September 30, 2003
KABUL -- An American soldier died of wounds after fighting in eastern Afghanistan, the fourth U.S. fatality in just over a month in operations against Taliban and al Qaeda militants in Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. Two U.S. soldiers were wounded and two opposing fighters were killed in the fighting on Monday near Shkin in Paktika province close to the Pakistan border, U.S. military spokesman Colonel Rodney Davis told reporters at Bagram air base north of Kabul.
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10:46 AM
BAGHDAD -- Drafting a constitution that paves the way for Iraqi self-government could take at least a year, more than twice as long as a target set by the United States, Iraqi officials said on Tuesday. Washington, seeking international help to tackle a guerrilla insurgency and mounting costs in Iraq, is seeking to address European concerns over the handover of power in a new draft U.N. resolution which it says could be ready within days.
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10:44 AM
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- "People are losing confidence in the fact that the troops aren't coming home, and we should have gotten more help before going over there in the first place," said Martinsburg's mayor, George Karos, 72, a Navy veteran who owns one of the city's prime gathering places, Patterson's Drug Store. His reservations are reflected in national polls, which last week registered sharp drops in Bush's approval ratings, to 50 percent in the Gallup survey. The reason is apparent at almost every lunch counter and workplace in Martinsburg: Where Bush once drew support based on the simple conviction that he was right to take the fight against terrorism to the Middle East, now he's running up against another simple conviction, that US dollars should not be sunk into an overseas rebuilding project.
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10:38 AM
Killing Americans was an obsession of Abu Bakr, a Sunni Muslim who sold his wares from a rickety stand outside the mosque of the al-Imam al-A'azam in the city's al-Azamiyah district. The 35-year-old father of four was killed Aug. 29 - not by the Americans but in a gun battle with Shiite Muslims. While much attention has focused on the zeal of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, Abu Bakr's death highlights another side of the picture, and the potential for further violence and score-settling between Shiites and the Sunnis who were dominant as long as Saddam Hussein was in power.
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10:38 AM
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is investigating allegations that White House officials revealed the identity of a CIA agent whose husband had questioned President Bush’s claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Africa. The matter has been referred to the department, which “will now take appropriate action, whatever that is,” national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
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10:36 AM
WASHINGTON - The bewildering fight between the government and telemarketers over the national do-not-call list took another turn Monday when a second federal agency said it would enforce the program. The Federal Communications Commission said it would seek fines of up to $120,000 against telemarketers each time they call people on the registry.
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10:36 AM
The telephone number of a federal judge in Denver who blocked a national do-not-call registry this week had been added to the list in July, blocking telemarketers from calling him. Edward W. Nottingham stopped the Federal Trade Commission from implementing the registry, ruling that it is an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.
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10:35 AM
WASHINGTON -- President Bush speedily signed legislation yesterday to put a federal do-not-call list back on track, aligning the executive branch with Congress in seeking to protect Americans from telemarketers. But the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to have the final word on whether Congress or states like Pennsylvania can pick and choose which telephone solicitations a citizen can choose to block.
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10:34 AM
The season will bring several reminders. Friday marks a year since the day that people around here woke to news that a gunman lurked among them. Suspect John Allen Muhammad goes on trial Oct. 14 in Virginia for one of the killings, while his alleged partner faces trial Nov. 10 for another.
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10:32 AM
September 29, 2003
The US on Friday activated 10,000 National Guard troops for service in Iraq and put another 5,000 on alert for likely call-up after its appeal for foreign military help met no immediate response. The 30th Infantry Brigade from North Carolina and the 39th Infantry Brigade from Arkansas, each with 5,000 soldiers, were ordered to join the active duty force on Oct. 1 and Oct. 12 respectively. They will undergo about three months of training before going to Iraq early next year for a full year.
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10:28 AM
BAGHDAD -- A U.S. soldier was killed and another was wounded on Monday when guerrillas attacked a military convoy in a restive area west of Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said. Eighty-one U.S. soldiers have been killed in attacks since President Bush declared major combat in Iraq over on May 1 following the war that ousted Saddam Hussein, according to official U.S. figures. The residents said the fighting broke out after a U.S. vehicle ran over a bomb. Assailants emerged later, firing rocket-propelled grenades at the soldiers who returned fire.
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10:24 AM
National Guard recruiters say they are coming up against a force at least as powerful as economics or patriotism: parental instincts. " `Aren't there enough older people, grown men, to send over to Iraq? You have to go after 17-year-olds?' " Julia Couch recalled asking Moody. "We are a very patriotic family. But I'm not going to sign what I felt like might be my son's death warrant." (
Editor's note: Mrs. Couch, the United States does not have enough "grown men" to go to war because Americans have murdered off 45 +million people in the last 30 years by abortion, so young men like your 17-year-old son will have to pay the price.)
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10:22 AM
LONDON/WASHINGTON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair, echoing his comrade in arms President Bush, said on Sunday he had no regrets about launching the war that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
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10:17 AM
Kabul, Afghanistan - A new constitution that will be put forward soon for ratification declares Afghanistan a Muslim state but stops short of imposing Islamic Shariah law, a contentious issue in this conservative nation, an Afghan official told the Associated Press yesterday. As they draw up a constitution aimed at unifying the fragmented nation, conservatives and secularists have been hotly debating how to enshrine Islam into law after years under the Taliban, who enforced a harsh version of Shariah that some Afghans recall with horror but others support.
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10:09 AM
The contradiction between encouraging democratic values and ruling by force was built into the IMN's very origins. Early this year, the Pentagon hired not a media outlet but a San Diego-based defense contractor, the Scientific Applications International Corp. (SAIC), to develop a multimedia operation in postwar Iraq. Although this new outfit was intended to become a kind of public broadcasting system, The SAIC's orientation was more toward information control: One of SAIC's specializations, for example, is "Information Dominance/Command and Control."
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10:08 AM
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- With new poll numbers showing him in the lead to replace California Gov. Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger is cranking up his campaign as it enters the final week. "This is war," the actor told enthusiastic crowds Sunday. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows 63 percent of probable voters say they'll vote "yes" on the recall. Republican Schwarzenegger is the top choice as a replacement, with 40 percent support in the poll. Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante trailed with 25 percent.
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10:07 AM
IN THE EAST BAY, the chad is gone, but absentee ballots remain. And they may pose a bigger problem for voters in the recall election now just nine days away. After the 2000 presidential election, California counties pushed to rid themselves of the type of punch card systems that produced Florida's famous hanging chads. Alameda County was one of the first, moving to touch-screen voting.
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10:06 AM
Some opponents of stronger disclosure requirements claim public reporting is an invasion of privacy. But disclosure laws long have been upheld in the courts as a legal tool to combat the corrupting influence of campaign contributions on public officials. A minimum step is to let the public know who's hoping to buy such influence. A top-ranked system such as Washington's could serve as a model for the rest of the nation.
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10:05 AM
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa yesterday signed a financing agreement worth Sh500 million to be used in support of the region’s integration programmes. Comesa Secretary-General, Erastus Mwencha, said the USAID/REDS funds will also be used in the promotion of US-Comesa trade under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) and between member countries. Addressing a media briefing on the recently-concluded Cancun WTO meeting, Mwencha said over the last five years of the US-Comesa partnership, "we have implemented two limited scope grant agreements to the tune of US$16.6 million (Sh1.3 billion), thus making USAid a major co-operating partner of Comesa."
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10:03 AM
September 27, 2003
WASHINGTON - The operators of the national do-not-call registry have a message for the millions of people who signed up to be free of telemarketers: If you thought the phone was going to stop ringing, think again. After a bewildering week of court reversals and breakneck congressional action, the Federal Trade Commission is acknowledging that its anti-telemarketing service has, at least for now, been placed on hold. "You can still put your number on the national registry," the FTC said in a statement posted Friday on its Web site, "but for now, telemarketers are not required to comply with it."
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02:55 PM
The CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that the White House broke federal laws by revealing the identity of one of its undercover employees in retaliation against the woman’s husband, a former ambassador who publicly criticized President Bush’s since-discredited claim that Iraq had sought weapons-grade uranium from Africa, NBC News has learned.
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02:51 PM
UNITED NATIONS - U.S. officials have promised to give the United Nations a stronger say in Iraq's elections and its transition to democracy from the one-party rule of Saddam Hussein, an American official said. The announcement Friday came as Secretary of State Colin Powell set a six-month timeline for drafting a constitution and electing political leaders in Iraq. He emphasized it was not a deadline with dire consequences.
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02:48 PM
WASHINGTON - President Bush's emergency request for $87 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan is emerging as the link that connects public anxiety over the economy with reservations about U.S. policy in Iraq. With polls showing that as many as 3 out of 5 Americans oppose spending so much, Democrats see an opportunity to tar Bush and Republicans as poor stewards of taxpayers' money and poor managers of post-war Iraq.
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02:47 PM
WASHINGTON -- President Bush sought to reassure Americans on Saturday that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was appropriate despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction and with U.S. troops under daily guerrilla attack. "The world is safer today because, in Iraq, our coalition ended a regime that cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction," Bush said.
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02:45 PM
An Iraqi police official says a fifth person has died of wounds suffered when American soldiers opened fire at two vehicles at a checkpoint -- though the United States is only confirming two deaths. The Americans say soldiers opened fire when an Iraqi vehicle ran the checkpoint late last night. Residents reached by telephone say the incident occurred on the eastern edge of the city, where opposition to the American presence runs deep.
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02:44 PM
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three rockets slammed into a hotel housing U.S. troops and civilians on Saturday but caused no injuries, while in the explosive town of Fallujah, U.S. troops killed two Iraqis at a checkpoint, the military said. James Smith, spokesman for the U.S.-run coalition, said the projectiles struck the Al-Rashid Hotel about 6:30 a.m.
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02:43 PM
LONDON - More than 10,000 protesters demanding the pullout of coalition troops from Iraq marched in central London on Saturday, chanting "No More War" and "Bush and Blair have got to go." Thousands more in other countries raised their voices against the occupation of Iraq.
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02:42 PM
Half the British public believe Tony Blair should resign, according to a new opinion poll illustrating the extent to which the UK prime minister has lost public trust as a result of the Iraq war. In the week that has seen George W. Bush's popularity falling to the lowest level of his presidency, the slump in confidence in Mr Blair underlines how the invasion of Iraq has damaged the political prospects of the two leading advocates of war.
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02:41 PM
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- The Gov. Gray Davis known for his sharp attacks on opponents has emerged in the campaign to save his job, going after Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first negative ad and daring him to a showdown debate that the actor's camp rejected.
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02:40 PM
A big issue in next month's recall election is the reliability of the old punch-card voting machines. But is electronic voting much better?
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02:30 PM
September 26, 2003
WASHINGTON – Congress is ready to improve the instant background check system for gun buyers by offering states financial incentives to provide more records and threatening to withhold federal dollars for those failing to comply, lawmakers said Thursday. Members of Congress said that the biggest problem with the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System is that many state records are not in the federal government's system. "This is a catch-as-catch-can system, and we're not catching enough," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. New legislation would give states financial incentives to put their records into the system.
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09:28 AM
More U.S. workers lost their jobs in large layoffs in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported yesterday, another sign that employers are continuing to trim payrolls even as the economy strengthens. The BLS tracks what it calls "mass layoffs," or firings of more than 50 workers in a single month by a single employer, by compiling reports on initial claims for unemployment benefits filed with state agencies. The numbers include temporary and permanent firings. About 134,000 workers lost their jobs in 1,258 mass layoffs nationwide last month, up from the 128,103 employees who were fired in 1,248 such actions in August 2002, the bureau said.
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09:27 AM
PESHAWAR -- USAID Thursday launched a $ 2.5 million project to rehabilitate 130 schools in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The US Ambassadorette Nancy Powell, NWFP Governor Syed Iftahar Hussain Shah and Chief Secretary NWFP Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi, presided over the ceremony. The project is aimed at enhancing the education of children in underdeveloped areas, and is a part of U.S effort to assist Pakistan in the education sector.
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09:26 AM
WASHINGTON -- Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Thursday that "significant forces" from the United States probably will remain in Iraq through the end of next year. While he declined to estimate how long troops would have to remain, Wolfowitz said "certainly no one I know believes that we are not going to be in Iraq with significant forces right through the end of next year." Wolfowitz appeared before the House Armed Services Committee with the U.S. civil administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, and other Pentagon officials. They were seeking support for President Bush's proposal for $87 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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09:25 AM
PARIS - The ace of spades? Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gets the honor in a new French deck of cards. President Bush is the king of diamonds and Osama bin Laden the joker. The game takes a jab at the famous deck of cards created for U.S. soldiers hunting down ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and other leaders from the deposed regime. A little over 2,500 decks a la francaise have been sold, at $9.20 each, on the Internet in recent weeks, Meyssan said. There are plans to sell the decks in stores soon and translate them into 10 languages, he said.
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09:24 AM
As the death toll of American soldiers continues to rise in Iraq, one civilian woman on the sidelines here at home continues her battle to strengthen the military by taking her case to the commander in chief, and she's launched a petition drive to catch his attention.
The Church Must Oppose the Sin of Women at War
Vision Forum Ministries presents a forum of scholars, theologians, and journalists in opposition to the idea that a free people can survive while sending mothers and daughters to war.
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09:23 AM
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration plans to create a special force to protect Iraq's oil industry and to deploy a rapid-reaction team to repair pipelines after terrorist attacks. The administration, according to documents obtained by Reuters on Wednesday, also plans to provide "continuous personal security" to Iraq's minister of oil and his director-generals.
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09:21 AM
VIENNA -- A day after OPEC trimmed its production targets to avert an expected oversupply in world oil markets, the cartel's president said it isn't willing to make further cuts without the cooperation of non-OPEC producers, even if this should bring on a steep drop in oil prices, Friday's Wall Street Journal reported.
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09:20 AM
WASHINGTON — House members engaged in a spirited debate Wednesday over how to best replace Congress in the event of a national emergency such as a terrorist attack. The House Administration Committee heard about two competing proposals to replace members who are killed: a law that would allow for special elections within three weeks of such an attack, and a constitutional amendment allowing for the quick appointment of replacements.
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09:19 AM
September 25, 2003
SEATTLE -- Computer security experts issued a joint report on Wednesday saying that the ubiquitous reach of Microsoft Corp.'s software on desktops worldwide has made computer networks a national security risk susceptible to "massive, cascading failures." The report, unveiled at the Computer & Communications Industry Association's meeting of industry leaders and government officials in Washington, D.C., saying that Microsoft is now the number one target for malicious computer virus writers. The report's authors told CCIA -- which is funded by Microsoft rivals -- that the software's complexity has made it particularly vulnerable to attacks.
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11:00 AM
WASHINGTON - Lawmakers are expected to consider legislation Thursday to defend the popular national do-not-call list from a court ruling that may jeopardize the promise of peace and quiet for people fed up with telemarketers. The Senate and House are moving to ensure the free government service goes into effect as scheduled next week, deflecting unwanted sales pitches to more than 50 million registered phone numbers.
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10:58 AM
The US may be forced to call up more reserve and National Guard troops to serve in Iraq because of the reluctance of other countries to send forces, US defence officials said on Wednesday. General Peter Pace, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the Pentagon would need to alert reserve troops in the next four to six weeks unless a multinational division of 10,000 to 15,000 troops was pledged before then.
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09:46 AM
No weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq by the group looking for them, according to a Bush administration source who has spoken to the BBC. This will be the conclusion of the Iraq Survey Group's interim report, the source told the presenter of BBC television's Daily Politics show, Andrew Neil.
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09:45 AM
The widow of inhalation anthrax victim Bob Stevens filed lawsuits in state and federal courts Wednesday, alleging that negligence by either the U.S. government or by at least two laboratories that handle the anthrax bacteria may have led to her husband's death. The two lawsuits outline the same arguments: that either the federal government or the labs allowed someone to get a sample of Bacillus anthracis that was later mailed to American Media Inc. in Boca Raton in the letter that Stevens handled.
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09:42 AM
Days after starting his cycle of Cipro, John Angell began suffering pain in his joints and tendons. Walking became labored and painful. He stopped taking Cipro, but his condition did not improve. In fact, his condition has never improved. Chronic pain forced Angell to leave his post with Montana Sen. Max Baucus. He now works as a consultant from home and lays the blame for his disability on Cipro.
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09:41 AM
LONDON -- European shares opened in negative territory on Thursday after a surprise decision by oil cartel OPEC to cut production lifted crude prices and hammered U.S. shares after most European bourses shut on Wednesday. In New York on Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI closed down 1.57 percent at 9,425.51 points, and the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite .IXIC crumbled 3.05 percent at 1,843.70 points.
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09:40 AM
NEW YORK -- The major U.S. stock indexes took a dive Wednesday as optimism of an economic pickup was tempered with a rise in oil prices and concerns over earnings.
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09:39 AM
The FBI gathered documents from Clark County offices last week in connection with an ongoing political corruption investigation. "The FBI approached the county manager and requested certain routine documents in support of the ongoing investigation," county spokesman Erik Pappa said in a written release. "The majority of this information has already been collected and presented to others.
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09:37 AM
September 24, 2003
On Monday, the Bush administration announced revised regulations dictating how federal grants to social welfare programs will be awarded. According to Jim Towey, the director of the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Office, these new regulations are "removing barriers that prohibit faith-based organizations from dealing with the needs of our addicts and our homeless and people seeking to move from welfare to work." While it's encouraging that the Bush administration is attempting to help the homeless and needy instead of cutting their funding, these new regulations not only violate federal law, they violate constitutional prohibitions against establishing religion.
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10:28 AM
WASHINGTON -- Continuing a trend of piecemeal implementation of his plan to provide government money to religious social-service organizations,
President Bush expanded his "faith-based initiative" through regulatory changes Sept. 22. Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, informed reporters that Bush had finalized regulatory changes in two cabinet agencies -- and announced new regulatory changes in four other departments -- that expand the government's ability to fund social services through religious groups, including churches.
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10:27 AM
RICHMOND, Va. -- A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday a North Carolina law prohibiting issue-oriented political action committees from accepting individual contributions of more than $4,000 is unconstitutional. The decision by a three-judge panel of the fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle of Raleigh. The law was challenged by the North Carolina Right to Life Committee. The ruling will allow individuals to make unlimited donations to PACs that run independent campaigns on behalf of like-minded state candidates, thus avoiding contribution limits directly to the candidate's campaign.
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10:26 AM
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- California's gubernatorial recall election must occur Oct. 7 as scheduled, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, overturning an earlier court order postponing the historic vote until March. The American Civil Liberties Union, which had sought the delay, said it wouldn't appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. That cleared what is likely the last legal obstacle from the path to Election Day.
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10:25 AM
SAN FRANCISCO -- California's on-again recall election could become embroiled in more litigation after the Oct. 7 vote. If the tally is close, a Florida-style recount, complete with court battles over hanging chads and dimpled ballots, could repeat itself in California.
Legal experts say Tuesday's federal appellate court ruling leaves the door open to litigation if there is a close vote on the recall between top vote-getters among the 135 replacement candidates or on the two ballot initiatives.
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10:24 AM
WASHINGTON - President Bush's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, took heat Tuesday from the Senate Environment Committee for the alleged weakening of U.S. environmental policy under his boss-to-be, but also basked in praise for what his supporters said was a cleaner Utah. Leavitt said he wasn't involved in many of Bush's controversial environmental policies and pledged cooperation with all sides in the future. He used the word "collaboration" or some version of the word dozens of times, including three times in one 10-second span.
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10:21 AM
BRUSSELS -- A Belgian court Wednesday threw out a case against President Bush for war crimes in Iraq in a saga that had strained relations between Belgium and the United States. The appeals court in Brussels also dismissed cases against Israeli Prime Minister Arial Sharon and Israeli General Amos Yaron on grounds that the country's courts did not have the jurisdiction to bring them to trial, according to a court clerk.
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10:17 AM
BAGHDAD -- A roadside bomb apparently aimed at U.S. troops tore through two commuter buses in Baghdad Wednesday, killing one Iraqi and wounding around 20, police and witnesses said. A U.S. military convoy had been on the road when the bomb went off but most of the vehicles had passed by the bomb and a bus bore the brunt of the explosion, a U.S. Army spokesman said. He said there were no U.S. casualties.
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10:16 AM
TIKRIT, Iraq -- U.S. soldiers in Iraq shrugged their shoulders after listening to President George W. Bush's speech to the United Nations on Tuesday, saying he said nothing new and did not address their main concern: going home. ''I wasn't particularly impressed with anything he came up with,'' said Staff Sergeant Jason Dungan of the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division, based in deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.
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05:59 AM
George Bush was increasingly isolated on the global stage yesterday as he defied intense criticism from a litany of world leaders at the United Nations over the war on Iraq. Showing no contrition for defying the world body in March or the declining security situation in Iraq, the US president called for the world to set aside past differences and help rebuild the country: "Now the nation of Iraq needs and deserves our aid - and all nations of goodwill should step forward and provide that support," he said.
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05:58 AM
UNITED NATIONS -- World leaders criticized US President George W Bush's policy of "pre- emptive" military strikes and demanded that conflicts and global threats be resolved collectively by all nations. The fallout from the divisive Security Council battle over the Iraq war, which sidelined the UN after more than a decade of trying to disarm maintenance Hussein, was a focal point of every speech Tuesday, the opening day of the UN General Assembly's annual ministerial debate. It was the first time "world leaders" were meeting since the US went to war against Iraq without UN authorization.
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05:57 AM
For a Nation without a Department of Propaganda the spin that has been foisted on the American people is indeed humongous. Hitler's Dr. Joseph Goebbels was a master propagandist but his overt ministrations never held a candle to the covert manipulations that for years have been daily fare in America. Recently on C-Span the Council on Foreign Relations, formerly a shadowy but powerful organization, openly sponsored globalists and apologists for the United Nations in a push to legitimatize both themselves and the agenda they foster.
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05:56 AM
WASHINGTON -- The State Department's electronic system for checking every visa applicant for terrorist or criminal history failed worldwide for several hours late Tuesday because of a computer virus, leaving the U.S. government briefly unable to issue visas. The virus crippled the department's Consular Lookout and Support System, known as CLASS, which contains more than 12.8 million records from the FBI, the State Department and U.S. immigration, drug-enforcement and intelligence agencies. Among the names are those of at least 78,000 suspected terrorists.
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05:37 AM
September 23, 2003
NEW YORK - President Bush, again facing skeptical world leaders, will address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday to push his plan for steady transition to democratic rule in Iraq. Only in that way, Bush says, will Iraq get a chance to leapfrog from deposed President Saddam Hussein's despotic government to self-rule unprecedented in the Middle East.
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10:35 AM
WASHINGTON - President Bush goes to the United Nations on Tuesday to seek help in Iraq on his terms, but his no-compromise stance could soften in the face of growing domestic and international pressure for U.N. involvement. In a television interview that aired on the eve of his 10:30 a.m. EDT U.N. speech, Bush said he would offer no concessions to countries that wanted him to share power in Iraq in return for international assistance. He also said he "made the right decision" by ordering Iraq's invasion without U.N. backing.
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10:34 AM
FALLUJA, Iraq -- U.S. forces in Iraq killed three people in the early hours of Tuesday after clashes with guerrillas near the flashpoint town of Falluja, west of the capital Baghdad, locals and hospital officials said. A U.S. soldier taking pictures at the scene of the incident said he had been told a foot patrol had come under fire from the building.
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10:33 AM
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's approval rating dropped to the lowest level of his presidency according to a poll released on Monday, which shows him running slightly behind Democratic presidential candidate retired Gen. Wesley Clark. Bush's job approval rating slipped to 50 percent in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of more than 1,000 Americans -- down from 60 percent in August and 71 percent in March.
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10:33 AM
President Bush, pressed as he is with problems in Iraq and with the economy, needs to find a way to tone down Attorney General John Ashcroft -- or consider easing him out of his high-profile post. With the public-relations sense of a gorilla, Ashcroft has become an increasing political liability. And if White House re-election strategist Karl Rove is as smart as he seems to be, he will urge the president to begin finding a way to dampen Ashcroft's seeming enthusiasm for curtailing civil liberties. Replacing him before next year's election is probably not politically practical considering that any confirmation hearings on a new appointment would become a full-scale Senate inquiry into the conduct of the war on terrorism, particularly the use of the Patriot Act.
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10:20 AM
WASHINGTON - The administration wants $100 million for an Iraqi witness protection program, $290 million to hire, train and house thousands of firefighters, $9 million to modernize the postal service, including establishment of ZIP codes.
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10:19 AM
UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary of State Colin Powell called the United States a Judeo-Christian country on Monday but quickly amended that to "a country of many faiths."
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10:16 AM
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned US President George Bush that his doctrine of pre-emptive military intervention posed a fundamental challenge to the UN and could lead to a global free-for-all. In a speech to be delivered shortly before Bush addresses the UN General Assembly today, Annan declared the Iraq crisis had brought the UN to a "fork in the road".
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10:14 AM
After a year of outcry at Harvard Law School (HLS) against the government’s pressure to allow military recruitment on law school campuses, a coalition of law schools, students and activist groups sued the Department of Defense on Friday—but Harvard was not among the plaintiffs. The suit, led by Boston College law professor Kent Greenfield, comes almost a year after prominent HLS professors called on Harvard to file suit against the government for virtually forcing the school to violate its own anti-discrimination policies.
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10:13 AM
THE US military has launched an investigation into the alleged shooting by a US soldier of a rare Bengal tiger at the Baghdad zoo, the top US military spokesman in Iraq, Lieutenant George Krivo, said today. Krivo said the US soldier had apparently tried to feed the big cat and "the tiger then engaged the soldier's arm". Adel Salman Musa, the head of the zoo, said yesterday the tiger was killed last week during an apparently drunken party between US soldiers and a group of Iraqi police officers.
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10:12 AM
SAN FRANCISCO — Federal appeals court judges sharply questioned lawyers for California and the ACLU on Monday as they tried to determine how the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended the 2000 presidential recount applies to California's Oct. 7 recall election. The American Civil Liberties Union wants the election postponed until six counties can install new voting machines and prevent about 40 percent of California voters from having to use the same error-prone punch card ballots that caused Florida's election debacle. A court spokeswoman said a ruling was expected this morning.
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09:50 AM
September 22, 2003
Three US soldiers were reported killed and 13 wounded in separate attacks following an attempt to assassinate one of three women on Iraq's Governing Council, further highlighting the security turmoil under US occupation. The killing of the three soldiers, which happened on Saturday, was a new sign that the security situation in the war-ravaged country remains dire. One of them died in Ramadi, 110 kilometres (70 miles) west of Baghdad, when a military vehicle was hit with an "improvised explosive device," an army statement said. Earlier, a US military spokesman said a mortar attack on Abu Gharib prison, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of Baghdad, had killed two soldiers and wounded 13 others. Eighty-two US soldiers have now died in attacks in Iraq since May 1, when US President George W. Bush said major combat operations after the removal of president Saddam Hussein were over.
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09:33 AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb exploded Monday outside the U.N. compound in Baghdad, killing the driver and a policeman in an apparent warning as the United Nations considers whether to broaden its role in Iraq. The blast occurred at the entrance to a parking lot next to the U.N. compound at the Canal Hotel, scene of a devastating car bombing last month that killed about 20 people, including the U.N.'s top envoy.
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09:31 AM
NEW YORK — JetBlue Airways violated its own privacy policy when it gave 5 million passenger itineraries to a Defense Department contractor that used the information as part of a study seeking ways to identify "highrisk" airline customers. The New York-based airline sent an e-mail apologizing to angry customers and said it had taken steps so the situation will not happen again. "This was a mistake on our part," JetBlue Chief Executive Officer David Neeleman said.
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09:08 AM
WASHINGTON - Six months after President Bush failed to win United Nations approval for war in Iraq, he will be back at U.N. headquarters Tuesday asking for help in rebuilding the country.
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09:05 AM
He will arrive bearing aid packages. President Arroyo said yesterday United States President George W. Bush will bring economic and military aid packages for the Philippines when he arrives for his state visit on Oct. 18. The Bush visit will also boost investor confidence in the Philippines and help create jobs for Filipinos, the President said.
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07:41 AM
Washington - The Muslim military chaplain who ministered to suspected al-Qaida terrorists at a U.S. detention center in Cuba can be confined under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for up to two months without being charged. Army Capt. Yousef Yee, 35, was arrested Sept. 10 in Jacksonville, Fla.Col. David McWilliams, spokesman for U.S. Southern Command - which oversees the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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07:40 AM
WASHINGTON - Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, has told American interrogators that he first discussed the plot with Osama bin Laden in 1996 and that the original plan called for hijacking five commercial jets on each U.S. coast before it was modified several times, according to interrogation reports reviewed by The Associated Press.
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07:37 AM
Gunmen shot and seriously wounded a member of Iraq's Governing Council here yesterday, ambushing her convoy in the first attempt to assassinate an official of the US-installed administration. Authorities said Akila Al Hashimi was shot in the stomach, shoulder and leg near her house in western Baghdad and was in stable condition after abdominal surgery. Witnesses said two of her brothers and two bodyguards were also hurt.
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07:35 AM
The AP analyzed data for the 37 freshman House members on three key committees -- Armed Services, which decides which billion-dollar weapons systems the Pentagon will buy; Financial Services, which oversees congressional efforts to respond to the corporate accounting scandals; and Transportation and Infrastructure, which is writing legislation to allocate tens of billions of dollars in federal gasoline tax revenues.
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07:34 AM
CORPUS CHRISTI — The courthouse rumors began flowing this spring after lawyer-politician Jaime Capelo, the dapper, baby-faced rainmaker for the prominent Corpus Christi law firm Chaves, Gonzales & Hoblit, was abruptly shown the door. Flash plugin needed to view graphic. By midsummer, the whispers became angry snarls when Capelo, in his third term as a Democrat state representative, was accused in a sworn affidavit of taking a $100,000 kickback last year from Rene Rodriguez, a politically connected ally and the opposing lawyer in a huge refinery explosion lawsuit against Citgo.
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07:31 AM
European stock markets faltered at the end of the week Friday in the face of profit-taking and a lackluster opening on Wall Street. The London FTSE 100 index, dragged down by telecoms and financial issues, gave up 1.34 percent to end the session at 4,257. In Paris the CAC 40 lost 1.21 percent to finish at 3,373.64, while in Frankfurt the DAX was off 0.92 percent at 3,578.7 at the end of the session.
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07:26 AM
September 20, 2003
BALTIMORE (AP) - The flooding caused by Isabel ebbed away from city streets and suburban docks across the Mid-Atlantic, but millions of people remained without power and faced the drudgery of cleaning out basements and yards during the weekend.
Despite its rapid weakening, the storm caused at least 24 deaths and potentially billions of dollars in damage. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown warned that Isabel's flooding threat may be a delayed reaction.
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01:36 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) - National Park Service crews were up at dawn on Saturday replacing U.S. flags surrounding the Washington Monument that were left tattered and torn by Hurricane Isabel as the capital area slowly came back from its worst encounter with a tropical storm in years.
The White House, just north of the Washington Monument past the ellipse, generally weathered the storm well, losing none of the historic trees planted by presidents and suffering no major leaks or other serious problems in its buildings.
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01:35 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush will issue a "call to action" to U.N. member states to help out with postwar reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, senior Bush administration officials said on Saturday.
The move comes a year after Bush challenged the United Nations to back its anti-Iraq resolutions with the threat of force or risk becoming irrelevant, opening an ultimately doomed bid for a U.N.-backed resolution authorizing war against Iraq.
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01:34 PM
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen shot and wounded one of three women on Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council on Saturday, the latest in a string of attacks on Iraqis cooperating with the country's occupying powers.
The attackers fired on a car carrying Akila al-Hashemi, a Shi'ite Muslim and career diplomat. She was hit in the abdomen and three of her bodyguards were also wounded, one of them critically, staff at Baghdad's Yarmuk hospital said.
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01:33 PM
MIAMI (AP) - An Army Islamic chaplain who counseled al-Qaida prisoners at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba has been detained as part of a military investigation, Southern Command officials said Saturday.
Capt. James Yee has been confined since Sept. 10, but has not been charged with any crimes, Southern Command spokesman Capt. Thomas Crosson said.
Crosson said he does not know the nature of the investigation: "If charges were formally filed, then we'd be able to tell you." He didn't know if an Article 32 hearing, similar to a grand jury, had been scheduled.
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01:31 PM
September 19, 2003
RICHMOND, Va. -- Hurricane Isabel knocked out power to more than 3.5 million people as it weakened into a tropical storm and raced up the Eastern Seaboard on Friday, swamping tidal communities along Chesapeake Bay, uprooting trees, disrupting air traffic and shutting down the nation's capital. The massive storm was blamed for at least 12 deaths: seven in Virginia; one in North Carolina; one in Pennsylvania; two in Maryland and one in New Jersey.
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08:44 AM
TIKRIT, Iraq -- U.S. troops backed by attack helicopters and armored vehicles fought an overnight battle Friday on the outskirts of Tikrit after coming under a coordinated attack that killed three soldiers and injured two. Though U.S. troops come under near-daily attacks, the battle in and around the village of Al-Uja was unusual both because of its intensity and length. The fighting lasted from 8 p.m. Thursday until daybreak, the military said.
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08:43 AM
TIKRIT, Iraq -- Iraqi guerrillas killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded two others in an ambush near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit late on Thursday, a U.S. military spokesman said. Lieutenant-Colonel William MacDonald said the three soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division were killed in small arms fire 5 miles south of Tikrit when they were inspecting a suspected weapons site.
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08:43 AM
The president has insisted that Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism, a continuation of the administration's effort to link Iraq to the attack on the World Trade Center. While almost three-quarters of the public believe that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the attack, the polls after the president's recent speech show that less than half believe that Iraq is the ''central front'' of the war on terrorism. Moreover, the majority believe that the war has increased the risk of terrorism. A shift is occurring in the middle, which is neither clearly pro-Bush nor clearly anti-Bush. The big lie is coming apart.
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08:37 AM
On Wednesday, President Bush finally got around to acknowledging that there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. White House aides will tell you that Mr. Bush never made that charge directly. And that is so. But polls show that lots of Americans believe in the link. That is at least in part because the president's aides have left the implication burning.
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08:36 AM
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - As a federal appeals court decides whether to reconsider the date of the recall election, candidates for Gov. Gray Davis' job are campaigning as if Election Day was still right around the corner. Even a decision anticipated as early as Friday from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will probably not be the final word.
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08:35 AM
September 18, 2003
WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush conceded for the first time yesterday that the United States had no evidence indicating Saddam Hussein had anything to do with the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Bush made the comment in a brief encounter with reporters at the White House, an apparent bid to answer critics who have accused him of linking the Iraq war and the terrorist attacks to justify an ongoing occupation, which is responsible for mounting American deaths and draining an economy already mired in deficit.
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10:20 AM
KHALDIYAH, Iraq - U.S. troops were ambushed on the main road of this central Iraqi town Thursday, coming under heavy gunfire. Taking fire from unknown position, U.S forces were seen firing in an apparent effort to protect themselves until reinforcements arrived. Al-Arabiya television reported eight Americans were killed and one wounded. There was no confirmation of any casualties, and initial casualty reports have proven incorrect in the past.
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10:20 AM
WASHINGTON -- Mysterious pneumonia like illnesses and breathing problems appear to be striking U.S. troops in greater numbers than the military has identified in an investigation, including more deaths, according to soldiers and their families.
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10:19 AM
WASHINGTON - President Bush working to find common ground with allies on a new U.N. Iraq resolution, sought to dispel controversy about recent administration statements on Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Bush indicated the United States is not yet ready to present a revised resolution to other governments on the U.N. Security Council but is trying to accommodate some allies' demands for bigger roles in Iraq's reconstruction for themselves and the United Nations. "We're still talking about it," he said.
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10:18 AM
The Irish rock star Bono will urge President Bush Tuesday to spend $1 billion more in the first year of Bush's five-year plan to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. At issue is whether the United States should spend the $3 billion "authorized" for the first year by the legislation that created the program, or the $2 billion the White House has asked to be "appropriated," or actually paid out.
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10:10 AM
FAIRFAX, Va. - A Circuit Court judge refused yesterday to eliminate the prospect of a death sentence for teen-age sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo, the younger in a pair of men accused in a three-week shooting rampage that left 10 people dead in the Washington area nearly a year ago.
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08:19 AM
SAN FRANCISCO -- The fate of the gubernatorial recall election was back in the hands of an appeals court as candidates ramped up their rhetoric in anticipation of a reversal that would reinstate the historic Oct. 7 vote. Secretary of State Kevin Shelley asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday to overturn a three-judge panel's ruling earlier this week that postponed the vote, possibly until March 2.
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08:12 AM
The state's election chief and the sponsor of the drive to recall Gov. Gray Davis told a federal appeals court Wednesday that a delay in the Oct. 7 election would have dire consequences, jeopardizing 375,000 absentee votes and threatening future elections in California and elsewhere. A day after taking the unusual step of asking on its own for arguments from all parties on whether to grant a rehearing, the appeals court received quick and emphatic replies. A decision is not expected before Friday, said Cathy Catterson, chief clerk of the court.
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07:53 AM
September 17, 2003
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former NATO commander and a relative political novice, announced on Wednesday he would make a run for the White House, joining nine other Democrats in the crowded 2004 race. A top Pentagon war planner who headed the 1999 bombing campaign in Kosovo but opposed the Iraq war, Clark made his announcement on early morning television programs, saying he had the right skills to serve "in this very important time" in U.S. history.
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10:11 AM
SAN FRANCISCO - Attention turned once again to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday as state officials prepared to petition the whole court to overturn a three-judge panel that halted the Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall voting and suggested it could be folded into the March 2 presidential primary.
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10:07 AM
WASHINGTON - Hurricane Isabel is heading this way, but the granite memorials, museums and landmark government office buildings that so define Washington are used to blasts of hot air. They'll survive, experts promise. Those signature marble edifices will follow the lead of the Washington Monument, government officials say. The 555-foot, 90,854-ton monument is expected to sway in the forecasted gale-force wind, but ever so slightly and maybe imperceptibly in fractions of an inch. It will stand up to whatever winds Isabel can muster, said area acting parks director Vikki Keys.
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09:59 AM
In a hearing yesterday, which seemed more suited for an episode of The West Wing or a Tom Clancy novel, senators warned that in the event of an attack that incapacitated the nation's top leaders, it may be impractical or even unconstitutional to implement the existing succession law, the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.
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09:09 AM
Los Angeles County's top election official warned Tuesday that holding the governor's recall election in March with the presidential primary rather than Oct. 7 would lead to worse voter confusion and more errors in marking ballots. Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Conny McCormack's warning came as the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to consider reviewing Monday's bombshell ruling by a three- judge panel to postpone the recall election.
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08:51 AM
HOUSTON -- Federal prosecutors are expected to charge three former Merrill Lynch & Co. executives with fraud for allegedly helping Enron Corp. inflate its earnings with a loan the energy trader disguised as a sale, according to people familiar with the case. Daniel Bayly, Robert Furst and a third, unidentified former executive, planned to surrender to the FBI Wednesday in Houston and then appear in federal court, the sources told The Associated Press Tuesday on condition of anonymity.
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07:22 AM
SACRAMENTO — Ward Connerly says a new state law is an illegal end run around voter-approved Proposition 209's prohibition on the consideration of race and gender in public employment, education and contracting. The Proposition 209 author filed a lawsuit today-- arguing that the law allowing special measures to aid minorities in fact guts the anti-discrimination measure approved by voters in 1996.
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07:21 AM
Algerian pilot falsely accused of being 'chief instructor' of 9/11 suicide hijackers claiming 10 million dollars from US. LONDON - An Algerian pilot falsely accused by the United States of being the chief instructor of the September 11 suicide hijackers has begun a claim for damages, British newspapers reported Tuesday. Lotfi Raissi, 29, is claiming 10 million dollars (8.8 million euros) from both the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to The Times.
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07:07 AM
September 16, 2003
WASHINGTON -- A draft report on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq provides no solid evidence that Iraq had such arms when the United States invaded the country in March, ABC News reported on Monday. Citing unidentified officials, ABC said the report by the civilian leading the search for hidden weapons will detail Iraq's effort to maintain the capability to produce biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.
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10:04 AM
As armed resistance to the U.S. military occupation of Iraq continues to mount, and attacks -- many of them deadly -- against American troops become an almost-daily occurrence, the Bush administration is turning to the United Nations as well as to Europe for military and financial assistance to bring peace to Iraq.
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09:59 AM
UNITED NATIONS - The United States will likely circulate a revised U.N. resolution on Iraq by the end of the week after studying proposed amendments by France, Russia, Syria, Chile and other Security Council members, diplomats said Monday.
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09:53 AM
When President Bush went on national television last week to deliver a state-of-the-war address, he did something that until now his administration has been reluctant to do: He put a price tag on the post-war occupation of Iraq. The final figure — $87 billion — was far greater than what had been hinted in the days leading up to the speech. However specific in terms of numbers, though, it was woefully short on details.
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08:02 AM
A Baptist congregation in Moscow is meeting for Sunday worship in the city's increasingly chilly parks, just as it did during the Soviet years, because officials now bar it from renting any public building. Its experience reflects an unspoken rule of President Vladimir Putin's Russia: The less you collaborated with the old Soviet state, the more likely you will suffer repression today.
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07:51 AM
India fears violence as Dara Singh and a dozen others are found guilty of murdering missionary and sons After a two-and-a-half-year trial, a court in the capital of Orissa state, India, found radical Hindu activist Dara Singh (a.k.a Ravindra Kumar Pal) and 12 others guilty of the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons. Staines and his sons, ages 8 and 10, were sleeping in their Jeep outside a church in the Orissa town of Manoharpur when a mob, led by Dara Singh, attacked the vehicle, dousing it with gasoline and setting it ablaze. "Justice has been done!" some shouted. "The Christians have been cremated in Hindu fashion." According to some eyewitnesses, the mob kept the fire going for more than an hour, threatening would-be rescuers.
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07:13 AM
A total US$9bn (€8bn) in US loan guarantees to Israel became available today with a formal announcement that didn't mention penalties for the Jewish state's construction of a controversial security barrier. The guarantees, part of a $US10bn (€8.85bn) aid package for Israel, will be made through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), according to a notice published in the Federal Register.
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07:02 AM
US Vice-President Dick Cheney has denied helping his former oil services company get multibillion-dollar US Government contracts in Iraq. He also hinted that the $US87 billion ($A131 billion) the Administration has asked Congress to provide to rebuild the country might not be the last such request. "It's all we think we'll need for the foreseeable future, for this year," Mr Cheney said on NBC's Meet the Press.
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06:52 AM
WASHINGTON - A federal court yesterday put the brakes on the California recall, throwing into turmoil the circus-like contest that actor Arnold Schwarzenegger hoped would propel him to governor. Postponement of the scheduled Oct. 7 recall - which the court said was needed to avoid punch-card voting and more "hanging chads," like in the Florida fiasco in 2000 - could hurt Schwarzenegger, who hoped to benefit from a quick campaign to capitalize on voter resentment toward Gov. Gray Davis.
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06:51 AM
Californians have reacted angrily to a court ruling that delays a vote on the future of the state's Democratic Governor, Gray Davis. The Ninth Circuit Federal Appeals Court has ruled that the ballot should be put off because of concerns that outdated voting machines would disproportionately affect racial minorities.
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06:51 AM
September 15, 2003
Once again, thousands are showing bizarre symptoms, and “pneumonia” cases are being linked to anthrax or smallpox vaccinations. Since Persian Gulf War II began about 6,000 soldiers have been shipped home for recovery. Of these, 1,200 were wounded in combat. Many of the others consider themselves part of an army of "walking dead" - troops who appear to be so physically and mentally exhausted that the military has no recourse but to discharge them.
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09:44 AM
TIKRIT, Iraq -- Guerrillas killed a U.S. soldier in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in central Baghdad on Monday, and American forces arrested five men suspected of helping finance insurgents during raids on homes in Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit. The 1st Armored Division soldier died of his wounds early Monday in a military field hospital, the military reported. He was the 156th U.S. soldier to die in Iraq since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1. In heavy fighting before that date 138 soldiers were killed.
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09:40 AM
THE chickens are coming home to roost. To begin with, Washington is discovering that Iraq is going to cost a pretty bundle. On top of the US$79 billion (S$139 billion) that Congress appropriated earlier this year, the Bush administration plans to request another US$87 billion to finance military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. If approved in toto, this sum will raise the United States budget deficit for next year to US$535 billion, or 4.7 per cent of GDP.
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09:27 AM
WASHINGTON -- The increasingly complex and expensive U.S. role in Iraq is drawing predictable fire from Democrats. But it also is unnerving fiscal conservatives uneasy about the mounting costs and a looming half-trillion-dollar deficit. Bush is expected to get from Congress most of the $87 billion in new funds he requested for Iraq and Afghanistan, though not without a political price. He is coming under increasing pressure from even members of his own party to suggest ways to offset the rising war costs.
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09:26 AM
The Bush Administration has opened the World Trade Organization meeting by calling for a radical departure from the Doha Round by eliminating ALL trade barriers and export subsidies on both sides of the table instead of a few at a time. Even though the living standard of the average American is falling, both Republicans and Democrats have maintained that free trade will bring prosperity to all those around the globe. What they haven't told us is the whole story.
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09:24 AM
AUSTIN, Texas - Texas voters approved all 22 constitutional amendments on a statewide ballot, including a heavily debated plan to limit medical malpractice and other civil lawsuit awards.
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07:52 AM
The fate of the California recall election is in the hands of what is considered the most liberal and controversial federal court in the United States, leaving experts to wonder if the already chaotic election will be postponed, adding to the confusion.
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07:28 AM
September 13, 2003
Visiting a community center in a converted southwest side Kmart, President Bush on Friday passionately defended his proposals for federally supported faith-based programs that have run into stiff resistance in Congress. "We must not worry about
people of faith receiving tax dollars to help people in need," said Bush, as he spoke at a fund-raiser at the Power Center, a multi-service center founded by Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, the pastor of
Windsor Village United Methodist Church.
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04:39 PM
WASHINGTON -- Anxious to ramp up work in Iraq, the United States has alerted US firms of future contracts worth at least $US1.5 billion ($NZ2.60 billion) in the second phase of its Iraq reconstruction plans, a USAID official said yesterday. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) also said it planned to give an additional $US350 million to construction company Bechtel, its lead contractor in Iraq, hiking the San Francisco-based firm's bill so far to about $US1.3 billion.
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04:38 PM
US employers slashed payrolls for the seventh consecutive month in August, cutting about 93,000 jobs and leading some analysts to suggest that many of the positions lost during the recent recession will never return.
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04:35 PM
STAMFORD, Conn. - International Paper Co. plans to cut about 3,000 jobs, or about 3.5 percent of its work force, in the next year to help improve profits, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday.
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04:31 PM
SAN FRANCISCO -- Jeans maker Levi Strauss said it expects to cut 350 jobs in the United States in 2003 under a restructuring plan and may cut up to 300 more in Europe.
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04:30 PM
SBC Communications will cut jobs and reduce capital spending in response to lower demand for its core local telephone business. An SBC spokesman tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the layoffs would be companywide and include cuts in call centers and network centers.
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04:29 PM
More homeowners were behind on their mortgage payments in the last quarter as job losses put a strain on some households' budgets. The seasonally adjusted percentage of mortgage payments 30 or more days past due for all home loans rose to 4.62 percent in the April to June quarter, up sharply from 4.52 percent.
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04:28 PM
KABUL -- Afghanistan welcomed Washington’s announcement of 800 million dollars in fresh aid, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said. "We are satisfied by this pledge, it’s a very good news and that was needed," Abdullah told AFP late on Tuesday. Just 800 million dollars of US President George W. Bush’s vast 87-billion-dollar request to Congress for post-war Iraq and Afghanistan is earmarked for Afghan reconstruction.
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04:26 PM
KABUL -- Afghanistan welcomed Washington’s announcement of 800 million dollars in fresh aid, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said. "We are satisfied by this pledge, it’s a very good news and that was needed," Abdullah told AFP late on Tuesday. Just 800 million dollars of US President George W. Bush’s vast 87-billion-dollar request to Congress for post-war Iraq and Afghanistan is earmarked for Afghan reconstruction.
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04:25 PM
WASHINGTON - After a grenade exploded inside his Humvee in Iraq, Marine Staff Sgt. Bill Murwin was treated at a military hospital in Germany and spent four weeks at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Part of his left foot was amputated. His medical care was free, but the government billed him $243 for the food. Then, just three days after he received his first bill for the hospital food in Germany, he got a stern letter saying the bill was overdue. It warned that his account would be referred to a collection agency.
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04:24 PM
The McCain-Feingold Campaign-Finance Law made it to the U.S. Supreme Court this week amid delicious irony. The Bush administration defended it, as it must when a federal law is challenged. And the chief defender was Solicitor General Ted Olson. He is known in Washington as a deeply committed conservative. But there he was, defending this law that conservatives have railed against as an infringement on the free speech of the people and interests with a lot of money.
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01:38 PM
SAN FRANCISCO -- When former President Clinton arrives in California to campaign with Gov. Gray Davis on Sunday, he will be the first in a long line of Democratic heavyweights scheduled to stump for the governor between now and the Oct. 7 recall election.
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01:34 PM
September 12, 2003
Missions Insider -- Hindus clubbed a Christian believer to death in Karnataka state recently, beat another pastor till he was unconscious, and then hindered relatives from conducting Christian burials. Even though Karnataka itself does not yet have an anti-conversion law, the presence of an anti-conversion law adopted last fall in neighboring Tamil Nadu-and similar laws in four northern states of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh-is thought to have lent a permissive atmosphere for such violence. Authorities warned Christians to stop converting people to Christianity. Authorities also said the pastor could preach inside his own house to his own family, but not to others.
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10:12 AM
NEW DELHI -- India and Israel on Wednesday paid tributes to the contributions of the Jewish community in India and the Indian community in Israel for providing “a bridge of understanding” and strengthening “the ties of culture and trade”.
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10:08 AM
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has notified Israel it is opposed to the expulsion of Yasser Arafat even though "he is part of the problem and not part of the solution" in the tense standoff with the Palestinians. While the administration tried to restrain Israel, Secretary of State Colin Powell said there must be a freeze on Jewish settlements and the removal of unauthorized outposts on the West Bank.
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10:07 AM
FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. soldiers mistakenly opened fire on a group of Iraqi policemen chasing bandits Friday, killing eight Iraqis and wounding seven others, witnesses said. It was the deadliest friendly fire incident since the end of major fighting. Two U.S. soldiers were killed in a firefight during a raid earlier Friday in the town of Ramadi, 30 miles west of Fallujah, the military said.
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10:05 AM
PASADENA, Calif. -- A three-member federal appeals court panel, clearly troubled by the prospect that an estimated 40,000 voters might be disenfranchised by the use of punch-card ballots in the recall election, challenged lawyers yesterday to explain why the election should be allowed.
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10:03 AM
WASHINGTON - In a clash between security and the First Amendment, federal authorities are threatening criminal charges against ABC News reporters who smuggled harmless depleted uranium into the country for a second time during an investigation of border inspections. ABC News said Wednesday it believed its actions constituted legitimate investigative journalism that highlighted U.S. anti-terror security on the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
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09:24 AM
WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court rebuffed Vice President Dick Cheney, refusing to intervene in a lawsuit delving into the role of business executives and industry lobbyists in formulating the Bush administration's energy plan in 2001. The rejection Wednesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit leaves the Bush administration two choices. The first is to ask the Supreme Court to consider the case. The other is to return to U.S. District Court where Judge Emmet Sullivan says the administration must comply with requests for documents or give detailed explanations about the materials it intends to withhold from disclosure.
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08:34 AM
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Bankrupt telecoms firm WorldCom pleaded not guilty on Thursday to state criminal charges of securities fraud filed by Oklahoma against the company now called MCI.
State Judge Russell Hall set a preliminary hearing conference for the company for November. The 15-count criminal complaint includes charges of violating state securities laws by defrauding investors, lying about company finances and running a business as a fraud.
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08:29 AM
KANAWHA COUNTY, WV -- It's been nearly a month since the last of three sniper-style shootings outside Charleston-area convenience stores. Yet Kanawha County Chief Deputy Phil Morris says a task force investigating the killings hasn't determined why the victims were targeted.
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06:24 AM
September 11, 2003
Two long-awaited studies on underage drinking were presented to Congress this week, setting off a flurry of efforts to encourage lawmakers to act on recommendations to address the problem, which costs the nation an estimated $53 billion annually in losses stemming from traffic fatalities, violent crime, and other behaviors that threaten the well-being of America's youth.
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10:58 AM
WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Wednesday to stop the Bush administration from changing rules that could cause many white-collar workers to lose their eligibility for overtime pay. Key Republicans helped the Democrat minority prevail 54-45. The House of Representatives voted 213-210 in July to uphold the Bush overtime-pay proposal, and the White House has threatened to veto any House-Senate compromise that would block the change in rules.
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10:57 AM
DUBAI -- Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden made a surprise appearance in a videotape aired on Wednesday to mark the Sept. 11 attacks, along with his top aide who urged fighters to turn Iraq into a graveyard for American troops. Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri, his right-hand man, were shown in a rare tape obtained by Al Jazeera Arabic television, descending a rocky mountainside as they steadied themselves with walking sticks, automatic rifles slung over their shoulders.
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10:55 AM
Most wars in U.S. history have had some clear moment of final resolution. But the war against terrorism — even with its finite beginning on that horrible September morning two years ago — is not likely to end with the same conclusive certainty. In fact, eternal conflict — endless war — is the whole point for Osama bin Laden and his loyalists. It was clearly part of the message on his latest audiotape, broadcast Wednensday on Al Jazeera and meant to invigorate and motivate his followers to continue their jihad ad infinitum.
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10:55 AM
The relatives of National Guard soldiers serving in Iraq had various reactions to the announcement of the lengthened deployment. Some were angry at President George W. Bush and questioned his motives. Others felt the announcement demonstrated poor planning by the military and the administration.
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10:53 AM
UNITED NATIONS -- France, Germany and Russia have offered the United States a deal on Iraq: approving American military leadership but downgrading U.S. civilian control in favor of Iraqis and the United Nations.
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10:52 AM
"When they call you a conspiracy theorist, it means you are closer to the truth than they want you to be." —Craig Hulet. September 11, 2003—On this the second anniversary of the attacks of September 11, may the words George W. Bush spoke yesterday before the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., about "the servants of evil who plotted the attacks" come home at last to haunt him and his administration. Bush was correct when he said, "The forces of global terror cannot be appeased and they cannot be ignored. They must be hunted; they must be found; and they will be defeated." We don't have to hunt farther than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC, to find them.
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10:50 AM
LAREDO, Texas — Ten Senate Democrats who fled to New Mexico in July to block GOP redistricting plans have returned to the Lone Star State, readying for battles both in court and the Senate chamber.
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08:45 AM
MANASSAS — A judge yesterday denied a request by sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad's attorneys to close a pending hearing on the admissibility of potentially inflammatory evidence. But Circuit Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. said he will take as many precautions as possible to prevent unnecessary disclosure of sensitive information at the hearing, which will take place Sept. 23.
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08:25 AM
September 10, 2003
Citing the US military Central Command as its source, the
Washington Post reported on September 2 that “more than 6,000 service members” had been medically evacuated from Iraq since the launch of the war. At the time, the number of combat wounded stood at 1,124. The figure of “more than 6,000” supplied to the Post therefore implies that over 4,500 US troops have required evacuation from Iraq for medical reasons other than combat or non-combat injuries. At no point in the last six months have the American people been told that for every soldier who has been killed in Iraq, at least another 15 have fallen so ill that they had to be flown back to the United States. The Post described the unexplained evacuations simply as the “thousands who became physically or mentally ill”. In particular, there are fears that soldiers have already died or are falling ill due to their exposure to depleted uranium (DU) or the anthrax vaccine they have been compelled to take.
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09:58 AM
Pataki -- and thousands of other civilian health care workers -- had second thoughts. "There was too much risk both to our patients and to our families that we felt it was unacceptable," Pataki said. Since the vaccination program began in the spring, only 1,840 people in California have been inoculated against smallpox, representing less than 10 percent of the 19,000 doses of vaccine the state requested from the federal government late last year. As a result of the dismal response, the state has or will have to destroy 35 percent of its initial vaccine supplies.
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09:56 AM
BAGHDAD -- One U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded in an attack on their vehicle in Iraq, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
Attackers used a crude bomb to ambush the military vehicle along a major supply route northeast of Baghdad Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said in a statement on its Web site. "One 3rd Corp Support Command soldier was killed and one was wounded in an improvised explosive device attack," the statement said.
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09:55 AM
IRBIL, Iraq -- A suicide car bomber struck the U.S. intelligence headquarters here, killing three Iraqis - including a 12-year-old boy, a Kurdish security official told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The U.S. military in Baghdad said the bombing wounded four "Defense Human Intelligence Service" officers and a Kurdish peshmerga guard at the building.
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09:54 AM
MOSCOW -- Russia said on Tuesday it would not gloat over Washington’s difficulties in chaos-gripped Iraq but ruled out an international peacekeeping force there until Baghdad gets a new independent government. "Neither Western Europe nor Russia wants a catastrophe to develop in Iraq," Moscow’s UN envoy Sergei Lavrov told the Izvestia newspaper in an interview that was also carried on the foreign ministry’s Internet site.
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09:50 AM
A federal judge in New York City said Tuesday that the airline industry could have guarded against the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and he ruled that lawsuits brought by 70 families of victims can proceed. The ruling came two days before the second anniversary of the attacks and the deadline for filing personal injury lawsuits in New York. It prompted predictions of a last-minute rush in filings. So far, about 100 lawsuits have been filed.
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09:42 AM
Gov. Bob Riley opened an exhibit at the Capitol on Tuesday that included a small plaque of the Ten Commandments, keeping a promise to supporters of a massive granite monument removed by court order from the state judicial building. The plaque was given to Riley by supporters of the 2 1/2-ton Ten Commandments monument. "Just as the Ten Commandments are exhibited in similar displays in the U.S. Supreme Court and in our nation's Capitol building, I feel it is important to display them in our Capitol, as well," the Republican said in a statement.
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09:27 AM
Alabamians on Tuesday overwhelmingly defeated the largest proposed tax increase in state history, in effect rejecting Gov. Bob Riley's plea that it was their Christian duty to help the poor and reform a tax system he called "immoral." The $1.2 billion package was the most ambitious sought by any governor in this year of record budget shortfalls for state governments. With more than half the precincts reporting, it was failing by about a 2-1 ratio.
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09:14 AM
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- The same city council that was the first to oppose the war on Iraq and recently sued Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday asked Congress to look into impeaching President Bush. City leaders say Bush violated international treaties by going to war in Iraq, and that the president manipulated public fears to justify the war and undercut Constitutional rights. "It's time for us to open up this can of worms," said councilman Tim Fitzmaurice.
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08:17 AM
WASHINGTON - Former President Bill Clinton's nemesis Kenneth Starr was back in front of the Supreme Court yesterday, but this time his target was Sen. John McCain and other campaign finance reformers. Starr argued a law authored by McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) "goes too far" and limits free speech.
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05:49 AM
AUSTIN, Texas -- With the remaining 10 absent Democrats saying they will return to Texas this week, Republican Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday announced that he will order a third special session on congressional redistricting. Perry pegged the third 30-day session to begin Monday. By then, the Democrats who shut down the second session with their flight to New Mexico in late July will have had their lawsuit against the reapportionment of the congressional districts heard in federal court, and voters will have gone to the polls to consider 22 proposed changes to the Texas Constitution.
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05:46 AM
September 09, 2003
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court Monday appeared headed for a split over tough new federal campaign finance laws, with justice Sandra Day O'Connor likely to cast the deciding vote. In a special session to hear arguments on the 2002 McCain/Feingold law, the court's more liberal justices seemed likely to support its limits on campaign contributions while more conservative justices - including chief justice William Rehnquist - signaled concern about the provisions' infringement on the First Amendment. O'Connor, the court's most frequent swing vote, asked few questions and gave little indication of what she might do.
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07:40 AM
SAN DIEGO -- A Naval Reserve commander who volunteered for the Iraq war says the military doctored his medical file to eliminate all traces of an anti-malaria drug that he believes made him severely ill, suicidal and aggressive - and that he has the before-and-after evidence to prove it. "I was given Lariam. I got sick from Lariam," said Cmdr. William Manofsky, 44, who is based at the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, Calif. "The Navy does not want to talk about Lariam. There is no mention of it in my medical record. I'm pretty upset."
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07:37 AM
WASHINGTON - Hit by sticker shock, lawmakers in Congress said Monday that eventually they will approve President Bush's request for $87 billion more for Iraq and the war on terror, but they want to know more about how the money will be spent and efforts to share the financial burden.
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07:27 AM
WASHINGTON -- Like active duty troops held longer than expected in Iraq, National Guard and reservists also are having their tours of duty extended, defense officials said Tuesday. With the Army stretched thin by the Iraq campaign, the global war on terror and other duty around the world, officials ordered that Guard and Army Reserve troops now in Iraq and surrounding countries serve 12-month tours.
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07:26 AM
WASHINGTON - President Bush appears to be planning to maintain the number of U.S. combat troops in Iraq at the current level of 130,000 for at least a year and possibly longer, a prospect that analysts say could compel him to shift troops from other missions or even increase the size of the Army.
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07:25 AM
Massive attention has now been given - and rightly so - to the reasons why Britain went to war against Iraq. But far too little attention has focused on why the US went to war, and that throws light on British motives too.
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07:10 AM
NEW ORLEANS, La. -- A military jury found an anti-war U.S. Marine reservist guilty of unauthorized absence and sentenced him to six months in jail for refusing to report to his unit during the Iraq war, his lawyer said yesterday. Defence attorney Stephen Collier, who represents Lance Cpl. Stephen Funk said he would still appeal for a lighter sentence than six months. Funk, 21, says he was singled out for prosecution because he was a conscientious objector who spoke at anti-war rallies.
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07:04 AM
NEW YORK -- A federal judge on Monday denied a request by Martha's Stewart's lawyers to order a probe of possible media leaks in the criminal case against the lifestyle trend-setter. U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum said in her ruling that she was "not persuaded that it is likely that there was a breach of grand jury secrecy" in the case and denied the motion by Stewart's legal team to launch an investigation.
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05:23 AM
September 08, 2003
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Breaking a lull in attacks on U.S. forces, insurgents set off a bomb that wounded two U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, while Britain said it would send 1,200 more troops to bolster coalition forces in Iraq. Iraqi guerrillas attacked an American patrol in Baghdad with explosives as soldiers were driving out of a tunnel in the center of the city, the military said. The attack wounded two soldiers, damaged two Humvees, one of which turned over and caught fire.
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10:34 AM
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Sunday issued an international call for help in Iraq and asked Congress for an additional $87 billion to help pay for U.S. operations there and in Afghanistan. He offered no timetable for U.S. withdrawal. "This will take time, and require sacrifice," Bush said. "Yet we will do whatever is necessary, we will spend what is necessary to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror." Bush did not address the failure so far to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or criticism that he and his advisers drastically underestimated the difficulty of stabilizing the country. The $87 billion price tag, which comes on top of the $79 billion that Congress approved last spring, was higher than previous estimates.
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10:23 AM
WASHINGTON - Making his case for war with Iraq, President Bush in his State of the Union address this year accused Saddam Hussein of trying to buy uranium from Africa even though the CIA had warned White House and other officials that the story didn't check out.
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10:21 AM
It's been nearly two years since coalition forces have had any certain contact with bin Laden, and while U.S. military commanders voice confidence that one day he'll be tracked down, they acknowledge that they have little information on where he or his ally, former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, might be.
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10:20 AM
In January of this year, tons of ink and hours of airtime were devoted to debate about New York Congressman Charlie Rangell's controversial (and thinly supported) bill to include women in registration for the draft. Many newspapers, including the New York Times, reported that a lawsuit had been filed in Massachusetts to achieve the same result. An attorney formerly affiliated with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the lawsuit in Boston U.S. District Court. The Plaintiffs were five students - four young men and one woman - who challenged the male-only draft registration system on "equal protection" grounds. Well, they lost.
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07:17 AM
At issue is the constitutionality of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, known as the McCain-Feingold bill. It's a law that is at once urgent--witness the court's extraordinary September arguments--and irrelevant. Politicians from presidential contenders to congressional hopefuls are already finding ways around it. The problem for the Democrats, who enthusiastically pushed for the law, is that the Republicans have proved far more adept at living within its strictures. "The system right now is a disaster for the Democratic Party," said one weary fundraiser. "There is no way the Democrats are going to be able to compete with the Republicans at the $2,000 level and $4,000 level. They just have more of those donors than we do."
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07:02 AM
There was no question about the man's guilt. Steve Kim, a Korean-born postal worker, had admitted that he fired a handgun on the grounds of the United Nations in 2002 to protest North Korea's mistreatment of its citizens. Mr. Kim was to be sentenced yesterday for his crime.
But before imposing sentence, the judge, Robert P. Patterson Jr. of Federal District Court in Manhattan, raised a question: could he consider that Mr. Kim was trying to make a political statement when he fired his gun, and perhaps afford him some leniency under the strict federal sentencing guidelines? The question set off a spirited exchange over the wisdom of such an approach, and led to the delay of the sentencing.
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06:57 AM
A peace rally at Hollywood beach Sunday evening drew a crowd about 200 people, as well as police officers who arrested an activist who got into a scuffle with a heckler. Those who attended the Peace and Justice on the Beach march and rally heard messages about the war in Iraq, the USA Patriot Act and President Bush -- who will speak Tuesday at a Fort Lauderdale fundraiser for his 2004 campaign.
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06:34 AM
September 07, 2003
WASHINGTON - President Bush wants billions of dollars more to pay for U.S. troops in Iraq and rebuilding the country, and congressional aides say the figure could top $80 billion in the upcoming budget year. A congressional aide said: "I'm thinking we're in the $70 billion to $80 billion range and I would lean to the higher end of that."
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02:18 PM
September 06, 2003
WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress, along with more than 1 million other civilian government workers, are in line for a 4.1 percent pay raise next year under legislation moving through the House Thursday. The legislation, if approved by Congress and signed by the president, would mark the fourth straight year that lawmakers have included themselves as part of annual pay raises for federal employees. It would boost salaries for representatives and senators to about $158,000 a year from the present $154,700.
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12:24 PM
WASHINGTON -- The civilian unemployment rate improved marginally last month -- slipping to 6.1 percent -- even as companies slashed payrolls by 93,000. Friday's report raised new concerns that the fragile economic recovery could falter. August was the seventh consecutive month of cuts in payrolls, a survey released by the Labor Department showed, indicating continuing weakness in the job market. Analysts had expected companies to add 12,000 new jobs.
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12:23 PM
Once one understands government and the managerial elite that runs it, nearly every utterance from every prattling politician sounds patently preposterous. The politicians and their hirelings, the bureaucrats, claim special knowledge of the answer to this woe or that affliction. Only they can provide the palliative. Both cannot be right, and indeed both are always wrong. So it was with our president’s recent assertion that the economy is "showing signs of promise," and his pledge to break bread with the looters in Congress to help keep the promise.
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12:22 PM
With presidential primaries fast approaching, the Supreme Court has begun a detailed look at the role of money in politics and the complicated rules governing those who give and receive. The court will hold a special one-day session Monday to examine whether a massive rewrite of the nation's campaign finance laws squares with constitutional free speech protections. The court's answer will govern how money is raised and spent in the 2004 election and beyond.
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12:21 PM
A law prohibiting candidates from paying people to hand out literature and work the polls on election day was struck down yesterday by the state's highest court. The Court of Appeals in Maryland issued an order affirming a ruling by a circuit court judge in April that the law hinders free speech.
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12:20 PM
The steady stream of scary scenarios about global warming and its supposed cataclysmic consequences hasn’t abated. It continues because its purveyors have an agenda that encompasses much more than environmental concerns. Those who insist that human beings, especially Americans, are endangering the future of mankind by causing the Earth’s atmospheric temperature to rise ignore the many scientific refutations of their claims. What they seek is control of fellow man.
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12:20 PM
The Colorado Green Party suggested Thursday that state lawmakers should begin each day by reciting the Bill of Rights. The idea came from Alison Maynard, the Green Party's co-chairwoman, who made the suggestion to chide legislators over their demand that public school students recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day.
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12:19 PM
Fanatics see the world through a lens with a singular vision -- their beliefs are the only ones worth believing in and everybody else is wrong. That's the kind of thinking that produced Osama bin Laden and his boys and girls in al-Qaida, the Taliban in Afghanistan and suicide bombers most to familar to us through their work in the Israel. It's also the same twisted thinking that propagated those self-anointed protectors of the Earth and of animals who want to make their point by blowing things up. One group of animal-lovers struck last week, placing bombs outside the Chiron Corporation headquarters in Emeryville.
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12:18 PM
WASHINGTON -- Thomas E. White, forced to resign as Army secretary in May, has fired back in a book that describes the Bush administration's postwar effort in Iraq as "anemic" and "totally inadequate." The book, which presents a blueprint for revitalizing Iraq, asserts that the administration underestimated the difficulty of putting that country back on its feet after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
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12:17 PM
Short of troops and facing mounting costs in Iraq, the Bush administration is turning to the United Nations for help, but the U.N.’s record in military operations is not encouraging, analysts say. Some critics fear that a bulky, unwieldy U.N. force, divided by language and culture and dependent on the United States for equipment, supplies, intelligence and transportation, would be more hindrance than help and could even drag the Iraqi operation down into a bloody stalemate. “If it looks like war, then it does not look like the United Nations,” said Kenneth Allard, a retired Army officer and professor of military history at Georgetown University. Allard was dismayed that the administration had reached a point where it had no recourse but the United Nations. “I look on this as a very clumsy piece of American statecraft,” he said.
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12:16 PM
September 05, 2003
WASHINGTON - President Bush is completing a trio of Midwest speeches on the economy and opening a fresh round of fund raising to bolster his re-election bank account. He currently has more than $56 million on hand for next year's primary, though he faces no GOP opponent. The president has not headlined a fund-raiser since Aug. 26. But Friday marked a new round that shows he has no intention of slowing down before the end of the current fund-raising period Sept. 30. Bush has four more fund-raisers in three states next week.
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09:51 AM
TASHKENT -- Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Friday a U.S.-backed draft resolution seeking broader international help in postwar Iraq "still needs further, very serious work." Ivanov, speaking at a regional cooperation meeting in the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan, said the U.S. proposal went some way to re-establishing the central role of the United Nations in solving Iraq's problems.
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09:49 AM
The UN Security Council, riven by differences over Iraq, is to hold its first consultations on a new US resolution seeking a multinational force in Iraq, the council's president said. France and Germany have already expressed opposition to the new resolution but Emyr Jones Parry, the UN ambassador for Britain, which has the presidency of the Security Council in September, said he hoped for a rapid vote.
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09:42 AM
Tikrit, Iraq -- US military police and Iraqi police have raided three farm houses near Saddam Hussein's northern hometown of Tikrit, searching for weapons and insurgents. The group made no arrests, but seized four A-K-47 rifles, along with some ammunition and explosives.
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04:52 AM
NAJAF, Iraq -- US troops moved to disarm the volunteer guard of anti-US firebrand Moqtada Sadr on Wednesday but were thrice rebuffed, a spokesman for the Shiite Muslim cleric told AFP.
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04:51 AM
Oops. There are no weapons of mass destruction after all. That's the emerging consensus of the second team of weapons sleuths commanded by the U.S. in Iraq, as reported last week in the Los Angeles Times. The 1,400-member Iraq Survey Group found what the first wave of U.S. military experts and the United Nations inspectors before them discovered – nada.
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04:50 AM
WASHINGTON -- Louder cries to seek foreign help, bigger federal deficits at home and the approach of next year's elections could complicate Congress' work on President Bush's next request for billions for U.S. activities in Iraq. The Bush administration is considering asking lawmakers for $60 billion to $70 billion for the costs of U.S. military operations in Iraq and for rebuilding the shattered country, lawmakers and congressional aides said this week.
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04:49 AM
Joseph Sobran -- The Bush administration didn’t plan on this: in the early phase of their “liberation,” many Iraqis are already yearning for the good old days of Saddam Hussein. Of course we should bear in mind that many Russians still pine for the good old days of Stalin, so this isn’t a final moral judgment on the war. But it is certainly a reflection on the administration’s pre-war optimism, especially when the practical result so far is a mounting pile of dead Americans.
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04:48 AM
COMFORT, Texas -- The father of a Comfort soldier killed in an ambush in Iraq that former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch survived said that Lynch's million-dollar book deal will taint the memory of the soldiers killed in the ambush. "Pretty severe, isn't it?" Randy Kiehl, the father of Army Spc. James Kiehl, said Wednesday from his home in Comfort. On Tuesday, a publisher announced that Lynch signed a $1 million deal for a book that will tell the story about her capture and rescue.
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04:47 AM
WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Lieberman pledged yesterday to offer every American affordable health insurance from birth to age 25, part of a $747 billion health-care initiative he unveiled to counter plans announced by several of his rivals for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.
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04:46 AM
WASHINGTON -- Government scientific advisers and officials painted a grim picture Thursday of the consequences of a terror attack on the nation's power grid, saying that any outage that lasted longer than a couple of days would reduce urban centers to chaos and collapse the economy.
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04:44 AM
September 04, 2003
Pat Buchanan asked Pat Robertson should Christians, in good conscicence, vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Pat Robertson: "Well you know, I'm a body builder. I do some pretty heavy weightlifting, so I think the weightlifters of the world need to unite. I tell you what those guys in California could use a big bruiser to knock some heads together. I Mean They're Out Of Control Over There. So What Are They Gonna Do?"
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06:58 AM
Interstate 5 is not the road to Damascus. But don't tell that to Gray Davis. He wants Californians to believe he's their St. Paul--a convert who shouldn't be recalled because he's seen the light. The biblical analogy is irresistible. Since he came to the realization that he was in the fight of his political life, Davis finally admits that he once sinned: yes, too slow to react to the state's electricity crisis; yes, too out of touch with the citizenry; but still entirely deserving of a second chance.
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04:50 AM
LONG BEACH -- Arnold Schwarzenegger, skipping the first debate of California's recall election, was egged Wednesday on a university campus but went ahead with a speech in which he said he is running for governor to give back to a state that is responsible for all his success. A thrown egg splattered on the back of his left shoulder as he waded through the crowd at California State University, Long Beach. An aide tried to wipe it off, but he simply peeled off his coat and went ahead with his speech.
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04:48 AM
WASHINGTON — President Bush's decision to ask for the United Nations' help in postwar Iraq is an admission that the current situation there cannot be sustained — militarily, financially or politically.
U.S. forces are stretched to their limits; troops are dying almost daily. Reconstruction is more expensive than first thought and is progressing too slowly to prevent instability.
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04:48 AM
Monday on the Arabic al-Jazeera television network, prevents technical analysts from being certain. In the message, the voice urged the Iraqi people not to believe those who blamed the ousted dictator and his followers for Friday's attack on the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf that killed Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim and scores of others.
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04:47 AM
Join with thousands of other Americans working to Get US out! of the United Nations. Take the action steps outlined on this website to carry out a proven strategy to increase your effectiveness and influence. Every individual can make a difference in the battle to preserve freedom.
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04:46 AM
September 03, 2003
The latest Republican to jump into the race for next year's open U.S. Senate seat issued a call Tuesday for a mandatory year of military service for just about every man and woman aged 18 to 26. John L. Borling, a 63-year-old retired Air Force major general from Rockford, said such a requirement would be more equitable than a draft. Borling also said he supports abortion rights.
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09:27 AM
In January of this year, 2003, a bill was introduced both in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives which would re-institute the military draft. This bill would not only allow the government to draft our sons however (as bad as that is itself), but it would also allow the government to draft our daughters into the military for two years.
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09:26 AM
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court was asked Tuesday to consider whether the Bush administration has violated the Constitution by holding 660 terrorist suspects in Cuba without charges or access to attorneys. The appeal was being filed on behalf of some detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay and their families.
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09:24 AM
BAGHDAD -- A Polish-led force took over a chunk of central Iraq from U.S. Marines on Wednesday as Washington sought to relieve the burden on its troops by widening international participation in Iraq's security.
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09:20 AM
Moscow -- A submarine of Russia's Pacific fleet on Tuesday successfully test-fired an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), a navy spokesman said in Moscow. The projectile fitted with a dummy warhead was fired from the Podolsk nuclear-powered submarine in the Far Eastern sea of Okhotsk and hit its target in the northwestern Chizha testing range.
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08:03 AM
WASHINGTON -- A breakdown in communication and cooperation among Midwest utilities contributed significantly to the worst power blackout in history, a utility executive has told congressional investigators. Government and industry officials, testifying at congressional hearings that begin Wednesday, will say it's too early to pinpoint the cause for the Aug. 14 blackout that cascaded from Ohio through Michigan and into Canada and then engulfed New York state.
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04:59 AM
FAIRFAX, Va. -- The judge in the capital murder trial of Lee Boyd Malvo will allow the testimony of two prison guards who say the sniper suspect bragged to them about committing several of the shootings. Defense lawyers had sought to suppress the testimony of Maryland prison guards Joseph Stracke and Wayne Davis, contending Malvo had already invoked his right to remain silent by the time he had spoken with the guards.
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04:56 AM
MARAWI CITY---The United States through its USAID and GEM officers announced the putting up of 800 small-scale infrastructure projects in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao to the tune of $22,000 each for the next four years. Robert Barnes, economic growth adviser of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said they are putting up small-scale infrastructure projects mostly for Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) former combatants. Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza said though these projects will be financed by the US, it will still be "projects of the Philippine Government." Barnes said that this USAID program also provide infrastructure analysis and advocacy assistance to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) and to relevant national government agencies.
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04:01 AM
September 02, 2003
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A car bomb exploded near the headquarters of U.S.-trained police in Baghdad Tuesday, wounding many bystanders, a day after a roadside bomb killed two U.S. soldiers. Another U.S. soldier was killed in a helicopter crash south of Baghdad. The bloodshed came as hundreds of thousands of mourners converged for the funeral of a slain religious leader who had urged Iraqis to be patient with the American occupiers. The cleric's son warned Iraq was entering a new, more dangerous era.
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10:04 AM
WASHINGTON - Once wary of criticizing a popular wartime president's handling of Iraq, members of Congress are shedding their inhibitions. Returning to Washington this week after a summer break, some are questioning whether President Bush could do more to get help from other countries to secure and rebuild Iraq, whether he has enough U.S. troops there and how much the war will cost in U.S. lives and taxpayer dollars.
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09:57 AM
WASHINGTON - The man who shot President Reagan 22 years ago says his mental condition has improved enough that he should be allowed to visit his parents without psychiatric hospital staff supervision. John Hinckley Jr., 48, has been allowed to take supervised day trips from the hospital since a federal appeals court ruling in 1999. On Tuesday, he was scheduled to appear in court to ask U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman to allow him to have unsupervised visits with his parents away from the hospital.
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09:52 AM
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. - John Kerry, maintaining the country should reject President Bush's "new vision of government," is officially declaring his candidacy for the Democrat presidential nomination. Kerry was making his formal announcement after months of campaign-style appearances and debates with fellow Democrat presidential aspirants. In the speech, the senator planned to focus on an "overarching vision" — not the details of his proposals.
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09:45 AM
PLEASANTON, Calif. - Both came to this tidy suburb to address the same holiday picnic crowd, but the uneasy peace between Gov. Gray Davis and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante was evident: The two Democrats scrupulously avoided each other, and neither mentioned the other by name. Davis, rallying to keep his job, and Bustamante, billing himself as insurance should Davis be recalled next month, did not stand together at the Labor Day campaign stop at the Alameda County Fairgrounds, some 30 miles east of San Francisco.
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09:38 AM
Disgruntled voters can only grumble about running Connecticut governors out of office because a California-style recall is not possible in this East Coast state. Nothing in the state constitution or state law permits the recall of a governor or any other elected state official. "To get recall for a statewide officer, it appears we would have to change the state constitution," said Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, the state's chief elections officer.
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08:55 AM
Camera technology designed to spot potential terrorists by their facial characteristics at airports failed its first major test, a report from the airport that tested the technology shows.
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08:50 AM
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was put under increased pressure when the widow of David Kelly told how the Iraq weapons expert felt "totally let down and betrayed" by the Ministry of Defence for allowing his name to be made public. In poignant evidence to the Hutton Inquiry into her husband's death, Janice Kelly attacked the way he had been unmasked as the source for Andrew Gilligan's dossier story, despite receiving assurances from his MoD bosses that he would remain anonymous.
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07:39 AM
It's corporate America, not government, that is emerging as the clearest embodiment of Big Brother the all-seeing, all-knowing entity in Orwell's novel "1984." With technology already available or on its way, corporations can block your e-mail from particular senders, stop you from printing documents deemed too sensitive and record instant-messaging conversations among workers.
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06:27 AM
September 01, 2003
WASHINGTON -- Two U.S. troops were killed Sunday in a clash with guerrilla fighters northwest of Shkin in Afghanistan, the U.S. military said. The military's Central Command said in a statement that the two were among three American soldiers wounded in the clash in Paktia Province. The three were evacuated to a medical facility where two of them later died and one remained in stable condition.
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10:06 AM
WASHINGTON - President Bush visits Ohio union members on Labor Day, promising them and other working Americans that improving the economy and creating new jobs are among his top concerns. Bush's trip to Richfield, Ohio, on Monday's holiday marked his third visit this year to the Buckeye State, which he narrowly won in 2000.
Posted by Editor at
10:05 AM
The firm, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, has been drafted in by USAID to advise on privatising former government-held industries, structuring government economic and regulatory agencies, and developing a tax structure. The legal deal is part of a larger package worth up to $79.6 million taken on by Bearingpoint, formerly called KPMG consultants, to advise on the restructuring of Iraq. The deal is expected to lead to several million dollars of work for Squire, Sanders, effectively as sub-contractor.
Posted by Editor at
10:04 AM
WASHINGTON -- Record high gasoline prices, an unprecedented power blackout and worries about the cost of occupation and reconstruction of Iraq are among the issues that will dominate the congressional agenda when lawmakers return next week from their August break.
Posted by Editor at
10:02 AM
HONG KONG, China -- Beijing has stepped up an attack on Tokyo's "re-militarization" even as Japan's defense chief is visiting the Chinese capital on a fence-mending trip. The Chinese state media have been running numerous articles criticizing alleged efforts by Tokyo to boost its defense forces and to change the country's pacifist constitution.
Posted by Editor at
07:30 AM
CHICAGO – Even before the Sept. 11 attacks and the crackdown that followed, American Muslim leaders generally had come to believe they had made a mistake. In 2000, they made their first unified endorsement in a presidential race, backing George W. Bush. Many thought he would take a harder line against Israel, and, based on statements he made while campaigning, would protect the rights of immigrants facing deportation. Muslims say they were disappointed on both counts. Now, feeling the additional sting of being scrutinized in the domestic hunt for terrorists, they are mobilizing to express their anger at the polls in 2004.
Posted by Editor at
05:44 AM