Around The World

Scientists find gene defect involved in skin cancer\nLONDON -- Scientists have determined that a spontaneous change in a certain gene is involved in 70 percent of cases of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, which kills nearly 40,000 people a year worldwide. Experts say the finding might lead to more effective drugs for melanoma, which accounts for just 11 percent of skin cancer, but is hard to treat once it has spread and accounts for almost all deaths from skin cancer.\nSenators: Bush plan misses flaws in FBI and CIA\nWASHINGTON -- Leading lawmakers on intelligence issues said today that President Bush's proposed domestic security agency does not address flaws in the FBI and CIA and is just the start of the changes needed in response to Sept. 11-related failures. \n"If the administration takes the stonewall position that every word in their plan is biblical and if you change it you're unpatriotic, I think that will be a very serious error," said Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Sen. Richard Shelby, the committee's top Republican, said Congress must review carefully what Bush's plan does and does not do. For example, he said, it fails to address problems with the FBI and CIA that Congress' intelligence committees are reviewing.\nThe Department of Homeland Security proposed last week by Bush would inherit 169,000 employees and $37.4 billion from the agencies it would absorb, including the Secret Service, Coast Guard, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the immigration and customs services. It would exclude the largest intelligence operations, including the FBI, CIA and the National Security Agency.\nRumsfeld visits U.S. troops in Kuwait\nCAMP DOHA, Kuwait -- Venturing into a sizzling desert 35 miles from the Iraqi border, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today told U.S. troops they are on the front lines against a foe that seeks to use terrorism to alter the American way of life. \n"You are the people who stand between freedom and fear," he said. In his prepared remarks, Rumsfeld left little doubt that he was aiming his anti-terror rhetoric at Iraq, which he frequently says is among nations that support international terrorist groups. He alluded to Iraq in describing the ultimate goal of President Bush's war on terror.\nU.N. refugee agency out of money\nKABUL, Afghanistan -- With a shortfall in donations, the U.N. refugee agency's operation in Afghanistan will be broke within a month, left with little more than promises of peace to give hundreds of thousands of people returning to their war-shattered homeland. Yusuf Hassan, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Sunday nearly a million refugees have returned from neighboring Pakistan and Iran in less than four months, straining resources to the point of bankruptcy.\nTijuana installs cameras in police stations\nTIJUANA, Mexico -- The government of this violent border city has installed cameras in police stations and jails, seeking to show the public that its officers are not taking bribes or torturing prisoners. Antonio Martinez, attorney general for western Baja California state, said the cameras will provide images that will be broadcast over the Internet. He said a similar program has been well received in the state capital of Mexicali.