrian border, killing at least 50 militants in two massive
offensives to stanch the flow of foreign fighters from Iraq's
western neighbor. The U.S. military reported the deaths of two
American soldiers, killed north of Baghdad during an attack as they
were taking a captive to jail.
When Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief foreign policy adviser dined
with Condoleezza Rice six months after Sept. 11, the then U.S.
national security adviser didn't want to discuss Osama bin Laden or
al-Qaida. She wanted to talk about "regime change" in Iraq,
setting the stage for the U.S.-led invasion more than a year
later. President Bush wanted Blair's support, but British
officials worried the White House was rushing to war, according to
a series of leaked secret Downing Street memos that have renewed
questions and debate about Washington's motives for ousting Saddam
Hussein.
One woman broke the law. The other helped catch a suspected
killer. Both are selling their stories and could make millions in
the process. Representatives of Ashley Smith - whose 911 call led
police to courthouse shootings suspect Brian Nichols - and runaway
bride Jennifer Wilbanks made deals for their stories with
publishing houses in the past week.
6/19/05 Sunday
In sworn testimony that contrasts with their promises to the
public, the FBI managers who crafted the post-Sept. 11 fight
against terrorism say expertise about the Mideast or terrorism was
not important in choosing the agents they promoted to top jobs.
And they still do not believe such experience is necessary today
even as terrorist acts occur across the globe.
Palestinian militants ambushed Israeli soldiers near the Gaza-
Egypt border today as the soldiers worked to reinforce a wall meant
to stop smuggling, the army said. One soldier and one attacker
were killed in the latest violation of a shaky 4-month- old cease-
fire. Despite the violence, the two sides pushed forward with
coordination of Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in
mid-August. They were prodded by Secretary Condoleezza Rice, who
wrapped up a two-day visit to the region today by saying she was
reassured Israel and the Palestinians are committed to a peaceful
pullout.
Crude oil futures have hit a record high, reaching $59.18 a barrel
in Asian trading on concerns that demand will outpace refineries'
ability to produce diesel and gasoline in the second half of the
year. The kidnapping last week of six oil workers, including two
Germans, in Nigeria, Africa's largest producer, also contributed to
the commodity's rise.
6/20/05 Monday
Senate Democrats blocked John Bolton's confirmation as U.N.
ambassador for the second time today and President Bush left open
the possibility of bypassing lawmakers and appointing the tough-
talking former State Department official on his own. The vote was
54-38, six shy of the total needed to force a final vote on Bolton,
and represented an erosion in support from last month's failed
Republican effort. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, who voted in May
to advance the nomination, switched positions and urged Bush to
consider another candidate, while only three Democrats crossed
party lines.
In Philadelphia, Miss., the murder case against a former Klansman
charged in the slayings of three civil rights workers went to the
jury today after prosecutors made an impassioned plea for a
conviction, saying the victims' families have waited a long 41
years for someone to be brought to justice. "Because the guilt of
Edgar Ray Killen is so clear, there is only one question left,"
prosecutor Mark Duncan said in closing arguments. "Is a Neshoba
County jury going to tell the rest of the world that we are not
going to let Edgar Ray Killen get away with murder any more? Not
one day more."
6/21/05 Tuesday
Forty-one years to the day after three civil rights workers were
beaten and shot to death, an 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman
was found guilty of manslaughter today in a trial that marked
Mississippi's latest attempt to atone for its bloodstained, racist
past. The jury of nine whites and three blacks took less than six
hours to clear Edgar Ray Killen of murder but convict him of the
lesser charges in the 1964 killings that galvanized the struggle
for equality and helped bring about passage of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act.
Kamas, Utah: an 11-year- old boy who vanished from a Boy Scout camp
was found alive and in good condition today after spending four
days lost in the rugged Utah wilderness. Sheriff Dave Edmunds said
Brennan Hawkins was "a little dehydrated, a little weak, but other
than that, he was in very good health." After downing bottles of
water and eating all the granola bars carried by a group of
volunteer searchers, the boy asked to play a video game on one
rescuer's cell phone, the sheriff said.
6/22/05 Wednesday
A constitutional amendment to outlaw flag burning cleared the House
today but faced an uphill battle in the Senate. An informal survey
by The AP suggested the measure doesn't have enough Senate votes to
pass. The 286-130 outcome was never in doubt in the House, which
had passed the measure or one like it five times in recent years.
The amendment's supporters expressed optimism that a Republican
gain of four seats in last November's election could produce the
two-thirds approval needed in the Senate as well after four failed
attempts since 1989.
An American U-2 spy plane crashed while returning to its base in
the United Arab Emirates on today, killing the pilot after a
mission in support of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The aircraft
crashed in the Emirates while approaching the base to land, said a
Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because
of the sensitivity of the operation. Early reports gave no
indication of any hostile fire, but it was too soon to be certain
why it crashed, the official said.
Wildfires raced through a national forest in Arizona and a desert
community in Southern California today, burning several homes and
threatening hundreds more in an outbreak fueled by gusting winds
and scorching temperatures. A 1,500-acre grass fire in California
raced through the Mojave Desert about 100 miles east of downtown
Los Angeles, an area that includes about 2,000 ranches and homes,
said Dave Dowling, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire
Department.
6/23/05 Thursday
The Iraqi insurgency is as active as six months ago and more
foreign fighters are flowing in all the time, the top U.S.
commander in the Middle East said today, despite Vice President
Dick Cheney's insistence that the insurgency was "in its last
throes." Gen. John Abizaid, testifying at a contentious Senate
hearing alongside Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, gave his
view of the war in response to lawmakers who expressed concern
about progress in Iraq and support at home.
Cities may bulldoze people's homes to make way for shopping malls
or other private development, a divided Supreme Court ruled today,
giving local governments broad power to seize private property to
generate tax revenue. In a scathing dissent, Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor said the decision bowed to the rich and powerful at the
expense of middle-class Americans.
Aruban police arrested the father of a young Dutch teen already in
custody in connection with the disappearance of a young Alabama
woman, and said today that he was considered a suspect in the 3-
week-old case. The teen's mother, meanwhile, told The AP that her
son had changed his story, admitting to her that he was alone with
18-year-old Natalee Holloway on a beach the night she vanished; and
that he left her there, not at a Holiday Inn as he earlier stated.
But Joran van der Sloot, 17, insisted that he did not hurt her,
Anita van der Sloot said.
Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert isn't a movie star
but he critiques them on TV - so memorably that today he received
his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A crowd of family,
friends and fans cheered as Ebert's star was unveiled in front of
Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre. Attendees included director Werner
Herzog, actress Virginia Madsen and actor Tony Danza.
6/24/05 Friday
A suicide car bomber and gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying female
U.S. Marines in Fallujah, killing two Marines and leaving another
four American troops presumed dead, the military said today. At
least one woman was killed and 11 of 13 wounded were female. The
terror group al-Qaida in Iraq claimed it carried out the bombing,
one of the single deadliest attacks against the Marines - and
against women - in this country. The high number of female
casualties spoke to the lack of any real front lines in Iraq, where
U.S. troops are battling a raging insurgency and American women
soldiers have taken part in more close-quarters combat than in any
previous military conflict.
Exhaustive tests have confirmed mad cow disease in an animal
apparently born in the United States, officials said today. It is
the second case of the disease confirmed in this country, but
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns stressed there was no threat to
public health. The animal, a "downer" that could not walk, was not
killed at a slaughterhouse but at a rendering plant for animals
unfit for human consumption, officials said. Johanns would not say
where the case turned up, but he said there was no evidence the cow
was imported.
Despite growing anxiety about the war in Iraq, President Bush
refused to set a timetable today for bringing home U.S. troops and
declared, "I'm not giving up on the mission. We're doing the right
thing." Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, with Bush at a
White House news conference, expressed gratitude for the heavy U.S.
sacrifice in Iraq - the deaths of at least 1,730 members of the
military.
The Rev. Billy Graham, hobbled by age and illness, opened his final
American revival today, greeted with a standing ovation as he used
a walker to reach the pulpit. Graham, 86, was supported while he
moved onstage by his son and successor, the Rev. Franklin Graham,
who then sat nearby, ready to step in if his father was unable to
finish.
6/25/05 Saturday
U.S. officials held secret talks in Iraq with the commanders of
several Iraqi insurgent groups recently in an attempt to open a
dialogue with them, a British newspaper reported. The commanders
"apparently came face to face" with four American officials during
meetings on June 3 and June 13 at a summer villa near Balad, about
25 miles north of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, according to The
Sunday Times.
As the mystery of a missing Alabama honors student drags on,
questions abound about Aruban authorities' handling of the Dutch
Caribbean island's highest-profile case in decades. Why were the
young men last seen with 18-year-old Natalee Holloway left free for
days after she disappeared May 30, the last day of a five-day high
school graduation trip with 124 other students? Why did police
wait 16 days after she went missing before searching the home of
the Dutch youth who was flirting with her? Why did Aruban
officials ask the FBI to send divers, who came to the island but
never searched its waters?
6/26/05 Sunday
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today he is bracing for
even more violence in Iraq and acknowledged that the insurgency
"could go on for any number of years." Defeating the insurgency
may take as long as 12 years, he said, with Iraqi security forces,
not U.S. and foreign troops, taking the lead and finishing the job.
Iran's ultraconservative president-elect, at once defiant and at
ease, vowed today to restart the nation's controversial nuclear
program and warned European negotiators that building trust
required a mutual effort. Asked about relations with the United
States during his first news conference since Friday's election,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran "is taking the path of progress based
on self-reliance. It doesn't need the United States significantly
on this path."
"Batman Begins" took in $26.8 million to remain the top movie for
the second straight weekend, but it could not keep Hollywood from
sinking to its longest modern box-office slump. Overall business
tumbled despite a rush of familiar new titles - "Bewitched," a
"Love Bug" update and the latest zombie tale from director George
Romero.
6/27/05 Monday
The Supreme Court ruled today that displaying the Ten Commandments
on government property is constitutionally permissible in some
cases but not in others. A pair of 5-4 decisions left future
disputes on the contentious church-state issue to be settled case-
by-case. "The court has found no single mechanical formula that
can accurately draw the constitutional line in every case," wrote
Justice Stephen G. Breyer.
The U.S. military said today it plans to expand its prisons across
Iraq to hold as many as 16,000 detainees, as the relentless
insurgency shows no sign of letup one year after the transfer of
sovereignty to Iraqi authorities. The plans were announced on a
day three U.S. Army soldiers were killed - two pilots whose
helicopter crashed north of Baghdad and a soldier who was shot in
the capital. At least four Iraqis died in a car bomb attack in the
capital.
John Walton, the billionaire son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and
a member of the company's board, died today in a plane crash in
Wyoming. Walton, 58, of Jackson, Wyo., was piloting an ultralight
that crashed shortly after takeoff from the Jackson Hole Airport in
Grand Teton National Park, the company said. He was pronounced
dead at the scene, and the cause of the afternoon crash was not
known, officials said.
6/28/05 Tuesday
President Bush tonight rejected suggestions that he set a timetable
for withdrawal from Iraq or send in more troops, counseling
patience for Americans who question the war's painful costs. "Is
the sacrifice worth it? It is worth it and it is vital to the
security of our country," Bush told a nation increasingly doubtful
about the toll of the 27-month-old war.
A U.S. CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, which a military
official said may have been carrying 15 to 20 people, crashed today
while ferrying reinforcements to fight insurgents in a mountainous
region in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed to have shot
down the aircraft. The fate of those on board the helicopter,
which crashed near Asadabad in Kunar province, was not immediately
known, the U.S. military said. A statement said the cause of the
crash was unclear.
Bombs killed the country's oldest legislator and two American
soldiers today on the first anniversary of Iraq's sovereignty - a
day the president described as "blessed" despite the persistent
violence. More than a dozen Iraqis also were killed and U.S. and
Iraqi troops launched Operation Sword aimed at communities along
the Euphrates River, their third major anti-insurgency campaign in
Anbar province.
6/29/05 Wednesday
U.S. military officials said today they feared all 17 troops aboard
a special operations helicopter were dead after hostile fire downed
the craft and it slid or rolled into a rugged mountain ravine in
eastern Afghanistan. If those aboard were confirmed killed, the
crash would be the deadliest blow yet to American forces in
Afghanistan, already grappling with an insurgency that is widening
rather than winding down.
A quarter-century after they were taken captive in Iran, five
former American hostages say they got an unexpected reminder of
their 444-day ordeal in the bearded face of Iran's new president-
elect. Watching coverage of Iran's presidential election on
television dredged up 25-year-old memories that prompted four of
the former hostages to exchange e-mails. And those four realized
they shared the same conclusion - the firm belief that President-
elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been one of their Iranian captors.
The latest confirmed case of mad cow disease in the United States
has been traced to a beef cow born in Texas 12 years ago and
slaughtered last November at pet-food plant, Agriculture Department
officials said today. It was the first time the disease has been
confirmed in a U.S.-born cow. The other U.S. case, confirmed in
December 2003 in Washington state, was in a dairy cow imported from
Canada.
6/30/05 Thursday
The White House said today it was investigating whether Iran's new
president played a role in seizing the American Embassy and holding
52 U.S. captives a quarter century ago. President Bush said the
allegation by former hostages "raises many questions." The
administration was reviewing its files on Iranian president-elect
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the hostage comments were brought to
light by The AP.
Humanitarian workers welcomed President Bush's promise today to
double aid to Africa over the next five years, but analysts
cautioned that money alone won't solve the continent's woes. Good
governance by African leaders and fair trade policies with the
impoverished continent are also key, analysts said.
Cattle will not be allowed to leave the Texas ranch that produced
the nation's first homegrown case of mad cow disease, and
government officials will work to find animals related to the sick
cow, authorities said today. None of those "animals of interest"
have yet been identified. If found, the cattle will be killed and
tested, Texas animal health officials said.
After 2 1/2 two years of frustrating setbacks and delays, NASA
officially set July 13 as the launch date today for the first space
shuttle flight since the Columbia tragedy. NASA Administrator
Michael Griffin announced the news after a two-day space agency
review of Discovery's readiness to blast off.
Breaking ranks with The New York Times, Time magazine said today it
would comply with a court order to hand over the notes of a
reporter threatened with jail for refusing to cooperate with an
investigation into the unmasking of a CIA operative. Time relented
after just days after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from
its White House correspondent Matt Cooper and New York Times
reporter Judith Miller, who have been locked in an eight-month
battle with the government to protect their confidential sources.
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