world

Peacekeepers land in Liberia

By Glenn McKenzie · Wednesday, Aug. 6,2003 9:41 p.m.

MONROVIA, Liberia -- U.S. military helicopters landed a seven-member Marine team Wednesday in Liberia, marking the first U.S. troops on the ground to support a West African peace force.

Belt buckles, keys among items FBI says could conceal weapons

By Curt Anderson · Wednesday, Aug. 6,2003 9:41 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is warning security personnel about dozens of everyday items -- from belt buckles to keys to a deadly deck of cards -- that can conceal knives or other weapons terrorists could use to hijack an airliner.

Remains gathered from Bosnian mass grave

By Almir Arnaut · Wednesday, Aug. 6,2003 8:51 p.m.

MEMICI, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Forensic experts gently placed skulls, bones and clothing into plastic bags Wednesday, the first gathering of remains from what might be Bosnia's largest mass grave.

Iraqi police regroup after Hussein regime falls

By Jamie Tarabay · Wednesday, Aug. 6,2003 8:49 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Crowds are still way below prewar levels at one of Baghdad's busiest fruit and vegetable markets, where many shoppers still fear lawlessness -- pickpockets in the market and car thieves on streets outside. Those fears should be easing soon as Iraq's new police slowly retake the streets.

Church might cut ties to U.S.

By Mary Longmore · Wednesday, Aug. 6,2003 8:48 p.m.

SYDNEY, Australia -- An Anglican leader warned Wednesday that Asia's bishops might consider cutting ties with the U.S. Episcopalian Church over its appointment of its first openly gay bishop.

Israel releases Palestinian prisoners

By Mark Lavie · Wednesday, Aug. 6,2003 8:22 p.m.

JERUSALEM -- Israel freed the first of several hundred Palestinians slated for release Wednesday, transporting the prisoners to relatives who greeted them with waving flags and chants of "Welcome" and "God is Great." A Palestinian taxi carried some of the men from Israel's Erez checkpoint into the Gaza Strip, where they emerged and kissed the ground. Minutes later, several more prisoners were freed at Beitunya junction near Ramallah, and several busloads of detainees also arrived at Tarqumiya checkpoint in the southern West Bank.

Militants agree on deal to end standoff at Arafat compound; talks continue on moving them

By Hadeel Wahdan · Sunday, Aug. 3,2003 9:30 p.m.

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinian officials said Sunday they had resolved a dispute over 17 militants held at gunpoint in Yasser Arafat's compound and that the men would not be transferred to the West Bank town of Jericho, as desired by Israel. An Israeli minister had said movement of the men to Palestinian Authority supervision in Jericho could help Israel to decide to lift a siege of Arafat and pull out of the West Bank town of Ramallah, the Palestinians' administrative headquarters Abdel Fattah Hamayel, a Palestinian minister responsible for negotiating with the militants, said "the principal issue" in the dispute had been resolved.

Al Qaeda official gives U.S. warning

By Diana Elias · Sunday, Aug. 3,2003 9:29 p.m.

KUWAIT CITY -- A new audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden's top deputy warns the United States that it will pay dearly if it harms detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The tape, broadcast Sunday, urges Muslims everywhere to avenge the prisoners. The Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya said the tape was from Ayman Al-Zawahri, a top official in bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.

Hussein kept weapons removal quiet, aide says

By Slobodan Lekic · Sunday, Aug. 3,2003 9:25 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A close aide to Saddam Hussein says the Iraqi dictator did in fact get rid of his weapons of mass destruction, but deliberately kept the world guessing about it in an effort to divide the international community and stave off a U.S. invasion. The strategy, which turned out to be a serious miscalculation, was designed to make the Iraqi dictator look strong in the eyes of the Arab world, while countries such as France and Russia were wary of joining an American-led attack. At the same time, Saddam retained the technical know-how and brain power to restart the programs at any time.

American spy caught with secrets

By Jonathan D. Salant · Wednesday, July 30,2003 10:04 p.m.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Brian Patrick Regan buried 20,000 classified documents, five CD-ROMs and five videotapes, the government said Wednesday, evidence of the convicted spy's intention to sell national security secrets to Iraq and other countries for millions of dollars.

Fighting rages in Liberia despite 'cease-fire'

By Alexandra Zavis · Wednesday, July 30,2003 9:40 p.m.

MONROVIA, Liberia -- Heavy fighting raged in Liberia's besieged capital Wednesday despite rebel declarations of a cease-fire, with President Charles Taylor's troops battling rebels trying to advance on his downtown stronghold. Mortar shells crashed into neighborhoods of tin-roof shacks overnight, killing at least one person and wounding eight adults and a dozen children on the government-controlled side of the capital, aid workers said.

Man admits to killing kids

Wednesday, July 30,2003 9:35 p.m.

CONCORD, N.H. -- A man accused of killing his two children told authorities he shot them in New Hampshire and buried them in a shallow grave in the Midwest after saying a prayer and making a duct tape cross on each child's chest, according to court documents released Wednesday.

Columbian mayor places warnings on streets

By Kim Housego · Wednesday, July 30,2003 8:56 p.m.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The streets of Colombia's capital have been splashed with hundreds of bright yellow stars with white question marks in the middle -- "death stars." They mark spots where people have been killed -- not by the leftist rebels and rightist paramilitary fighters of Colombia's long civil war, but by drunk drivers and speed demons who wreak havoc on Bogota's crowded streets. On average, nearly 700 people die every year in traffic accidents in Bogota, and more than half of them are pedestrians.

Germans address problems in school systems

By Melissa Eddy · Wednesday, July 30,2003 8:56 p.m.

FRANKFURT, Germany -- It sounds like every child's dream: only four-and-a-half hours of school a day, no attendance taken, a free day if a teacher is sick, no punishment for playing hooky. But this is no dream, as Germans have suddenly awakened to discover; it's the sorry state of their schools.

Final 'last edition' Beetle hits streets

By Alonso Soto Joya · Wednesday, July 30,2003 8:55 p.m.

PUEBLA, Mexico -- Volkswagen is saying goodbye to its icon, the Beetle, ending production and sparking an international battle among collectors who want a final reminder of the car that was popular with everyone from post-World War II suburbanites to hippies. The world's last new Volkswagen bug rolled off the assembly line Wednesday at the VW plant in Puebla, 65 miles southeast of Mexico City.

Interim Iraqi leader chosen

By Steven R. Hurst · Wednesday, July 30,2003 8:54 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A Shiite Muslim member of a political party banned by Saddam Hussein was chosen Wednesday to be the first leader of Iraq's U.S.-picked interim government, serving a one-month term that will be rotated among eight other faction leaders. The Iraq Governing Council, meeting in Baghdad's Convention Center, also lashed out at Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa for failing to recognize the interim government's authority.

U.S. troops come close to catching top Saddam bodyguard; marine killed

By D’arcy Doran · Sunday, July 27,2003 10:10 p.m.

TIKRIT, Iraq -- U.S. soldiers said they missed catching Saddam Hussein's security chief -- and possibly the former Iraqi president himself -- by a mere 24 hours early Sunday, while a U.S. Marine was killed in a grenade attack south of Baghdad. Troops stormed three farms in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, in simultaneous pre-dawn raids after receiving a tip that Saddam's new security chief was staying at one of the farm houses, said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who led the operation by the of the 4th Infantry.

Suicide bomber detonates explosives

By Sergei Venyavsky · Sunday, July 27,2003 10:09 p.m.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia -- A female suicide bomber blew herself up Sunday near a base of a security force commanded by a son of Chechnya's Kremlin-appointed administration chief, wounding a woman who was nearby, officials said. The attack, which occurred southeast of the provincial capital of Grozny, appeared aimed at the administration chief Akhmad Kadyrov's son, Ramzan, Chechnya's Emergency Situations Minister Ruslan Avtayev said.

Family claims man lynched

By Jill Barton · Sunday, July 27,2003 10:08 p.m.

BELLE GLADE, Fla. -- Not long after the family of Feraris "Ray" Golden found his dead body dangling from a tree outside his grandmother's home, ugly suspicions began to surface.

Troops seize complex, surrender

By Hrvoje Hranjski · Sunday, July 27,2003 9:41 p.m.

MANILA, Philippines -- More than 300 mutinous Philippine troops who seized a downtown residential shopping complex surrendered late Sunday, ending a 19-hour standoff with government forces without a shot fired. Explosives set at the upscale complex by the mutineers were being defused as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced the standoff had ended. Renegade soldiers and officers would face investigation according to "the articles of war," she said.