world

Feds investigate plane crash

By Abdullah AlShihri · Wednesday, Jan. 15,2003 12:11 a.m.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A jammed tail assembly may be to blame for the commuter airline crash that killed 21 people at Charlotte/ Douglas International Airport, a federal investigator said. A possible malfunction of the Air Midwest plane's elevator, a flap on the tail used to control a plane's angle of climb or descent, would have hampered the pilot's efforts to control the aircraft.

Evidence to be presented against teenage sniper suspect

By Abdullah AlShihri · Tuesday, Jan. 14,2003 10:07 p.m.

FAIRFAX, Va. -- Prosecutors say they have extensive evidence to present at a hearing to determine if teenage sniper suspect John Lee Malvo should be tried as an adult for capital murder and face the possibility of being put to death.

U.S. may give North Korea energy aid

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Jan. 13,2003 11:49 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- The White House asserted Monday that offering the prospect of energy assistance to North Korea does not amount to rewarding Pyongyang for its defiant stance in the dispute over its nuclear weapons program.

Top democrat: conflict inevitable

By Alyson Brodsy and Ken Guggenheim · Monday, Jan. 13,2003 11:49 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee says he believes war with Iraq is inevitable, and it could interfere with the country's fight against terror. "I'm convinced that the president is going to go in there, one way or the other," Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press.

Lieberman enters 2004 race

By Alyson Brodsy and Diane Scarponi · Monday, Jan. 13,2003 11:48 p.m.

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Sen. Joseph Lieberman jumped into the 2004 race for president Monday, criticizing President Bush while promising to "talk straight to the American people" and show them he is "a different kind of Democrat." Lieberman, who could become the nation's first Jewish president, told students at his old high school that during the Bush campaign two years ago, "we were promised a better America, but that promise has not been kept."

Troops learn war games

By Alyson Brodsy and Patrick McDowell · Monday, Jan. 13,2003 11:47 p.m.

SOUTH OF THE KUWAIT-IRAQ BORDER, Kuwait -- U.S. Army troops sorted out enemy fighters from friendly civilians in training exercises Monday designed to help them with one of the most dangerous forms of combat they could face in Iraq -- urban warfare.

Two Palestinians killed in attack on Israeli bus in Gaza Strip, army says

By Adrian Sainz and Mark Lavie · Monday, Jan. 13,2003 7:34 p.m.

JERUSALEM - Two Palestinians threw grenades Monday at an Israeli bus in the Gaza Strip and were shot dead by Israeli troops, and an Islamic Jihad activist was killed in an explosion in the West Bank - the latest incidents in escalating violence two weeks before Israel's election.

Military ships head out from East Coast

By Alyson Brodsy and Sonja Barisic · Monday, Jan. 13,2003 6:40 a.m.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has ordered more than 60,000 U.S. troops to head for the Persian Gulf region, a move that will double the size of the force already in the area. The Pentagon's goal is to have at least 100,000 there by Jan. 31. Four of the seven Virginia-based Navy ships that have received deployment orders in the past week headed out to sea Sunday as a military buildup continued ahead of a possible war with Iraq.

Lieberman will make 2004 presidential run

By Diane Scarponi · Monday, Jan. 13,2003 6:38 a.m.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, freed of his self-imposed pledge to defer to Al Gore, announced Monday he is running for president in 2004, saying the nation needs leaders "ready to lead." "Two years ago, we were promised a better America, but that promise has not been kept," the senator, the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2000, told students at his old high school.

North Korea ready to negotiate

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Jan. 13,2003 12:12 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Despite its bellicose rhetoric, North Korea is ready to negotiate directly with the United States about its nuclear weapons programs, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Sunday.

OPEC agrees to boost oil production

By Alyson Brodsy and Bruce Stanley · Monday, Jan. 13,2003 12:11 a.m.

VIENNA, Austria -- OPEC members agreed Sunday to boost the cartel's oil production target by 6.5 percent to stabilize a world market jittery over a crisis in Venezuela and the possibility of war in Iraq.

Iraq shrugs off threat of war

By Alyson Brodsy and Hamza Hendawi · Monday, Jan. 13,2003 12:10 a.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq shrugged off the U.S. and British military buildup in the Persian Gulf as the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Turkey urged President Saddam Hussein on Sunday to cooperate with the United Nations and avert a war they said would be disastrous for the region.

Motive of Illinois governor questioned

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Jan. 13,2003 12:09 a.m.

CHICAGO -- As Illinois begins emptying its death row by order of the governor, opponents of capital punishment are setting their sights on wider reforms, while death penalty supporters are questioning Gov. George Ryan's motives. On Saturday, Ryan commuted the sentences of all 167 condemned inmates -- most to life in prison without parole -- saying he felt a moral obligation to act because the system is "haunted by the demon of error."

US reinforcements in Gulf keep out of sight

By Abdullah AlShihri and Patrick McDowell · Friday, Jan. 10,2003 2:20 p.m.

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait -- American troop reinforcements come to Kuwait daily in the biggest military buildup in the region since the Gulf War -- but it's hard to tell. After heavy media coverage of their departure from bases in the United States this week, complete with teary embraces with relatives and their views of possible war with Iraq, the soldiers are landing in Kuwait in near secrecy.

GOP whip Nickles wants new Senate leadership

By Abdullah AlShihri and David Espo · Monday, Dec. 16,2002 12:11 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- Breaking ranks, a veteran Senate Republican called Sunday for new leadership elections, saying Sen. Trent Lott has been so weakened by a race-based controversy that "his ability to enact our agenda" is in doubt. "There are several outstanding senators who are more than capable of effective leadership. And I hope we have an opportunity to choose," said Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the outgoing GOP whip.

U.N. inspectors continue hunt

By Abdullah AlShihri · Monday, Dec. 16,2002 12:10 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.N. inspectors hunted for weapons of mass destruction at missile plants and nuclear complexes Sunday, while an unusual visitor -- Hollywood star Sean Penn -- spoke out in Baghdad against a U.S. attack and in support of the Iraqi people caught up in an international crisis. In Berlin, meanwhile, the German defense ministry said the United Nations had asked it to supply the inspection operation with unmanned spy aircraft to help in the search for banned Iraqi weapons or the facilities to make them.

Pakistani police foil bomb plot

By Abdullah AlShihri and Zarar Khan · Monday, Dec. 16,2002 12:10 p.m.

KARACHI, Pakistan -- In a foiled suicide bomb plot, Islamic militants planned to ram an explosives-laden Volkswagen into a car carrying U.S. diplomats in Karachi, Pakistan police said Sunday. Police said they arrested three men Friday and Saturday and seized about 250 sacks of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer used in explosives. They said the suspects had been trained at a camp in Afghanistan run by Islamic militants fighting Indian rule in the disputed province of Kashmir.

US defense secretary gives pep talk to troops

By Abdullah AlShihri and Robert Burns · Friday, Dec. 13,2002 12:39 a.m.

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar -- Amid a buildup of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region, Defense Secretary Donald M. Rumsfeld met Thursday at a desert encampment with the U.S. general who would run a war against Iraq. On the outskirts of the capital city of Doha, Rumsfeld gave a pep talk to several hundred troops. He reminded them of the death toll from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

US military helicopter crashes, killing 5 soldiers

By Abdullah AlShihri and Freddy Cuevas · Friday, Dec. 13,2002 12:07 a.m.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- A U.S. military helicopter crashed in mountainous central Honduras, killing all five soldiers aboard, the U.S. military said Thursday. The cause of the crash was not known, but there had been heavy rains in the area over the past three days.

Iraqi general says VX nerve gas transfer 'ridiculous'

By Abdullah AlShihri and Charles J. Hanley · Friday, Dec. 13,2002 12:06 a.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A senior Iraqi general dismissed as "ridiculous" a U.S. report that an Iraqi chemical weapon was delivered to an Islamic extremist group affiliated with al Qaeda. "They know very well," Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin said Thursday of the U.S. government, "we have no prohibited material or activities, and all the stockpile (of chemical weapons) have been destroyed."