world

U.N. inspectors want unfettered access

By Alyson Brodsy and William J. Kole · Tuesday, Oct. 1,2002 1 a.m.

VIENNA, Austria -- Opening talks with Iraqi experts Monday, the chief U.N. weapons inspector said he expected unfettered access to suspect sites if his teams return and full cooperation in the meantime to make that happen.

Embattled senator pulls out of race

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Oct. 1,2002 1 a.m.

TRENTON, N.J. -- Dogged by questions about his ethics and falling in the polls, Democratic Sen. Robert Torricelli abruptly dropped his bid for a second term Monday, throwing a twist into the battle for the Senate just five weeks before Election Day.

Israel begins withdrawing forces from Arafat compound

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Sept. 30,2002 12:34 a.m.

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Israel bowed to U.N. demands and U.S. pressure Sunday, pulling troops and tanks out through the barbed wire that encircles Yasser Arafat's headquarters. The Palestinian leader said the move was only "cosmetic."

Voter turnout low as Kostunica wins first round in Serbia's presidential race

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Sept. 30,2002 12:34 a.m.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Serbian voters stayed home in large numbers Sunday, showing little interest in the first presidential election since the ouster of Slobodan Milosevic. Voters chose among 11 candidates promising to elevate them from the political and economic morass fostered by the Balkan wars and international isolation under Milosevic's rule.

War preparations underway in Kuwait

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Sept. 30,2002 12:31 a.m.

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait -- U.S. Marines rode massive green hovercraft last week onto the Kuwaiti shore. But instead of assaulting hostile Iraqi troops, they joined Kuwaiti allies for a three-week exercise in the desert.

More people in 2001 without health insurance, census shows

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Sept. 30,2002 12:28 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- About 1.4 million more people were without health insurance last year as the recession increased unemployment and forced businesses to scale back benefits, Census Bureau figures show. Roughly 41.2 million people, or 14.6 percent of U.S. residents, lacked health coverage for all of 2001, compare with 14.2 percent the previous year, according to bureau estimates being released Monday.

Despair looms over recovery effort

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Sept. 30,2002 12:27 a.m.

DAKAR, Senegal -- The toll of victims missing and presumed dead in Senegal's ferry disaster soared by nearly 250 Sunday, with the government now saying 1,034 passengers and crew were on board. Only 64 people are known to have survived the ocean ferry's capsizing. All of those who survived were rescued by passing fishing boats in the first hours early Friday morning.

Hindu mobs wound two Muslims; India on alert

By Alyson Brodsy and Ashok Sharma · Friday, Sept. 27,2002 2:16 a.m.

AHMADABAD, India -- Hindu nationalists held angry protest marches and mobs stabbed two Muslim men in western India on Thursday as Muslims fled their homes to seek safety, fearing revenge riots after a bloody attack on a Hindu temple. Paramilitary police deployed in several towns in Gujarat state, and officials said they were confident they could prevent a repeat of the sectarian violence that tore apart the state for three months earlier this year, leaving 1,000 dead, mostly Muslims.

Hamas bombmaker may have been killed in Israeli helicopter attack

By Alyson Brodsy and Ibrahim Barzak · Friday, Sept. 27,2002 1:10 a.m.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- An Israeli helicopter fired rockets into a car carrying Palestinian militants Thursday, killing at least two and wounding 35 bystanders. Israel said the target was Hamas' chief bombmaker, and there were conflicting reports about whether he was killed.

Bush close to deal with Congress

By Alyson Brodsy and Jim Abrams · Friday, Sept. 27,2002 1:09 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Thursday he is close to an agreement with Congress to "speak with one voice" against Saddam Hussein, even as Democrats accused him of making the nation's security a political issue.

Isidore attacks Gulf Coast shores

By Alyson Brodsy · Friday, Sept. 27,2002 1:08 a.m.

NEW ORLEANS -- Tropical Storm Isidore blew ashore early Thursday with near hurricane-force wind and rain that flooded New Orleans streets with water up to car windshields.

Skull found near home of missing girl

By Alyson Brodsy · Thursday, Sept. 26,2002 2:31 a.m.

STONEVILLE, N.C. -- Authorities and search dogs descended on a rural area where a small human skull was found Wednesday, some 30 miles from where a 9-year-old Virginia girl disappeared last month. The officials included a contingent from Henry County, Va., where police have been hunting for Jennifer Short since Aug. 15. Officials believe the girl was kidnapped after her parents were slain in their Henry County home. The skull "appears to be from somebody young," said Jeannie Justice, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office in Rockingham County.

Rumsfeld asks Germany to mend divide

By Alyson Brodsy · Thursday, Sept. 26,2002 2:15 a.m.

WARSAW, Poland -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested Wednesday that it was up to Germany to repair damage to American-German relations. "We do have a saying in America: If you're in a hole, stop digging," Rumsfeld told a news conference at the close of two days of NATO meetings clouded by tensions between the two allies.

Israeli troops wreck houses

By Alyson Brodsy · Thursday, Sept. 26,2002 12:52 a.m.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli troops demolished three houses of Palestinian terror suspects Wednesday, while Jewish settler leaders inaugurated a new Jewish settlement near the Palestinian city of Nablus. In the West Bank town of Ramallah, Israel maintained its siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters for a seventh day, ignoring a call by the U.N. Security Council to end operations there and withdraw from Palestinian cities.

Daschle accuses Bush of politicizing war talks

By Alyson Brodsy · Thursday, Sept. 26,2002 12:51 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle on Wednesday accused President Bush of seeking to politicize the debate over war with Iraq and demanded that he apologize for implying that Democrats were not interested in the security of the American people. "That is wrong," Daschle said in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor. "We ought not politicize this war. We ought not politicize the rhetoric about war and life and death."

School children evacuated

By Alyson Brodsy · Thursday, Sept. 26,2002 12:51 a.m.

BOUAKE, Ivory Coast -- Jubilation replaced fear within the whitewashed walls of a U.S.-led missionary school in battle-divided Ivory Coast on Wednesday, as French troops evacuated the mostly American staff and students Wednesday. Bookended by French military vehicles, a caravan carrying the children rolled from the boarding school campus during the late afternoon. Children hanging from windows waved American flags and shouted "Vive la France!" -- "Long live France!"

California fire spreads as residents flee

By Alyson Brodsy · Thursday, Sept. 26,2002 12:49 a.m.

MOUNT BALDY VILLAGE, Calif. -- A wildfire that has destroyed dozens of cabins and forced the closure of 650,000-acres in Angeles National Forest prompted mandatory evacuations as smoke spread across communities northeast of Los Angeles. The fire had scorched about 22,000 acres of the national forest by Wednesday morning, equal to about 11 square miles. The blaze was only 10 percent contained early Wednesday.

Isidore on course for Gulf Coast

By Alyson Brodsy · Thursday, Sept. 26,2002 12:48 a.m.

DAUPHIN ISLAND, Ala. -- Heavy rain deluged the Gulf Coast, flooding streets and forcing evacuations, as Tropical Storm Isidore moved closer to landfall Wednesday. As much as 6 inches of rain had fallen in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida by noon Wednesday, and some coastal areas were already reporting wind gusts of around 30 mph. A hurricane watch stretched about 300 miles from Cameron, in southwestern Louisiana, to Pascagoula, Miss., and a tropical storm warning encompassed a wider area from High Island, Texas, to Destin, Fla.

U.S. special forces sent to Ivory Coast

Wednesday, Sept. 25,2002 1:43 p.m.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- U.S. troops headed to West Africa on Tuesday to safeguard 100 American schoolchildren holed up in a rebel-held city after the bloodiest-ever uprising in the Ivory Coast. Frightened residents reported heavy artillery and gunfire.

Iraq may possess uranium

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Sept. 25,2002 1:37 p.m.

LONDON -- Iraq has military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, and has tried to acquire "significant quantities" of uranium from Africa, Britain said Tuesday in a dossier of evidence about Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction.