world

Car bomb misses U.S. military convoy

By Alyson Brodsy and Mariam Fam · Thursday, Feb. 10,2005 11:18 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A car bomb detonated by remote control exploded Thursday in Baghdad, killing two Iraqis but missing a U.S. military convoy as insurgent violence claimed more than 50 lives. Clashes between Iraqi police and rebels erupted along a major highway southeast of the capital.

Senate approves measure to limit class action lawsuits

By Alyson Brodsy · Thursday, Feb. 10,2005 11:17 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate approved a measure Thursday to help shield businesses from major class action lawsuits like the ones that have been brought against tobacco companies, giving President Bush the first legislative victory of his second term. Under the legislation, long sought by big business, large multistate class action lawsuits could no longer be heard in small state courts. Such courts have handed out multimillion-dollar verdicts.

Abbas fires top Gaza security commanders

By Alyson Brodsy and Josef Federman · Thursday, Feb. 10,2005 11:13 p.m.

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas fired top Gaza security commanders Thursday, Palestinian officials said, hours after militants fired dozens of mortar shells and homemade rockets at Jewish settlements there, breaking a 2-day-old cease-fire.

Prince Charles plans to wed Camilla Parker Bowles

By Alyson Brodsy and Michael McDonough · Thursday, Feb. 10,2005 11:12 p.m.

LONDON -- Prince Charles said Thursday he will marry his divorced lover Camilla Parker Bowles in April, putting an official seal on a long romance that Princess Diana blamed for the breakdown of her tempestuous marriage to the heir to the throne. The announcement ruled out the possibility that she would become queen.

Bush to request $950 million for relief effort

By Alyson Brodsy and Jennifer Loven · Thursday, Feb. 10,2005 11:11 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Wednesday he is asking Congress for $950 million to support victims of last year's devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean, more than doubling the U.S. pledge.

Rice: Iran must answer to suspicions of nukes

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Feb. 9,2005 11:38 p.m.

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that Iran cannot delay indefinitely accountability for a suspected nuclear weapons program, but said the United States has set "no deadline, no timeline" for Tehran to act.

Questionable ballot boxes delay Iraq election results

By Alyson Brodsy and Mariam Fam · Wednesday, Feb. 9,2005 11:36 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi officials Wednesday delayed the announcement of final results from landmark national elections because they said the election commission must recount votes from about 300 ballot boxes.

ETA blamed in Spanish car bombing

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Feb. 9,2005 11:35 p.m.

MADRID, Spain -- A car bomb exploded in a Madrid business park Wednesday after a warning call purportedly from the Basque separatist group ETA. The explosion injured at least 43 people, officials said, in the worst blast in the Spanish capital since last year's terrorist attack on commuter trains.

Middle East leaders reach cease-fire agreement

By Alyson Brodsy and Lara Sukhtian · Wednesday, Feb. 9,2005 1:37 a.m.

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared Tuesday that their people would stop all military and violent attacks against each other, pledging to break a four-year cycle of bloodshed and to get peace talks back on track.

Touring Tragedy

By Rick Newkirk · Wednesday, Feb. 9,2005 1:32 a.m.

In Thai, "Thailand" means "land of the free." This is the story of four IU administrators -- four Americans -- who observed Bangkok in the wake of the world's greatest recent tragedy.

U.K. allows cloning of human embryos

By Alyson Brodsy and Thomas Wagner · Wednesday, Feb. 9,2005 12:36 a.m.

LONDON -- The British government Tuesday gave the creator of Dolly the Sheep a license to clone human embryos for medical research into the cause of motor neuron disease. Ian Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly at Scotland's Roslin Institute in 1996, and motor neuron expert Christopher Shaw of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, plan to clone embryos to study how nerve cells go awry to cause the disease. The experiments do not involve creating cloned babies.

Few revelers turn out for Mardi Gras parties in New Orleans

By Alyson Brodsy and Mary Foster · Wednesday, Feb. 9,2005 12:34 a.m.

NEW ORLEANS -- Mardi Gras costumes were sparse, but so were the crowds Tuesday as the annual extravaganza of parades and parties arrived earlier than usual because of a quirk in the calendar. "I never saw this few people before," said Roshawn Gilmore, 27, as the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club parade began about five blocks away from the spot he and his family had staked out before dawn on St. Charles Avenue.

Judge allows wrongful death lawsuit for embryo

By Alyson Brodsy and Lindsey Tanner · Tuesday, Feb. 8,2005 11:31 p.m.

CHICAGO -- All Alison Miller and Todd Parrish wanted was to become parents. But when a fertility clinic didn't preserve a healthy embryo they had hoped would one day become their child, they sued for wrongful death. A judge refused to dismiss their case, ruling in effect that a test-tube embryo is a human being and that the suit could go forward.

Rice calls to mend European, U.S. ties

By Alyson Brodsy and Anne Gearan · Tuesday, Feb. 8,2005 11:29 p.m.

PARIS -- Trying to mend fences with Europe, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday "it is time to turn away from the disagreements of the past" that alienated longtime allies over the U.S. invasion of Iraq. France was the most vocal opponent of President Bush's handling of the war with Iraq, and the new secretary of state deliberately chose Paris for the major address of her first official tour of Europe.

President promotes domestic agenda

By Alyson Brodsy and Jennifer Loven · Tuesday, Feb. 8,2005 11:27 p.m.

DETROIT -- President Bush promoted his entire domestic agenda Tuesday -- from a massive Social Security overhaul to a new, austere budget -- as changes needed for faster job growth and a solid economic expansion.

Particles

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Feb. 8,2005 12:13 a.m.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Ernst Mayr, one of the world's leading evolutionary biologists, died Thursday at a retirement community. He was 100.

Howard Dean to be elected to DNC

By Alyson Brodsy and Will Lester · Monday, Feb. 7,2005 11:41 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- Tim Roemer, the only remaining opponent of Howard Dean in the race to be chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Monday he's bowing out of the race. Dean, the former presidential candidate and governor of Vermont, is expected to win the DNC chairmanship at the election Feb. 12.

President Bush presents budget to Congress for debate

By Alyson Brodsy and Martin Crutsinger · Monday, Feb. 7,2005 11:39 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget plan Monday that would boost spending on the military and homeland security but seeks spending cuts across a wide swath of other government programs. Bush's budget would reduce subsidies paid to farmers, cut health programs for poor people and veterans and trim spending on the environment and education.

Boston priest found guilty of child rape

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Feb. 7,2005 11:15 p.m.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, the most notorious figure in the sex scandal that rocked the Boston Archdiocese, was convicted Monday of raping and fondling a boy at his Roman Catholic church during the 1980s.

Middle East officals to announce cease-fire

By Alyson Brodsy and Anne Gearan · Monday, Feb. 7,2005 11:13 p.m.

JERUSALEM -- President Bush will meet separately this spring with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, offering encouraging words about a Mideast peace process in which "people are becoming more trustworthy."