world

U.S. Supreme Court hearing Ten Commandments case

By Alyson Brodsy and Hope Yen · Wednesday, March 2,2005 11:45 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- Ten Commandments displays should be allowed on government property because they pay tribute to America's religious and legal history, the Supreme Court was told Wednesday, in cases that could render a new definition of the role that religion plays in the life of the nation.

Around The World

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, March 1,2005 11:30 p.m.

Thai ambassador to speak to IU students Kasit Piromya, Thailand's ambassador to the United States, will be giving a lecture on campus today titled "U.S.-Thai Relations: Elections, Trade, Tsunami." The lecture, which will occur at 5 p.m. in the Moot Court Room in the School of Law, is a part of the ambassador's two-day stay at IU. After the public lecture, Piromya will be meeting with members of IU's Thai Student Association.

More than 2,000 gather at Iraq bombing site

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, March 1,2005 11:27 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- After the deadliest attack since the U.S.-led invasion, more than 2,000 people demonstrated at the site of a car bombing that killed 125 people south of Baghdad, chanting "No to terrorism!" An Internet statement purportedly by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida group in Iraq claimed responsibility for the bombing.

BTK suspect's stable life defies stereotype among serial killers

By Alyson Brodsy and Sharon Cohen · Tuesday, March 1,2005 11:26 p.m.

WICHITA, Kan. -- He was trusted as a Cub Scout leader, respected as a churchgoing family man and accepted as a regular guy with a secure marriage, a steady job and all the other trappings of middle-class success. He was also, according to police, an insatiable murderer who tortured and killed strangers over 17 years, boasting about his crimes in taunting, gruesome letters and poems that he mailed to police and the news media.

Supreme Court rules death penalty for juveniles to be unconstitutional

By Alyson Brodsy and Hope Yen · Tuesday, March 1,2005 11:25 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- A closely divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that it is unconstitutional to execute juvenile killers, ending a practice in 19 states that has been roundly condemned by many of America's closest allies. The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of 72 murderers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes. The executions, the court said, violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Federal judge finds husband, mother dead in basement

By Alyson Brodsy and Don Babwin · Tuesday, March 1,2005 11:24 p.m.

CHICAGO -- A federal judge who was once the target of a failed murder plot by a white supremacist was under marshals' protection Tuesday after the shooting deaths of her husband and 89-year-old mother, and investigators were looking into possible connections to hate groups, among other leads. U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow found the bodies of Michael F. Lefkow, 65, and her mother, Donna Humphrey, when she returned home from work Monday evening, according to authorities and friends.

Democracy under Fire

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, March 1,2005 1 a.m.

HILLAH, Iraq -- A suicide car bomber blasted a crowd of police and national guard recruits Monday as they gathered for physicals outside a medical clinic south of Baghdad, killing at least 115 people and wounding 132 -- the single deadliest attack in the two-year insurgency. Torn limbs and other body parts littered the street outside the clinic in Hillah, a predominantly Shiite area about 60 miles south of Baghdad

Al-Qaida calls for attacks on U.S. soil

By Alyson Brodsy and Lara Jakes Jordan · Monday, Feb. 28,2005 11:33 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- New intelligence indicates Osama bin Laden is enlisting Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his top operative in Iraq, to plan potential attacks on the United States, U.S. officials said Monday. Al-Zarqawi has been involved in attacks in the Middle East but has not been known to have set his sights on U.S. soil.

U.S. considers joining European initiative to offer Iran alternatives

By Alyson Brodsy and Tom Raum · Monday, Feb. 28,2005 11:33 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- In a potential strategy shift, the Bush administration is considering joining Europe in offering Iran economic incentives in exchange for abandoning its nuclear fuel program, the White House said Monday.

Source: BTK suspect confesses to 6 murders

By Alyson Brodsy and Roxana Hegeman · Monday, Feb. 28,2005 11:32 p.m.

WICHITA, Kan. -- Police say they are confident that the arrest of a man suspected of being the BTK serial killer will end 30 years of terror, and a source said he confessed to some killings.

Attorney general will prosecute obscenity

By Alyson Brodsy and Mark Sherman · Monday, Feb. 28,2005 11:31 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Monday he would move aggressively to prosecute obscenity cases, and he laid out a broader agenda much like that of his predecessor, John Ashcroft.

Protests force out Lebanese government

By Alyson Brodsy and Bassem Mroue · Monday, Feb. 28,2005 11:30 p.m.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- With shouts of "Syria out!", more than 25,000 flag-waving protesters massed outside Parliament Monday in a dramatic display of defiance that forced the resignation of Lebanon's prime minister and Cabinet two weeks after the assassination of an opposition leader.

Particles

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Feb. 28,2005 11:18 p.m.

For years scientists have thought there was once water on Mars, The planet is, after all, most like Earth compared with all other planets in the solar system. But most scientists believed all water had long since evaporated from the surface -- leaving Mars dry and cold.

INWARD BATTLES, OUTWARD ACTIONS

By Lindsey Jancek and Lindsay Jancek · Monday, Feb. 28,2005 1:26 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Thousands of young adults, including 12 IU students, converged in front of the White House Saturday to participate in one of the largest AIDS rallies ever.

Pope surprises with post-surgery blessing

By Alyson Brodsy and Brian Murphy · Sunday, Feb. 27,2005 11:41 p.m.

VATICAN CITY -- Touching his throat fitted with a breathing tube, Pope John Paul II on Sunday made a surprise first public appearance after surgery, appearing at his hospital window just moments after a Vatican official stood on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica to read the pontiff's appeal for prayers. The 84-year-old pope did not speak during his one-minute greeting from Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic hospital, but sent an implicit and powerful message about his determination to maintain continuity in the church.

Iran, Russia sign nuclear fuel agreement

By Alyson Brodsy and Ali Akbar Dareini · Sunday, Feb. 27,2005 11:08 p.m.

BUSHEHR, Iran -- Iran and Russia ignored U.S. objections and signed a nuclear fuel agreement Sunday that is key to bringing Tehran's first reactor online by mid-2006. The long-delayed deal, signed at the heavily guarded Bushehr nuclear facility in southern Iran, dramatized President Bush's failure to persuade the Russians to curtail support for the Iranian nuclear program during his summit with Vladimir Putin Thursday in Slovakia.

Syrian officials hand over Saddam's half-brother

By Alyson Brodsy and Todd Pitman · Sunday, Feb. 27,2005 10:59 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi officials said Sunday that Syria captured and handed over Saddam Hussein's half brother, a most-wanted leader in the Sunni-based insurgency, ending months of Syrian denials that it was harboring fugitives from the ousted Saddam regime. Iraq authorities said Damascus acted in a gesture of goodwill.

Pope undergoes tracheotomy to aid breathing

By Victor L. Simpson · Friday, Feb. 25,2005 1:23 a.m.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope John Paul II underwent a successful operation Thursday night to insert a tube in his throat to relieve his breathing problems, hours after he was rushed back to the hospital for the second time in a month with flu-like symptoms of fever and congestion, the Vatican said.

30 killed in attacks across Iraq Thursday

By Todd Pitman · Friday, Feb. 25,2005 1:15 a.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A suicide bomber wearing a police uniform blew up his car at police headquarters in Tikrit, killing at least 15 people in Saddam Hussein's hometown in the bloodiest of several attacks Thursday that claimed 30 lives. Two American soldiers were among the dead.

Canada will not join U.S. missile defense

By Alyson Brodsy · Thursday, Feb. 24,2005 11:46 p.m.

TORONTO -- Prime Minister Paul Martin said Thursday that Canada would opt out of the contentious U.S. missile defense program, a move that will further strain brittle relations between the neighbors but please Canadians who fear it could lead to an international arms race.