world

Countries threaten sanctions for Syria

By Alyson Brodsy and Nick Wadhams · Wednesday, Oct. 26,2005 12:45 a.m.

UNITED NATIONS -- The United States, France and Britain demanded Tuesday that Syria detain government officials suspected of involvement in the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister and ensure their cooperation with a U.N. probe or face possible sanctions.

U.S. military death toll in Iraq hits 2,000, several injured

By Alyson Brodsy and Robert H. Reid · Wednesday, Oct. 26,2005 12:44 a.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The American military death toll in the Iraq war reached 2,000 Tuesday with the announcements of three more deaths, including an Army sergeant who died of wounds at a military hospital in Texas and a Marine and a sailor killed last week in fighting west of Baghdad.

In Wilma's aftermath, recovery begins for millions

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Oct. 26,2005 12:44 a.m.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Repair crews across Florida struggled Tuesday to restore electricity to up to 6 million people, reopen the region's airports and replace countless windows blown out of downtown high-rises during Hurricane Wilma's ruinous dash across the state. Officials said it could take weeks for Florida's most heavily populated region -- the Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach area -- to return to normal.

Iraqis adopt constitution

By Alyson Brodsy and Thomas Wagner · Wednesday, Oct. 26,2005 12:43 a.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's constitution was adopted by a majority in a fair vote during the Oct. 15 referendum, as Sunni Arab opponents failed to muster enough support to defeat it, election officials said Tuesday. A prominent Sunni politician called the balloting "a farce."

ACLU analysis finds 21 homicides among deaths of U.S. prisoners overseas

By Alyson Brodsy and Lolita C. Baldor · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 1:52 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- At least 21 detainees who died while being held in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were killed, many during or after interrogations, according to an analysis of Defense Department data by the American Civil Liberties Union. The analysis, released Monday, looked at 44 deaths described in records obtained by the ACLU. Of those, the group characterized 21 as homicides and said at least eight resulted from abusive techniques by military or intelligence officers, such as strangulation or "blunt force injuries," as noted in the autopsy reports.

Bush says he won't release all Miers records

By Alyson Brodsy and Nedra Pickler · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 1:52 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Monday he will not release any records of his conversations with Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers that could threaten the confidentiality of the advice presidents receive from their lawyers. And a Democratic senator called on the beleaguered nominee to give the Senate her income tax records. Both Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding more documents about Miers, including from her work at Bush's counsel.

Rosa Parks, civil rights icon, dies at 92

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 1:32 a.m.

DETROIT -- Rosa Lee Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern Civil Rights Movement, died Monday. She was 92. Parks died at her home of natural causes, said Karen Morgan, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement."

Hurricane Wilma races across Florida, knocking out power to 6 million

By Alyson Brodsy and Curt Anderson · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 12:16 a.m.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Hurricane Wilma knifed through Florida with winds up to 125 mph Monday, shattering windows in skyscrapers, peeling away roofs and knocking out power to 6 million people, with still a month left to go in the busiest Atlantic storm season on record. At least six deaths were blamed on the hurricane in Florida, bringing the toll from the storm's march through the tropics to 25.

White House aide to replace Fed chairman

By Alyson Brodsy and Nedra Pickler · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 12:16 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush named top White House economic adviser Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board on Monday in place of near-legendary Alan Greenspanas the official in closest control of interest rates.

Judiciary Democrat says Miers lacks votes now to be confirmed

By Alyson Brodsy and Hope Yen · Monday, Oct. 24,2005 12:29 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A Democrat on the Senate committee that will consider Harriet Miers' nomination said Sunday that President Bush's Supreme Court choice lacks the votes now to be confirmed, saying there are too many questions about her qualifications.

Category 2 Hurricane Wilma churns toward Florida

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Oct. 24,2005 12:28 a.m.

KEY WEST, Fla. -- After crawling slowly through the Caribbean for several days, Hurricane Wilma pulled away from Mexico's Yucatan peninsula as a Category 2 storm and, forecasters said, began picking up speed "like a rocket" as it headed toward Florida with expected landfall Monday.

10 gunmen kidnap Saddam trial lawyer

By Alyson Brodsy and Omar Sinan · Friday, Oct. 21,2005 2:08 a.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Ten masked gunmen kidnapped the lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants Thursday, police said. Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi, who was in the courtroom for Wednesday's opening session of the trial, is one of two lawyers for Awad Hamed al-Bandar, one of seven Baath Party officials being tried with Saddam.

Student's convoy attacked in Iraq

By Meredith Colias · Friday, Oct. 21,2005 2:08 a.m.

Senior and Indiana National Guard artillery 1st Lt. Matt Schoettmer was involved in a roadside bomb incident while deployed in Iraq Thursday morning. His convoy passed a Tikrit gas station 90 miles north of Bagdad when an explosion lifted his vehicle into the air. He was not injured in the attack.

DeLay booked, released on $10,000 bail

By Alyson Brodsy · Friday, Oct. 21,2005 1:09 a.m.

HOUSTON -- Rep. Tom DeLay turned himself in Thursday at the sheriff's office and was fingerprinted, photographed and released on $10,000 bail on conspiracy and money laundering charges.

U.S. defense in leak case 'difficult to prove'

By Alyson Brodsy · Friday, Oct. 21,2005 1:09 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The evidence prosecutors have assembled in the CIA leak case suggests Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff sought out reporters in the weeks before an undercover operative's identity was compromised in the news media, casting doubt on one of the White House's main lines of defense. For months, the White House and its supporters have argued top presidential aides did not knowingly expose Valerie Plame, the wife of administration critic Joseph Wilson, as a CIA operative.

Cancun evacuated for storm

By Alyson Brodsy and Will Weissert · Friday, Oct. 21,2005 1:08 a.m.

CANCUN, Mexico -- Tourists packed Cancun's airport and shuttled from luxury hotels to spartan emergency shelters Thursday, desperately trying to escape Hurricane Wilma as its outer bands battered the resort's white-sand beaches. Cuba evacuated more than 200,000 people.

Hurricane Wilma heads to Florida

By Alyson Brodsy and Freddy Cuevas · Thursday, Oct. 20,2005 1:22 a.m.

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras -- The fringes of Hurricane Wilma lashed Caribbean nations on Wednesday, forcing schools to close and thousands to evacuate as it churned toward Mexico's Cancun resort and Florida after killing at least 12 people and becoming the most intense storm ever to form in the Atlantic.

Court issues warrant for DeLay, sets $10,000 bond

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Oct. 19,2005 11:46 p.m.

AUSTIN, Texas -- A Texas court Wednesday issued a warrant for Rep. Tom DeLay, ordering him to appear at the Fort Bend County jail for booking on state conspiracy and money laundering charges. The court set an initial $10,000 bail as a routine step before the Texas Republican's first court appearance Friday.

Rice won't rule out U.S. troops in Iraq in 10 years

By Alyson Brodsy and Liz Sidoti · Wednesday, Oct. 19,2005 11:45 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday refused to rule out U.S. troops still serving in Iraq in 10 years or the possibility that the United States could use military force against neighboring Syria and Iran.

A defiant Saddam pleads innocent, scuffles with guards

By Alyson Brodsy and Hamza Hendawi · Wednesday, Oct. 19,2005 11:45 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A defiant Saddam Hussein quarreled with judges and scuffled with guards at the opening of his long-awaited trial Wednesday, rejecting the tribunal's right to judge him and insisting he is still the president of Iraq.