394 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(05/23/05 6:23pm)
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A British tabloid published more surreptitiously taken prison pictures of Saddam Hussein Saturday, and\nIraq's once-dominant Sunni Muslim minority sought to break out of its deepening isolation by forming an alliance of tribal, political and religious groups.\nBut the new Sunni group's first act, a demand the interior minister resign, threatened to fuel sectarian tensions following the recent killing of several Sunni clerics that they have blamed on Shiite-dominated security forces.\nTen clerics, both Sunni and Shiite, have been killed by gunmen in the past two weeks. Sunnis dominated Iraq under Saddam, but Shiites make up the majority and hold the bulk of power in the new government.\nInterior Minister Bayan Jabr, a Shiite, denied the government was involved in the killings and said he would not step down.\n"No one has the right to call for the resignation of a minister, only parliament can do that. Those who didn't get one vote have no right to ask," Jabr said, referring to the fact that many Sunnis stayed away from Jan. 30 elections either in protest or fear of attacks.\nEight members of an elite Interior Ministry force known as the Wolf Brigade, which at least one Sunni leader has implicated in sectarian killings, died in a pre-dawn ambush Saturday on their 20-vehicle convoy in downtown Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police 1st Lt. Nadar Adil said.\nAnother four police officers were killed by a roadside bomb in the predominantly Sunni city of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police Lt. Qassim Mohammed said.\nA roadside bomb blast Sunday killed one Iraqi civilian and wounded another near Oyoun, a village 31 miles west of the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, said army Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin.\nAmin said he also escaped what he called an assassination attempt late Saturday when two roadside bombs exploded near his military convoy between Kirkuk and Hawija to the southeast.\nFive mortars apparently aimed at a police special forces base missed their target and struck southwestern Baghdad's al-Alam residential area late Saturday, wounding five civilians, police Capt. Talib Thamer said.\nSectarian tension has been high throughout the country and Sunni extremists are believed to be driving Iraq's relentless insurgency, with more than 550 people killed since Iraq's Shiite-led government was\nannounced April 28.\nSuch violence also has taken its toll on reconstruction efforts and insurgents targeting oil lines, electricity plants and other infrastructure projects have delayed U.S. plans to invest $21 billion in resources for the country's reconstruction, a U.S. official said.\nBill Taylor, director of the U.S.-led Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, said Saturday that ceaseless attacks -- the military has said they average 70 a day -- have led to skyrocketing security demands, with up to 16 percent of all project costs now being spent on protection.\nSo far $7.5 billion of this has been paid to contractors to perform works. Rebuilding, training and equipping Iraq's own security forces will eat up $5 billion alone, he added.\n"We are paying more for security than we should," Taylor said. "The fact is that the security is not good."\nThere were fears that the publication Friday and Saturday of pictures showing the imprisoned Saddam, including one where he is clad only in his underwear, could further fuel anti-American sentiment.\nThe new pictures in Britain's The Sun included one of Saddam seen through barbed wire wearing a white Arab robe, and another of Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged role in gassing Kurds, in a bathrobe and holding a towel.\nThe newspaper also ran pictures of Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biotech researcher dubbed "Mrs. Anthrax," who got her nickname for her alleged work trying to develop biological weapons for Saddam.\nThe Sun said the photos were provided by "U.S. military sources" it did not identify who hoped their release would deal a "body blow" to the insurgency.\nThe U.S. military condemned publication of the photos and ordered an investigation into the leak.\nThe newly created Sunni alliance, which has not adopted a name, will open its first office in Baghdad with branches later in other cities.\n"The decisions taken by this body will be shared by all Sunni parties and movements, Islamists, independents, merchants, military officers, heads of tribes and workers," said Adnan al-Duleimi, the head of the Sunni Endowment.\nThe charitable organization was one of three main Sunni groups to back the formation of the new organization. The others were the influential Association of Muslim Scholars and the Iraqi Islamic Party.\n"We decided to establish this Sunni political and religious organization to speak on behalf the Arab Sunnis. We all have to work for the sake of Iraq to get this country out of this hard situation," said Sheik Lawrence Abid Ibrahim al-Hardan, 47, who is from restive Anbar province west of Baghdad.\nSunnis said they hope the organization will give them more of a say in Shiite-dominated Iraq and help bring the minority together ahead of new elections in December.\n"We made a big mistake when we didn't take part in the elections and that was because we didn't have a unified and clear religious and political organization," said Sheik Salim Assad Abdullah al-Dhahir, 55.\nSunnis dominated under Saddam's Baathist regime but make up just 15 percent to 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people and most stayed away from the polls that led to the nation's first democratically elected government.\nShiites, who comprise 60 percent of the population, emerged from the Jan. 30 elections with the biggest bloc in the National Assembly. They have allied with Kurds while seeking to include Sunnis in the government.\n"We condemn raids and detention done under the cover of the law against imams and mosques. We demand an independent committee be formed to verify if detainees were killed or tortured and demand the resignation of the interior minister," the Sunnis said in a statement announcing the formation of their organization.\nThe government has denied involvement in the killings but said some attackers have worn Iraqi army uniforms when seizing their victims and declared Iraqi troops can no longer enter mosques, churches or universities.
(05/23/05 6:22pm)
JERUSALEM - Protesters besieged Laura Bush during her visit Sunday to two of Jerusalem's most sacred sites, with Israeli police locking arms to restrain the crowd and Secret Service agents packed tightly around America's first lady.\nStepping into the long-running Mideast conflict, she appealed for Israelis and Palestinians to commit to working for peace and said Americans "will do what they can in this process."\nThe demonstrations at the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock showed "what an emotional place this is as we go from each one of these very, very holy sites to the next," Mrs. Bush said later in the West Bank town of Jericho as she stood at the ruins of the 8th-century Hisham's Palace.\n"We're reminded again of what every one of us would want. ... What we all want is peace and the chance that we have right now to have peace, to have a Palestinian state living by a secure state of Israel, both living in democracy, is as close as we've been in a really long time," she said at an ancient home of Islamic spiritual leaders.\nBush, who is on a tour intended partly to help defuse anti-American sentiment in the region, placed a note in the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest shrine. She wrote the note on the flight Sunday from Jordan to Israel, but wanted to keep the contents private, a spokeswoman said.\nDozens of protesters stood nearby, shouting, "Free Pollard now." Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew who is serving life sentence in a U.S. prison for spying for Israel, was a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy.\nThe first lady was mobbed by protesters and local reporters, and Secret Service agents and Israeli police had to physically hold back the crowd as she approached \nthe wall.\nShe then went to the Dome of the Rock, a mosque on a hilltop compound known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount. As she left the mosque, one heckler yelled, "How dare you come in here! Why your husband kill Muslim?"\nBush removed her shoes as she entered the mosque and walked barefoot on the red carpet. She held a black scarf tightly around her head as she gazed up at the gilded dome and the colorful mosaics on the marble walls.\nSome of the women studying inside the mosque were clearly annoyed at the intrusion and waved their fingers at the U.S. entourage. Despite the chaos at both sites, Bush kept smiling and said little.\nIn Jericho, which is under Palestinian control, security was tight and no protesters were evident when Bush visited the ruins and met at a hotel with leading Palestinian women.\n"As you can tell from our day here, this is a place of emotions everywhere we went, from the Dome of the Rock to the Western Wall" she told reporters at the palace ruins.\nAs for the peace process, Bush said the U.S. would do whatever it could, but that both sides share responsibility in helping achieve peace.\n"It will take a lot of baby steps and I'm sure that there will be a few steps backward on the way, but I want to encourage the people I met with earlier, the women I just met with, that the United States will do what they can in this process," Bush said.\n"It also requires the work of the people here, of the Palestinians and the Israelis, to come to the table obviously, and we'll see," she said.\nThe first lady met in Jericho with leading Palestinian women before visiting the palace. Earlier, she held talks with Gila Katsav, the wife of Israel's president, and other leading Israeli women.\nAnti-American sentiment is running high in the Mideast because of a variety of factors, including a now-retracted report in Newsweek that Pentagon investigators had found evidence interrogators at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, placed copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, in washrooms to unsettle suspects and flushed a Quran down a toilet.\n"We in principle don't reject anyone's visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque (compound), but we see in the visit of Bush an attempt to whitewash the face of the United States, after the crimes that the American interrogators had committed when they desecrated the Quran," the militant Islamic Hamas group said in a statement on its Web site.\nAdnan Husseini, director of the Islamic Trust that administers the mosque compound, said Bush tried to play down the heckling, saying it could have happened anywhere.\nHusseini said he told her he hoped President Bush would exert pressure to achieve peace in the Holy Land. President Bush is meeting on Thursday at the White House with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.\nLater Sunday, Bush laid a wreath at Yad Vashem, the Israeli memorial for the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust of World War II.\nShe wrote in the visitors' book at the site: "Each life is precious. Each memory calls us to action to honor those lost. We commit ourselves to reject hatred and to teach tolerance and live in peace. \nThank you"
(05/19/05 1:35am)
MEXICO CITY -- Mexican President Vicente Fox and the Rev. Jesse Jackson agreed Wednesday to work together to unite blacks and Hispanics in the United States after Fox said Mexicans were working U.S. jobs that not even blacks would take.\nIn a news conference following their meeting, Jackson said Fox had expressed regret for any offense caused by Friday's comment, which Jackson had earlier described as "at best, insensitive."\nFox "now realizes the harmful effects of it," Jackson said. "He seeks to correct it by reaching out."\nJackson said the statement, which angered the U.S. black community, was a chance for minority groups in the United States to begin working together to fight for better treatment and wages.\n"It was offensive and inaccurate, but it was a diversion from the bigger struggle of workers rights," he said.\nForeign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez, who appeared at the news conference on behalf of Fox, said the meeting had turned the dispute into a chance to ease the sometimes tense relations between blacks and Hispanics in the United States.\n"We made clear that this government is a government that has fought for human rights," he said.\nFox didn't appear at the news conference because he had to leave for a trip to northern Mexico.\nJackson had called on Fox to issue a public apology, and Fox said Monday during a phone conversation with Jackson that he was sorry for "any hurt feelings caused by my statements," according to a statement sent out by Mexico's Foreign Relations Department.\nLate Tuesday, Assistant Foreign Secretary Patricia Olamendi echoed that sentiment, saying: "If anyone felt offended by the statement, I offer apologies on behalf of my government."\nFox spokesman Ruben Aguilar said Wednesday that Olamendi was speaking on behalf of herself. Aguilar has insisted Fox's comments were misinterpreted.\nDerbez also said Olamendi's comments were her own personal opinion, but he praised and thanked her for being a leader in the fight against discrimination.\nIn Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher on Monday called Fox's remark "very insensitive and inappropriate."\nThe next day, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Fox "made a public statement regretting his comments, and I think he's addressed the matter."\nJackson criticized President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for not personally criticizing Fox's comments.\n"I would expect some official expression from our government," he said. "So far, the president and our secretary of state have not done that."\nThe dispute was the latest row between Mexico and the United States, and reflected Mexicans' frustration with the failure of the U.S. \ngovernment to approve a migration accord touted by Bush.\nMany Mexicans did not see Fox's remark about blacks as offensive. Blackface comedy, while demeaning to many Americans, is still considered funny here, and many people are given nicknames based on skin color.\nWhile Mexico has a few, isolated black communities, the population is dominated by descendants of Mexico's Spanish colonizers and its native Indians, who themselves face widespread discrimination from lighter-skinned Mexicans with more European features.
(05/19/05 1:34am)
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgents gunned down a senior Iraqi Interior Ministry official Wednesday and the bodies of seven men shot in the head were found outside Baghdad, part of an escalation in violence that a senior U.S. military official said was called for during a recent meeting in Syria by lieutenants of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.\nThe spiraling violence has killed nearly 500 people since the April 28 announcement of the new Shiite-dominated government. Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari recently pledged to use "an iron fist" to prevent an outbreak of sectarian violence -- which al-Zarqawi and his al-Qaida in Iraq group have tried to foment.\nA senior U.S. military official, who told reporters he did not want to be named after briefing them, said the recent upsurge in violence can be attributed to a meeting in neighboring Syria about a month ago by lieutenants of the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, who may have attended.\nThe meeting was held to try and ramp up terrorist attacks, particularly suicide car bombings, throughout Iraq, the official said.\nAl-Zarqawi, according to information obtained wby the U.S. military, was angered by a perceived lull in the militant campaign, the official told reporters. His call for increased attacks sparked the deadly wave of violence.\nHe said there had been 21 car bombings in Baghdad during May, compared with 25 such attacks in the capital in all of 2004.\n"There was recently a gathering of insurgents in Syria with al-Zarqawi and his leadership to have some additional discussions or guidance with the insurgents," the official said.\nThe official also said the military obtained intelligence from detainees, Iraqi military sources and data from the field to corroborate that the meeting took place in Syria, which the United States has accused of not doing enough to curb the flow of foreign fighters into the country.\n"He (al-Zarqawi) allegedly was not happy with how the insurgency was going, the government was getting stronger and coalition forces not being defeated. Some intelligence reports from captives showed that al-Zarqawi directed people to start using more vehicle-borne devices and use them in everyday operations," the official said.\nAl-Zarqawi is Iraq's most-wanted terrorist and has a $25 million bounty on his head -- the same as for Osama bin Laden.\nAsked whether he had heard about such a meeting, Iraq's presidential adviser for security affairs, Gen. Wafiq al-Samarie, said, "I have no information about that."\nIn Damascus, officials at Syria's foreign and information ministries were unavailable for comment.\nThe insurgency also was discussed Tuesday during a historic visit to Baghdad by Iran's foreign minister, who pledged to secure his country's borders to stop militants from entering Iraq.\nPrime Minister al-Jaafari also announced plans for his first foreign trip, a two-day visit to neighboring Turkey on Friday and Saturday. The insurgency is expected to top the agenda.\nBrig. Gen. Ibrahim Khamas was shot and killed by four gunmen in a four-door sedan as he drove through Baghdad's southeastern Zaafaraniyah district, police Col. Nouri Abdullah said. Khamas' wife and driver were wounded. Insurgents last week also killed an Interior Ministry colonel and a Defense Ministry general.\nKhamas' killing purportedly was claimed by al-Qaida in Iraq. A statement posted on an Internet site described Khamas as "one of the heads of apostasy, and one of America's tails." The authenticity of the claim, posted on a site that carries similar statements, could not be verified.\nAlso in Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting an American military convoy exploded, wounding seven Iraqis, \npolice Lt. Col. Ahmed Aboud Efait said. There were no reports of American casualties, he said.\nIn the northern city of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, mortar attacks by insurgents killed two Iraqis and injured eight others, including seven school children, police and hospital officials said.\nA car bomb also detonated in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, injuring 14 people -- including 2 police officers. \nThe parked car blew up as a police convoy drove by in the city center, damaging all the vehicles, police Col. Mudhafar Muhammed said.\nGunmen also shot dead Transport Ministry driver Ali Mutib Sakr in Sadr City, a predominantly Shiite area in eastern Baghdad, police Lt. Col. Shakir Wadi said.\nIraqi soldiers discovered the bodies of seven blindfolded men who were shot in the head and dumped on the roadside in the Sunni Triangle town of Amiriyah, some 25 miles west of Baghdad, said Mohammed al-Ani, a doctor at Ramadi General Hospital.\nThe violence came a day after Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said the "situation would have been much worse" in Iraq if Tehran was supporting the insurgency as the United States claims.\nIraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said after meeting Kharrazi that militants have infiltrated from Iran "but we are not saying that they are approved by the Iranian government."\nTies between the neighbors improved after the ouster of Saddam, who led an eight-year war against Iran during the 1980s that killed more than 1 million people. Relations remained cool after that war, with Iran supporting anti-Saddam groups and the former Iraqi leader hosting the Mujahedeen Khalq, an Iranian militia fighting the Shiite religious regime in Tehran.\nBut since the U.S.-led invasion swept Saddam from power, Iraq's majority Shiite Muslim community has risen to power and worked to build close ties with Iran.\nIran, however, has been accused of supporting insurgents in Iraq to destabilize reconstruction efforts by the United States, which regards Tehran as a terror sponsor bent on producing nuclear weapons. Iran denies both claims.\nAl-Jaafari, who led anti-Saddam militiamen based in Iran during his two-decade exile, has said Iraq now wants positive relations with Iran.
(05/19/05 12:29am)
TBILISI, Georgia -- A grenade hurled in a crowd during last week's speech by President Bush in the Georgian capital was capable of exploding and was considered a threat against the president, the FBI said Wednesday.\nIn Washington, the White House spokesman said Secret Service agents in Georgia were examining whether security changes were needed, noting that some people were seen getting around metal detectors at Bush's May 10 speech.\nThe FBI statement contradicted initial reports by Georgian officials that the Soviet-era grenade was found on the ground, was inactive and posed no danger to Bush.\nThe grenade, wrapped in a dark handkerchief, fell about 100 feet from the podium where Bush was speaking and "simply failed to function," FBI agent Bryan Paarmann said.\nHe identified it as a live hand grenade, whereas initial Georgian statements said it appeared to have been an "engineering grenade," a device that is not designed to spread shrapnel.\n"We consider this act to be a threat against the health and welfare of the president of the United States as well as the welfare of the multitudes of Georgian people who turned up for this event," Paarmann said.\nThe president was not aware of the grenade report during his visit until Secret Service agents on the plane told him about it as he returned to Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said at the time.\nNo arrests have been made in the case, and police have appealed to the public for videotapes that may contain footage of the incident.\nMcClellan said Wednesday the president was updated on the new information Tuesday night and given an additional report when the FBI director attended the president's usual security briefing.\n"The FBI is working very closely with Georgian authorities to make sure that this is fully investigated," he said. "We want to see the results of that investigation once it is completed."\nAsked about his earlier statement that the president had never been in any danger, McClellan said: "The Secret Service didn't consider him to be at that time. Obviously we've learned more since."\nDuring the event, there was no sign of any security threat or out-of-the-ordinary commotion to indicate something was wrong.\nMcClellan would not comment on the president's personal reaction to the news, and would not say whether it would affect future presidential events.\n"The Secret Service is looking into all those issues," he said. "The Secret wService has the full trust of the president. They go to great lengths to provide for his security."\nBush spoke to tens of thousands of people in Freedom Square, a main plaza in Tbilisi, as part of a visit aimed at cementing relations between the United States and the ex-Soviet republic's new pro-Western leadership.\nHe offered strong support for Georgia's democratic development following the 2003 Rose Revolution that toppled President Eduard Shevardnadze and placed Mikhail Saakashvili in office.
(05/18/05 11:56pm)
FRIENDSVILLE, Tenn. -- With diamond-tipped saws and gushing jets of water, the last active quarries for a distinctive pink and reddish-brown marble exclusive to eastern Tennessee are being mined for a massive addition to the U.S. Capitol.\nEleven-ton blocks are being quarried from outcroppings in the southern Appalachian hills, formed from the beds of ancient shallow seas 300 million years ago.\nSliced, shaped and polished, the marble is then sent 500 miles north to Washington.\n"Oh, it is a once-in-a-lifetime order," said Monica Gawet, owner of Tennessee Marble Co., about 25 miles south of Knoxville.\nThe architects of the three-level visitor center taking shape beneath the east front of the Capitol wanted to match the stone with what was used in the House and Senate wings in the 1850s. That meant sandstone from Pennsylvania, granite from Minnesota, and pink and cedar marble from Tennessee.\n"There really aren't a lot of options for pink marble in this country, and we do have a 'Buy America' clause," said Tom Fontana, spokesman for the Capitol Visitor Center project.\nMore than 35 tractor-trailer loads of marble from Gawet's company and from nearby Tennessee Valley Marble Co. are being finished for the visitors center, which is expected to open next year.\nIn keeping with tradition, the stone will adorn large indoor spaces -- a great hall at the entrance, dining areas and bathrooms.\nGawet's company is supplying about 25,000 square feet of pink tiles, some up to five feet long, for a featured pattern in white marble floors. Tennessee Valley Marble is producing more than 1 million pounds of cedar-colored stone fashioned into thick baseboards, wainscoting, railings and stair treads.\nThe price of the marble represents about one-fourth of the $35 million interior stone and installation contract, according to contractor Boatman & Magnani of Capitol Heights, Md.\nUsing Tennessee marble also is in keeping with some of the city's major buildings.\n"It is all over Washington," said Tennessee Valley Marble President Tom White, noting its use at the National Archives.
(05/12/05 2:40am)
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Capitol and White House were evacuated Wednesday after a small plane entered restricted airspace and came within three miles of the executive mansion. Military jets scrambled to intercept the aircraft and fired warning flares.\nTwo men in the aircraft, which relatives and friends said was on its way to a North Carolina air show, were taken into custody and interviewed by authorities at a Maryland airport where the plane landed after a military escort.\n"This appears to be errant pilots," Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer. he said. He said officials were concerned because the plane appeared to be "on a straight-in shot toward the center of the Washington area."\nWhite House spokesman Scott McClellan said the plane came within three miles of the White House. President Bush was exercising in Maryland and not there at the time.\nThe plane was registered to Vintage Aero Club, a group of people who fly from Smoketown Airport in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County, said club member Merv King. Former club member John E. Henderson said the plane was scheduled to be flown by Jim Sheaffer of Lititz, Pa., and student pilot Troy Martin, of Akron, Pa., to an air show in Lumberton, N.C.\nMartin's wife, Jill, said the two men left late Wednesday morning for Lumberton.\n"Troy was discussing with me last night after they made their flight plans all about the no-fly zones and how they were going to avoid them. He said they were going to fly between two different restricted areas," she said.\nThe encroachment into restricted airspace sparked a flurry of emergency activity throughout the capital, which was targeted on Sept. 11, 2001 and has been under a heightened state of alert ever since.\nSecurity officials in several other government buildings, including the Treasury Department and the U.S. Supreme Court, ordered people to safer locations.\nBush was biking at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Beltsville, Md., McClellan said. Vice President Dick Cheney, in the White House, was moved to a "secure location" elsewhere, McClellan said.\nFirst lady Laura Bush and former first lady Nancy Reagan, who is staying at the White House for a special event at the Reagan building, were moved to a secure location.\nCongressional leaders were hustled from the Capitol by armed officers. The threat level at the White House was raised to red for eight minutes.\nThe incident began at 11:28 a.m., when Federal Aviation Administration radar picked up the aircraft, a small two-seater Cessna 150 with high wings. The aircraft breached the security zone over Washington, prompting alerts across the city.\nGainer said the first alert went out when the plane was 21 miles from the city.\nTwo Black Hawk helicopters were dispatched at 11:55 a.m. from Reagan National Airport, according to an FAA official who spoke on condition of anonymity.\nThe plane was also approached by two F-16 fighter aircraft, scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base. They fired four warning flares. The military aircraft escorted the plane to the Frederick Municipal Airport in Frederick, Md.\nArmed security officers raced through the Capitol shouting for people to leave. "This is not a drill," guards shouted as they moved people away from the building.\nSen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., was on the Senate floor when police told him they needed to evacuate. "They said get out of here, so I ran. There's no joking about this kind of stuff," Shelby said.\n"People were surprised. I was surprised," said Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who was on the House floor when the evacuation began. "There was so much commotion in the gallery. People were yelling in the gallery. We thought something had happened in the gallery, and then the alarm came to evacuate."\nWashington's Reagan National Airport has been closed to general aviation since the Sept. 11 attacks. In the 3 1/2 years since then, hundreds of small planes have flown within the restricted airspace around the capital.\nIt's rare for fighter jets to be scrambled.\nIn the most dramatic incident since the Sept. 11 attacks, thousands of people fled the Capitol, packed with members of Congress and other dignitaries, when a plane flew into the restricted air space just before the funeral procession for President Ronald Reagan last June.\nA communications breakdown led federal officials to believe the plane might be targeting the Capitol, but it turned out to be carrying Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who had been cleared to fly into the area.
(05/12/05 2:24am)
ZION, Ill. - When the father of a missing 8-year-old found her bloodied body in a ravine, next to her lifeless best friend, it seemed every parent's worst nightmare.\nJerry Hobbs, just out of prison a few weeks, led police to the girls himself. They wanted to know how he found them. They kept asking him questions. Finally, after hours of being interviewed, Hobbs was charged with both murders, a crime that stunned this small city near the Wisconsin line.\n"I think it's safe to say his reaction to questions piqued the officers' interest to question him further," said prosecutor Michael Waller in announcing the charges Tuesday.\nHobbs' 8-year-old daughter, Laura Hobbs, and her friend Krystal Tobias, 9, were found dead Monday. Both girls had been beaten and stabbed multiple times and then left to die in the woods on Mother's Day.\nWaller would not discuss possible motives for the killings but said details would come out when Hobbs appeared at a bond hearing Wednesday. He said he couldn't comment on whether Hobbs confessed.\n"This horrific crime has terrorized and traumatized the Zion community and, I think it's safe to say, people of good will everywhere," Waller said. "There's no rational explanation or reasonable motive that can be ascribed to an act of horror like this."\nHe told NBC's "Today" on Wednesday that there had been "a minor discipline problem" with Laura, but it had been resolved and was not considered the motive.\nHobbs, 34, took authorities to the bodies just off a bike path early Monday, claiming he had spotted them while searching for the girl with Laura's grandfather, Arthur Hollabaugh.\nHobbs was questioned through the day Monday and again Tuesday. The county coroner, Richard Keller, said the girls were found side-by-side, facing up and did not appear to have been sexually assaulted. They appeared to have been killed near where they were found, he said.\n"If it was him, then good thing they brought him down," said Krystal's 15-year-old brother, Alberto Segura. "We never thought a father would do that to a daughter. They were just babies. They didn't do anything wrong."\nHobbs has an extensive criminal history dating to 1990 in Texas, including arrests for assault and resisting arrest, according to records kept by the Texas Department of Public Safety.\nJust last month, he was released from a Texas prison after serving time for an assault in 2001. He had argued with Laura's mother, Sheila Hollabaugh, then grabbed a chain saw and chased neighbors until someone hit him in the back with a shovel, said Rick Mahler, assistant district attorney for Wichita County, Texas. No one was injured in that incident.\nHobbs was sentenced to 10 years probation but failed to appear for required meetings, so his probation was revoked in 2003.\nArthur Hollabaugh said Hobbs had been living with the Hollabaughs after his release.\n"Jerry just got out of prison for aggravated assault, and I think they're holding that against him," Hollabaugh said before police announced the charges. "I don't think he did it."\nHollabaugh said he and Hobbs were in the woods shortly before dawn Monday when they spotted Laura's bike partway down a ravine.\nMinutes later, he said, Hobbs was screaming that he had found the bodies. "I went and I seen them from a distance," said Hollabaugh. "It was clear they were laying there."\nZion, along Lake Michigan, was founded in 1901 by a religious faith healer. It has about 22,000 residents but retains a quiet feel despite being on the edge of both the Chicago and Milwaukee metropolitan areas.\nAt the entrance to Beulah Park, where the bodies were found, more than a dozen children stood quietly around a growing memorial of flowers, balloons and stuffed animals.\nOne sign read: "May your angels rest peacefully in heaven."\nParents upset about the police response packed a school gymnasium Tuesday night to hear public officials discuss the slayings, the charges and safety in the community.\nAt a prayer vigil later Tuesday evening, Krystal's family and about 200 community members gathered outside her home and somberly walked the block and a half to Laura's house. The slain girls' families hugged each other and began crying.\nThrough tears, Laura's mother, Sheila Hollabaugh, read a poem written by her daughter's classmate. The "little angels," she said, "died too young."\nAssociated Press writers Nathaniel Hernandez in Zion and Don Babwin in Chicago contributed to this report.
(05/12/05 2:23am)
KIRKUK, Iraq -- Five suicide attacks in three cities in Iraq killed more than 60 people Wednesday. In the deadliest, a man with hidden explosives set them off in a line of people outside a police and army recruitment center in northern Iraq, killing 30 and wounding 35, police said.\nIn Tikrit, meanwhile, a suicide car bomb exploded in a small market near a police station, killing at least 27 people and wounding 75, police said.\nThree car bombs also exploded in Baghdad, killing at least four, police said.\nPolice first thought the powerful blast in Hawija, a small town 150 miles north of Baghdad, was caused by a car bomb, but police Maj. Sarhad Qadir later said they later found it was an attacker waiting in a line of about 150 recruits.\n"I was standing near the center and all of a sudden it turned into a scene of dead bodies and pools of blood," said police Sgt. Khalaf Abbas. "Windows were blown out in nearby houses, leaving the street covered by glass." He spoke in an interview from the chaotic scene over his cell phone.\nQadir said 30 people were killed and 35 were wounded, including about 15 who were in critical condition.\nLike many other such recruitment centers in Iraq, Hawija's is located in a building surrounded by cement walls topped with barbed wire in an effort to prevent attacks by car bombs. Men often line up outside such centers early in the morning to apply for jobs at a time of high unemployment in Iraq.\nInsurgents target the centers, and Iraqi security forces on patrol, in an effort to block a key goal of U.S. forces -- to one day be replaced by newly trained Iraqi soldiers and police.\nIn Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, meanwhile, Police Lt. Col. Saad Daham said that security prevented the car-bomb attacker from exploding his vehicle in front of the police station, but that the bomber swerved into a crowd of people at the nearby market.\nThe bomb exploded at 7:15 a.m., and many day laborers who had traveled to Tikrit from poor areas of Iraq were waiting at the market to be picked up for work at construction sites, Daham said.\nHe said at least 27 people -- mostly civilians -- were killed and that 75 were wounded. At Tikrit General Hospital, Dr. Faisal Mahmoud said the facility was too small to handle so many casualties.\nIn Baghdad, three car bombs killed four people and wounded 14, police said.\nThe worst of those blasts occurred in the southern neighborhood of Dora near a police station, killing three civilians and wounding nine, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.\nIn Yarmouk, an area of west Baghdad, a suicide car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in Jordan Square, killing a civilian and wounding three policeman, said police Lt. Col. Kadhim Abbas.\nIn New Baghdad, an eastern area of the capital, a car bomb exploded near al-Darweesh bakery about 100 yards from a police patrol, wounding two civilians and damaging civilian cars parked nearby, said police Lt. Col. Ahmed Aboud.
(05/12/05 1:52am)
CAIRO, Egypt - New computer models have brought life to the ancient facial bones of King Tut.\nThe models show a baby-faced young man with chubby cheeks and his family's characteristic overbite, a weak chin and a pronounced, sloping nose beneath an elongated scalp.\nThree teams of scientists have created the first facial reconstructions of King Tutankhamun based on CT scans of his mummy. The images are strikingly similar both to each other and to ancient portraits of the boy pharaoh, including his depiction on the famed golden mask he wore into the crypt -- which was discovered in his tomb in 1922 by the British excavation led by Howard Carter.\nThe teams -- from France, the United States and Egypt -- each built a model of the pharaoh's face based on some 1,700 high-resolution images from CT scans to reveal what he looked like the day he died nearly 3,300 years ago.\nThe beardless youth depicted in the model created by a French team has soft features, a sloping nose and a weak chin -- and the overbite, which archaeologists have long believed was a trait shared by other kings in Tut's 18th dynasty. His eyes are highlighted by thick eyeliner.\n"The shape of the face and skull are remarkably similar to a famous image of Tutankhamun as a child where he was shown as the sun god at dawn rising from a lotus blossom," said Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.\nThe CT scans -- the first done on an Egyptian mummy -- have suggested King Tut was a healthy, yet slightly built 19-year-old, standing 5 feet 6 inches tall at the time of his death.\nThe three teams created their reconstructions separately -- the Americans and French working from a plastic skull, the Egyptians working directly from the CT scans, which could distinguish different densities of soft tissue and bone.\nThe French and Egyptians knew they were recreating King Tut, but the Americans were not even told where the skull was from, yet correctly identified it as a Caucasoid North African, the council said in a statement.\n"The results of the three teams were identical or very similar in the basic shape of the face, the size, shape and setting of the eyes, and the proportion of the skull," Hawass said.\nThe French and American models, seen in photos released by the council, are similar -- with the Americans' plaster model sharing the more realistic, French silicone version's receding chin and prominent upper lip. The Egyptian reconstruction has a more prominent nose and a stronger jaw and chin.\nThe scans were carried out on Jan. 5 in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt, where Tut's leathery mummy was briefly removed from its tomb and placed into a portable CT scanner.\nThe tests provided an unprecedented look at Egypt's most famous mummy -- but they did not resolve the mystery of the death of King Tut, who came to power at age 9.\nThey were able to dismiss a long held theory that Tut, who died around 1323 B.C., was murdered by a blow to his skull or killed in an accident that crushed his chest. It raised a new possibility for the cause of death: Some experts on the scanning team said it appeared Tut broke his left thigh severely -- puncturing his skin -- and the break could have caused a fatal infection.\nThe life of Tutankhamun -- who is believed to have been the 12th ruler of ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty -- has fascinated people since his tomb was discovered in 1922, revealing a trove of fabulous treasures in gold and precious stones that showed the wealth and craftsmanship of the pharaonic court.\nA U.S. museum tour a quarter-century ago of Tut's treasures drew more than 8 million people. A smaller number of treasures -- minus Tut's famous gold mask -- will again go on display in the United States starting June 16 in Los Angeles, after touring Germany and Switzerland.\nThe decision to allow the exhibit was a reversal of an Egyptian policy set in the 1980s that confined most of the objects to Egypt, after several pieces were damaged on an international tour.\nHawass is leading a five-year project to scan all of Egypt's known mummies -- including royal mummies now exhibited at the Cairo Museum. Eventually, each mummy will be displayed alongside CT images and a facial reconstruction.\n"For the first time, we will make these dead mummies come alive," Hawass said.
(05/12/05 1:28am)
TBILISI, Georgia -- Was it a bid to undermine a visit by President Bush -- or evidence of a real assassination plot?\nA grenade found near a stage where Bush addressed crowds of Georgians on Tuesday has set off a flurry of speculation. The array of potential culprits -- from disgruntled Georgians to local minorities and even Russian saboteurs -- reflects the instability of a volatile country struggling through transition.\nThe address to tens of thousands of people in Tbilisi's Freedom Square was the centerpiece of a Bush visit choreographed to cement relations between the United States and the ex-Soviet republic's new pro-Western leadership.\nNational Security Council chief Gela Bezhuashvili said Wednesday he suspected the grenade, which he described as inactive, was planted in a deliberate bid to undermine the rosy scenario.\n"The goal is clear -- to frighten or to scare people and to attract the attention of the mass media," he said. "The goal has been reached, and that is why I'm talking to you now."\nBezhuashvili said neither Bush nor Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili -- who were both behind bulletproof glass -- were in any danger. The Soviet-era grenade was found about 100 feet from the stage, he added.\nHe also denied reports the grenade was thrown -- contradicting a statement from U.S. Secret Service spokesman Jonathan Cherry, who said it hit somebody in the crowd and dropped to the ground.\nBush wasn't even aware of the grenade report until Secret Service agents on the plane told him about it as his plane was returning to Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington, spokesman Scott McClellan said, adding that the White House never believed the president's life was in danger.\n"The Secret Service and FBI are continuing to look into it," McClellan said Wednesday. "There have been different reports about what happened and what exactly it was."\nDavid Losaberidze, an analyst at the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, said the culprit was likely an angry Georgian.\n"The idea is, 'Look, the government is celebrating, holding a grandiose show while we go hungry,'" he said.\nSeen as a land of plenty in Soviet times, Georgia was plunged into poverty as the communist system fell apart and is still struggling to survive economically.\nIts people have placed huge hopes in Saakashvili, reflected in his landslide January 2004 election, but his failure to bring swift economic improvement has strained his popularity.\nThe country's location in the Caucasus Mountains, at the crossroads of Russia and the Middle East and on a promising westward route for Caspian Sea oil riches, has made it a target in struggles for influence in the wake of the 1991 Soviet collapse.\nOther observers blamed the grenade incident on a more influential group of disgruntled Georgians: members of the former elite Saakashvili has fired in government shake-ups aimed in part at stemming the corruption plaguing the country.
(05/12/05 12:50am)
VIENNA, Austria -- Austria's parliament overwhelmingly ratified the European Union's constitution Wednesday, the seventh nation to do so, setting aside fears that the small country would be overrun by bigger EU members once the document takes effect.\nThe constitution was approved by all but one of the 182 lawmakers present. One delegate was absent.\n"It makes for a Europe that is stronger," Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said during a debate before the vote.\nAll 25 EU member countries must ratify the constitution for it to take effect, and it is up to each country to decide whether to hold a referendum or just a parliamentary vote.\nBesides Austria, the countries of Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Slovenia and Spain have approved the constitution so far.\nSlovakia's parliament also was to vote on the constitution Wednesday, while lawmakers in Germany were expected to ratify it Thursday.\nFrance holds a referendum on May 29, while citizens in the Netherlands vote on the treaty three days later. At least seven other countries plan to put the document to a popular vote.\nThe constitution streamlines decision-making and provides the union with a foreign minister and a president. It also reduces the size of the European Commission -- the union's executive arm -- to make it more efficient.
(05/12/05 12:50am)
GARNER VALLEY, Calif. -- The 911 dispatcher heard only the thud of a telephone hitting the wall and the sound of a gunshot -- and when police arrived at the sprawling ranch home, they discovered six bodies.\nDavid McGowan, an investigator for the district attorney's office, was found dead Tuesday along with five other people, including his three children, who were all shot to death in their beds in the middle of the night, authorities said.\nA handgun was found near McGowan's body and two more in the kitchen. Detectives had not determined a motive, but they were not ruling out a murder-suicide.\nMcGowan, who turned 44 last week, was found with a gunshot wound to the head near the home's entrance, officials said. A phone, which may have been used to call 911, was also found near his body.\n"The beds were undisturbed. The house itself was undisturbed. It did not appear that the house had been ransacked," Sheriff Bob Doyle said. "We are not at this time looking for a suspect."\nMcGowan's 14-year-old son, Chase, and daughters Paige, 10, and Rayne, 8, were found in bed, all shot in the head. Also killed were his 42-year-old wife, Karen, and her mother, authorities said.\nThe sheriff said someone called 911 from the house at 4:33 a.m. A dispatcher did not hear any voices on the line, but identified the sounds of the phone hitting the wall and a gunshot.\nMcGowan was a five-year veteran of the Riverside County district attorney's office and previously worked as a detective with the Cathedral City Police Department.\nPat Whittle, an accounts manager for the Garner Valley Homeowner's Association who has known McGowan for 10 years, said she was shocked to hear the news.\n"He was wonderful," she said of McGowan. "It's hard to believe that things like this happen to people you know."\nThe remote, mountainous area about 100 miles southeast of Los Angeles is well-known for its horse ranches, nestled among rolling meadows and tall pines.\nPublic records show McGowan and his wife bought the 4 1/2-acre property and 3,331-square-foot ranch house for $425,000 in 2000.\nNeighbors said they were shocked.\n"It's just really quiet here," said David Merriman, whose parents live about a mile from the McGowans. "A lot could happen right next door and you wouldn't even know it"
(05/12/05 12:32am)
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Wednesday it has completed removing spent fuel rods from an atomic reactor, enabling it to harvest more weapons-grade plutonium. It was the communist state's latest provocation amid deadlocked talks over Pyongyang's nuclear program.\nA North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the country had "successfully finished" removing 8,000 fuel rods from the reactor at its Yongbyon complex, which was shut down last month, so it can "bolster its nuclear arsenal."\nNorth Korea kicked out international nuclear inspectors in late 2002, making it impossible to verify the claim.\nWhile experts have previously said the 8,000 rods could yield enough plutonium for five to eight bombs, South Korean media said the current batch would likely yield material for a couple bombs because of the shorter time it was inside the reactor. To get the plutonium, the rods would need to cool and then be reprocessed, which takes months.\nThe announcement came a day after China rejected using sanctions to prod Pyongyang to return to six-nation talks on its nuclear ambitions, with a spokesman saying Beijing's political and trade relations with its neighbor should be kept separate.\n"We stand for resolving the issue through dialogue. We are not in favor of exerting pressure or imposing sanctions," China foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a regular briefing. "We believe that such measures are not necessarily effective."\nA Bush administration official said the United States has asked China to redouble its efforts to lure North Korea back to negotiations.\nThe U.S. appeal, disclosed by a State Department official Tuesday on condition of anonymity, reflects a growing frustration over North Korea's refusal to reopen six-nation talks for nearly a year and rhetoric from Pyongyang that U.S. officials consider alarming.\nThe talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions have been stalled since June, with Pyongyang insisting it won't return until Washington drops its "hostile" policy. North Korea says the United States is planning an invasion, which Washington denies.\nNorth Korea is boosting its arsenal "for the defensive purpose of coping with the prevailing situation," the unnamed North Korean spokesman said in a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.\nThe South Korean Foreign Ministry expressed "serious concern" at the development.\n"North Korea should immediately halt actions that have a negative impact" on efforts to resume disarmament talks, the ministry said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. "We strongly urge North Korea to return to the six-party talks without delay."\nJapanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi noted North Korea has made such statements in the past to bolster its negotiating position.\n"We must work to show that North Korea will benefit the most from returning quickly to the six-nation talks and disposing of its nuclear program," he told reporters.\nThe North Korean spokesman emphasized Pyongyang's desire to have a self-reliant nuclear power industry.\nHe noted the country already announced plans to operate its 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon, some 50 miles north of Pyongyang, and resume construction on a bigger reactor there because the United States pulled out of a 1994 deal on the North's nuclear program.\nU.S. officials accused North Korea of running a secret uranium enrichment program in 2002 in violation of the earlier deal made under the Clinton administration, sparking the latest nuclear crisis. Under that deal, North Korea agreed to forgo nuclear weapons development in exchange for energy aid and the construction of nuclear reactors that couldn't be diverted for weapons use.\nWorries also have grown that the North is preparing a nuclear test, with U.S. officials saying last week that spy satellites show activity in northeastern Kilju that could indicate such a move.\nNorth Korea's main newspaper alleged Tuesday that the United States was making a "fuss" by spreading reports of alleged test preparations. However, the commentary in the state-run Rodong Sinmun daily didn't deny the North was planning a test.\nAmid the tension, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said last weekend that Pyongyang already had enough plutonium to make up to six bombs.\nThe nations taking part in the nuclear talks are North Korea, the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
(05/06/05 2:27am)
NEW YORK - To the dismay of gay-rights activists, the Food and Drug Administration is about to implement new rules recommending that any man who has engaged in homosexual sex in the previous five years be barred from serving as an anonymous sperm donor.\nThe FDA has rejected calls to scrap the provision, insisting that gay men collectively pose a higher-than-average risk of carrying HIV, the AIDS virus. Critics accuse the FDA of stigmatizing all gay men rather than adopting a screening process that focuses on high-risk sexual behavior by any would-be donor, gay or straight.\n"Under these rules, a heterosexual man who had unprotected sex with HIV-positive prostitutes would be OK as a donor one year later, but a gay man in a monogamous, safe-sex relationship is not OK unless he's been celibate for five years," said Leland Traiman, director of a clinic in Alameda, Calif., that seeks gay sperm donors.\nTraiman said adequate safety assurances can be provided by testing a sperm donor at the time of the initial donation, then freezing the sperm for a six-month quarantine and testing the donor again to be sure there is no new sign of HIV or other infectious diseases.\nAlthough there is disagreement over whether the FDA guideline regarding gay men will have the force of law, most doctors and clinics are expected to observe it.\nThe practical effect of the provision -- part of a broader set of cell and tissue donation regulations that take effect May 25 -- is hard to gauge. It is likely to affect some lesbian couples who want a child and prefer to use a gay man's sperm for artificial insemination.\nBut it is the provision's symbolic aspect that particularly troubles gay-rights groups. Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal, has called it "policy based on bigotry."\n"The part I find most offensive -- and a little frightening -- is that it isn't based on good science," Cathcart said. "There's a steadily increasing trend of heterosexual transmission of HIV, and yet the FDA still has this notion that you protect people by putting gay men out of the pool."\nIn a letter to the FDA, Lambda Legal has suggested a screening procedure based on sexual behavior, not sexual orientation. Prospective donors -- gay or straight -- would be rejected if they had engaged in unprotected sex in the previous 12 months with an HIV-positive person, an illegal drug user, or "an individual of unknown HIV status outside of a monogamous relationship."\nBut an FDA spokeswoman cited FDA documents suggesting that officials felt the broader exclusion was prudent even if it affected gay men who practice safe sex.\n"The FDA is very much aware that strict exclusion policies eliminate some safe donors," said one document.\nMany doctors and fertility clinics already have been rejecting gay sperm donors, citing the pending FDA rules or existing regulations of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.\n"With an anonymous sperm donor, you can't be too careful," said a society spokeswoman, Eleanor Nicoll. "Our concern is for the health of the recipient, not to let more and more people be sperm donors."\nHowever, some sperm banks, notably in California, have welcomed gay donors. The director of one of them, Alice Ruby of the Oakland-based Sperm Bank of California, said her staff had developed procedures for identifying gay men with an acceptably low risk of HIV.\nGay men are a major donor source at Traiman's Rainbow Flag sperm bank, and he said that practice would continue despite the new rules.\n"We're going to continue to follow judicious, careful testing procedures for our clients that even experts within the FDA say is safe," said Traiman, referring to the six-month quarantine.\nThe FDA rules do not prohibit gay men from serving as "directed" sperm donors. If a woman wishing to become pregnant knows a gay man and asks that he provide sperm for artificial insemination, a clinic could provide that service even if the man had engaged in sex with other men within five years.\nHowever, Traiman said some lesbian couples do not have a gay friend they know and trust well enough to be the biological father of their child, and would thus prefer an anonymous donor.\nDr. Deborah Cohan, an obstetrics and gynecology instructor at the University of California, San Francisco, said some lesbians prefer to receive sperm from a gay donor because they feel such a man would be more receptive to the concept of a family headed by a same-sex couple.\n"This rule will make things legally more difficult for them," she said. "I can't think of a scientifically valid reason. It has to be an issue of discrimination"
(05/06/05 2:26am)
ROME, Ga. -- A small-town preacher was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison Thursday for stealing nearly $9 million from some 1,600 black churches by promising big returns on small investments.\nAbraham Kennard was also ordered to pay nearly $8 million in restitution and almost $600,000 in back taxes.\nKennard, 46, was found guilty by a federal jury in February on 116 counts, including fraud and evasion. Prosecutors said he ran a pyramid scheme that took advantage of the tight network of black preachers to which he belonged.\nHe could have gotten 33 years behind bars.\n"These people lost everything they had. Some even lost their church. The court cannot ignore that," U.S. District Judge Harold L. Murphy said.\nProsecutors said Kennard claimed his company was developing Christian resorts around the country. He told preachers that for a fee of a few thousand dollars, their churches could be "members" of his company. In return, he promised that in time the churches would get a grant or a forgivable loan of up to $500,000.
(05/06/05 2:25am)
VILNIUS, Lithuania - President Bush told Lithuanian TV that Belarus is the "last remaining dictatorship in Europe" and that the United States will work with countries in the region to ensure that the next elections there are free.\nThe former Soviet republic is run by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.\n"One of the roles the United States can play is to speak fairly about the need for Belarus to be free ... and make sure that the elections are free," Bush said in an interview broadcast Thursday and recorded the previous day in Washington.\n"That is the last remaining dictatorship in Europe," Bush said.\nThe next presidential elections in Belarus are set for 2006.\n"We will work with you, countries in the neighborhood, the free countries in the world, to insist for the free elections," the president said.\nDuring a visit to Lithuania two weeks ago, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Belarusian dissidents and called for change in Belarus, which Lukashenko has ruled for 11 years.\nIn the interview with Lithuanian state television, Bush also said he will remind Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Soviet occupation of the Baltics when they meet in Moscow for the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.\nThe May 9 holiday, Victory in Europe Day, is revered by the Russians as an unequivocal celebration of the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany, while for residents of the Baltic countries the end of the war led to decades of harsh rule by Moscow.\nBush said he will stress to the Russian leader that the end of the war did not bring freedom for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.\n"Yes, of course I'll remind him of that," Bush said, adding that he told Putin during their last meeting in Slovakia that the end of World War II was not a day of celebration for the Baltics.\nThe U.S. president is to visit Latvia Friday ahead of his trip to Moscow. He will meet with his Baltic counterparts, two of whom have declined invitations to the Moscow celebrations because of Russia's unwillingness to denounce the Soviet annexation of their countries.\nBush said he understood Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus' decision not to attend the celebrations and added he hopes Russia will maintain good relations with its Baltic neighbors.\n"It really is in Russia's interests to have free countries and democracies on her border," Bush said.\nRussia denied Thursday that it illegally annexed the Baltic nations in 1940.\n"One cannot use the term 'occupation' to describe those historical events," said Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Russia's point man on relations with the European Union.\n"At that time, the troop deployment took place on an agreed basis and with the clearly expressed agreement of the existing authorities in the Baltic republics," Yastrzhembsky said in Moscow.\nLithuanian state television said Bush praised Lithuania for its support in bringing Ukraine on a path to democracy and said he expects the Baltic country to help ensure free elections in neighboring Belarus.
(05/06/05 2:24am)
LOS ANGELES - Sheila Catoira wanted a fuel-efficient Toyota Prius hybrid so badly, she found a used model online and paid $1,000 more than the car would have cost new.\nWith the demand for a gas-electric Prius far outstripping supply, some buyers are plunking down a premium for cars that are thousands of miles old. The trade-off: They don't have to wait for months on dealers' waiting lists.\n"I figured that if I can get it right away, it was well worth it," said Catoira, 31, a teacher and self-described environmentalist in San Diego.\nOther desperate buyers offered more than the $27,000 Catoira paid, but seller Sev MacPete said he refused to fully exploit the frenzy.\n"I could have sold it for a lot over list, but I didn't feel like I can do it in good conscience," said MacPete, who is the president of the Prius Club of San Diego. He wanted to sell the 2004 model after only 5,000 miles because he had just paid sticker price for his second Prius, this one fully loaded with options.\nFar from sticker shocked, buyers have in the past year paid private sellers and used car dealers $1,000 to $3,000 above the advertised price of a new 2004 or 2005 model, according to Irvine-based Kelley Blue Book, which tracks used car prices. Older Prius models are not seeing the same phenomenon.\n"There are some people who want to be the first one on the block to own a Prius, and to them it's worth paying a couple of thousand dollars over sticker," said Jack Nerad, Kelley Blue Book's editorial director.\nRarely do second-hand cars sell for more than their new counterparts, since cars typically lose value almost immediately. The only other instances automotive experts cite are luxury vehicles such as the Ferrari and hot new releases. The Mazda Miata and Mini Cooper, for example, were so popular when they first came out that buyers paid a premium for used models.\nThe Prius, which lists for between $21,000 and $26,000, is the first economy car with a higher resale value, according to automotive experts. Its hybrid competitors, such as Honda's Insight and Civic, haven't seen the same resale boom because they aren't in such demand. The Prius, which underwent a makeover last year, is considered by many to be better looking and versatile than its competitors.\nWhen the Prius first rolled out in the U.S. in 2000, buyers had to wait six months on average because Toyota underestimated demand. As Toyota increases its production schedule -- the automaker plans to double to 100,000 the number of Prius cars for the North American market this year -- the wait has dropped to an average of two months, depending on where a buyer lives.\nHybrids combine an electric motor with a gasoline engine to produce less pollution and better mileage. Volatile gas prices are a major impetus behind the rush to buy high-mileage hybrids.\nAlthough hybrids represented less than 1 percent of the 17 million new vehicles sold last year, the U.S. hybrid market has grown by more than 960 percent since 2000, when 7,781 were sold, according to data released last week by the Southfield, Mich.-based firm R.L. Polk & Co.\nToyota is the first automaker to commercially mass-produce and sell hybrid cars. Its Prius dominated nearly 65 percent of the U.S. hybrid vehicle market last year, with 53,761 new cars registered.\nMost Prius owners keep their hybrids, but the few who will part with their cars may want an upgraded model or realize that a gas-electric vehicle doesn't suit their needs. Other sellers see the chance for a quick buck.\nBut there are some signs that the premium market for used Priuses may be cooling. There are more new Priuses on the market as Toyota ramps up production. Meanwhile, the Prius faces new competition from other hybrids coming out this year including the Lexus RX400h, Mercury Mariner and Toyota Highlander SUVs.\nData collected by www.Edmunds.com, which provides online vehicle buying information, show the resale price of a 2004 Prius in recent months is at or slightly below the sticker price of a new one. That is still a feat, given that most used cars depreciate on average about a quarter of their sticker value after a year, said Jesse Toprak, director of pricing and market analysis at www.Edmunds.com.\n"It's unparalleled," Toprak said. "It has never happened before to this degree"
(04/19/05 6:55pm)
VATICAN CITY - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, the church's leading hard-liner, was elected the new pope Tuesday evening in the first conclave of the new millennium. He chose the name Pope Benedict XVI and called himself "a simple, humble worker."\nRatzinger, the first German pope since the 11th century, emerged onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, where he waved to a wildly cheering crowd of tens of thousands and gave his first blessing as pope. Other cardinals clad in their crimson robes came out on other balconies to watch him.\n"Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me _ a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord," he said after being introduced by Chilean Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estivez.\n"The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers," the new pope said. "I entrust myself to your prayers."\nThe crowd responded by chanting "Benedict! Benedict!"\nIf the new pope was paying tribute to the last pontiff of that name, it could be interpreted as a bid to soften his image as the Vatican's doctrinal hard-liner. Benedict XV, who reigned from 1914 to 1922, was a moderate following Pius X, who had implemented a sharp crackdown against doctrinal "modernism."\nRatzinger served John Paul II since 1981 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that position, he has disciplined church dissidents and upheld church policy against attempts by liberals for reforms. He turned 78 on Saturday.\nThe new pope had gone into the conclave with the most buzz among two dozen leading candidates. He had impressed many faithful with his stirring homily at the funeral of John Paul II, who died April 2 at age 84.\nRatzinger is the first Germanic pope since monarchs imposed four men from that region in a row in the 11th century.
(03/28/05 6:50pm)
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - A major earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island late Monday, and officials issued a tsunami warning for as far away as Sri Lanka. Residents of Banda Aceh fled their homes in panic.\nThe U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor, which occurred at 11:09 p.m. local time (11:09 a.m. EST), measured a magnitude of 8.2. It was described by one of the agency's geologists as an aftershock of the devastating Dec. 26 quake.\nIn Banda Aceh, the Sumatran city that was hit hardest by December's tsunami, the quake cut electricity and thousands poured into the streets, most getting into vehicles to flee low-lying areas.\nTsunami warnings were issued in Thailand, Japan and Sri Lanka. Authorities said it could take several hours to know whether the quake had generated a devastating tsunami.\nSirens blared along Sri Lanka's devastated east coast as the government warned seaside residents to evacuate immediately.\n"The government has ordered coastal areas to move to higher ground. We are giving priorities to eastern coast," said Brig. Daya Ratnayake, the military spokesman.\nLow-lying coastal areas in Malaysia's northern states also were being evacuated.\nIn Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said U.S. \ndiplomatic missions in Asia and Africa are in "battle mode" so that they can respond quickly to any contingency.\nHe said embassy officials in the area have been asking host governments to inquire about any causalities to permit an early U.S. response if the situation calls for it.\nThe International Red Cross in Geneva said all their mobile phone systems were down so they haven't been able to talk to anyone on the ground in Indonesia.\nAt the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which was at the center of U.N. response to the Dec. 26 tsunami, Jamie McGoldrick said, "What's going on is a mobilization of people away from the coast."\nNoted that the quake was "a weaker one than before (Dec. 26)."\nOceanographer David Burwell of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said the agency was watching water levels "but we don't have any gauges in that area." He said it would be a few hours before officials received any readings.\nThe quake lasted for about two minutes _ far longer than most of the daily aftershocks that have rocked Aceh since Dec. 26.\n"People are still traumatized, still scared, they are running for higher ground," said Feri, a 24-year-old recovery volunteer who goes by one name.\n"It was felt in most of the cities in Sumatra," said Budi Waluyo, an agency official. Indonesia's state news agency, Antara, said there were no immediate reports of damage.\nThe quake was felt as far away as Malaysia, about 300 miles from the epicenter, sending panicked residents fleeing their apartments and hotels in Kuala Lumpur and Penang after authorities activated fire alarms.\nOfficials issued a tsunami warning for residents of southern Thai provinces, three months after a tsunami devastated parts of Indonesia and other countries in the region.\nThe quake occurred at a depth of 18.6 miles, and was centered 125 west- northwest of Sibolga, Sumatra, and 150 miles southwest of Medan, Sumatra, the USGS said.\nAfter the Dec. 26 quake, the agency initially recorded the depth of that temblor at six miles. Shallow earthquakes like that generally are more destructive because the seismic energy is closer to the surface and has less distance to travel.\nMonday's quake was considered to be at a moderate depth.\nJapan's Meteorological Agency said the quake registered 8.5.\nTremors also were felt throughout peninsular Malaysia's west coast, causing thousands of residents to flee high-rise apartment buildings and hotels. There were no immediate reports of any casualties or major damage.\n"I was getting ready for bed, and suddenly, the room started shaking," said Kuala Lumpur resident Jessie Chong. "I thought I was hallucinating at first, but then I heard my neighbors screaming and running out."\nPolice were evacuating many residents from low-lying coastal areas in Malaysia's northern states of Penang and Kedah as a precaution, said Penang Police Chief Christopher Wan.\n"We are on the alert for the possibility of a tsunami within the next few hours," Wan said by telephone. "We're better prepared now compared to last year."\nSixty-eight Malaysians were killed when the Dec. 26 tsunami hit Penang and Kedah.\nGreg Romano, spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which operates the Pacific Tsunami Warning system, said the U.S. State Department was passing on warnings to foreign governments about the tsunami danger.\nThe USGS said the quake occurred on a segment of the same fault line that triggered the magnitude-9 earthquake on Dec. 26, the world's biggest in 40 years.\nDale Grant of U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was magnitude 8.2 and was in the aftershock zone of the Dec. 26 quake.\n"It is along the same segment of fault," he said. "We do expect aftershocks. An\n8.2 is very large, but it's not unusual as an aftershock."\nHe stressed they have no reports at this time of any tsunami.\nThe Dec. 26 quake triggered the huge tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean at the speed of a passenger jet killed more than 174,000 people and left another 106,000 missing.\nMore than 1.5 million people were left homeless in 11 countries..\nTremors form the quake could be felt in the Thai capital Bangkok for several minutes beginning at about 11:20 p.m.\nChalermchai Aekkantrong, deputy director of Thailand's meteorological department, told a radio station Monday that officials were asking people near the coast to evacuate, although there were no immediate reports of a tsunami.
