world

Homeland security bill passes test

By Aida Sultanova and Jim Abrams · Tuesday, Nov. 19,2002 11:27 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate defeated an attempt by Democrats to kill what they called special interests measures in a homeland security bill, bringing a lame-duck Congress close to granting President Bush's demand for a new Cabinet agency to protect Americans from terrorists. The Senate voted 52-47 to reject an amendment that would have removed from the bill seven provisions that Democrats said were favors to friends of Republicans. The president and his key advisers actively lobbied wavering senators to defeat the amendment, saying its approval could doom passage of the bill this year.

Iraqi officials to meet deadline

By Aida Sultanova and Bassem Mroue · Tuesday, Nov. 19,2002 11:26 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi officials promised to meet next month's deadline for disclosing information about banned weapons, a senior U.N. official said Tuesday, as differences emerged between the United Nations and Washington over what constitutes Iraqi violations of the U.N. resolution that authorized the inspection mission. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iraqi officials made the commitment during talks with chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix and other team members after they arrived Monday to resume the weapons inspection program after a four-year hiatus.

Oil spill creates hazard

By Aida Sultanova and Mar Roman · Tuesday, Nov. 19,2002 11:25 p.m.

MADRID, Spain -- A damaged tanker carrying more than 20 million gallons of fuel oil broke in two off the northwest coast of Spain and sank Tuesday, threatening an environmental disaster. The rear half vanished first, then the bow slipped under the surface. Images broadcast from the scene showed pieces of the boat some 150 miles out to sea. If the Bahamas-flagged Prestige were to lose its entire cargo, the spill would be nearly twice the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.

Children rescued

By Abdullah AlShihri and Sarah Andrews · Tuesday, Nov. 19,2002 12:38 a.m.

HOSPITALET DE LLOBREGAT, Spain -- A teenager with a knife took his sister and 19 other children hostage at his former school and held them for hours Monday until a plainclothes officer overpowered him while delivering a pizza, officials said. None of the students was hurt in the 3 1/2-hour ordeal at the Casal de l'Angel school in this gritty, industrial town just south of Barcelona. All the hostages were 11 or 12 years old.

Destructive ice spreads in North

By Abdullah AlShihri and David Sharp · Tuesday, Nov. 19,2002 12:29 a.m.

PORTLAND, Maine -- A nor'easter packing a dangerous mix of snow and freezing rain spread a destructive layer of ice across parts of New England, leaving thousands of people without electricity. Brisk wind on Monday caused more power outages as it snapped ice-weakened trees and electrical lines. Ice-covered pavement and downed trees made travel hazardous. Two highway deaths were blamed on Sunday's icy conditions in Maine.

Attempted hijacking called terrorism

By Abdullah AlShihri and Laurie Copans · Monday, Nov. 18,2002 11:46 p.m.

JERUSALEM -- A struggle aboard an El Al Airlines jet in which security agents wrestled an Israeli Arab to the floor was "to all appearances a terror attack," the Israeli government said Monday in a statement. Airline officials concurred and said their security guards prevented a hijacking, but officials at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv played down the confrontation. Relatives said the passenger, Tawfiq Fukra, 23, had a simple argument with a flight attendant.

U.S. authenticates bin Laden audiotape

By Abdullah AlShihri and John J. Lumpkin · Monday, Nov. 18,2002 11:46 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. intelligence have concluded that a new audiotape of Osama bin Laden is an authentic, unaltered and recent recording of the al Qaeda leader, U.S. officials said Monday "Intelligence experts do believe that the tape is genuine," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "And it is clear that the tape was made in the last several weeks as well."

Hijack attempt foiled

By Alyson Brodsy · Sunday, Nov. 17,2002 11:58 p.m.

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Security guards on Israel's national airline El Al overpowered a man who tried to hijack a flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul on Sunday. None of the 170 passengers on board the Boeing 757 was harmed and the plane landed safely, said Oktay Cakirlar, an official at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport.

Ridge says alleged al Qaeda letter contains no new threats

By Aida Sultanova and Darlene Superville · Sunday, Nov. 17,2002 11:01 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- With the Senate set to approve the agency he's expected to lead, President Bush's homeland security adviser on Sunday played down as "really nothing new" an alleged al Qaeda threat of attacks in New York and Washington. Tom Ridge also said he doubted the Bush administration would create an agency separate from the FBI to gather domestic intelligence. Several senators said the White House should not pursue that idea with congressional input. Ridge declined to discuss whether he wants to become secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Iraqi Paper addresses inspections

By Aida Sultanova and Sameer N. Yacoub · Sunday, Nov. 17,2002 11 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq hopes for fair treatment from U.N. weapons inspectors because the stability of the entire Persian Gulf region depends on their work, a newspaper owned by Saddam Hussein's son said Sunday. At the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad a day ahead of the inspectors' expected arrival, workers were seen cleaning the three-story building, while others were working in the garden and fixing the ceiling of the car park.

Protestors arrested at fort

By Aida Sultanova and Elliot Minor · Sunday, Nov. 17,2002 10:59 p.m.

COLUMBUS, Ga. -- More than 90 people, including at least six nuns, were arrested for marching onto Fort Benning grounds Sunday during an annual protest of a U.S. military program that trains Latin American soldiers. "I feel anger at the deliberate teaching of violence," Caryl Hartjes, a nun from Fondulac, Wis., said as she entered the compound, where she was arrested.

US attack may draw Iraq terror

By Alyson Brodsy and Matt Kelley · Friday, Nov. 15,2002 12:20 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The United States is "prepared and concerned" about possible Iraq-sponsored terrorist attacks on America if President Bush orders a war to disarm Saddam Hussein, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday.

Staples gives in to paper protest

By Julia Balnford and Julia Blanford · Friday, Nov. 15,2002 12:13 a.m.

Since 2000, nationwide Staples office-supply stores have been subject to over 600 demonstrations and tens of thousands of letters and phone calls to the CEOs in a fight over the sale of recycled paper. A recent decision by Staples has the company phasing out the sale of paper made from endangered forests in North America and phasing in the sale of more forest-friendly paper.

Audiotapes raise questions

By Abdullah AlShihri and John J. Lumpkin · Thursday, Nov. 14,2002 11:57 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate's top Democrat said Thursday that the failure of U.S. authorities to capture Osama bin Laden raises questions about "whether or not we are winning the war on terror." Sen. Tom Daschle's remarks came as intelligence analysts concluded that a new audiotape almost certainly contained bin Laden's voice and is proof that he is alive.

Bomb explodes too near

By Dan Cohen · Thursday, Nov. 14,2002 11:56 p.m.

The type of greeting I usually receive when I return home from running errands is at most a hello or if Dad is home, a quick, one-armed effortless hug. My brothers won't even make eye contact until something is said directly to or affecting them.

Rise in birth rate requested

By Abdullah AlShihri and Nicole Winfield · Thursday, Nov. 14,2002 11:55 p.m.

ROME -- Pope John Paul II delivered a historic speech to the Italian parliament Thursday, urging Italians to have more children to reverse the country's declining birth rate. It was the first time a pope has addressed Italy's legislature. In the speech, the pontiff also called on authorities to show prisoners "a gesture of clemency" by reducing their sentences and repeated his call for the new European Union constitution to recognize Christianity's tradition on the continent.

Country collapses in on bishop

By Abdullah AlShihri and Vanessa Arrington · Thursday, Nov. 14,2002 1:15 a.m.

ZIPAQUIRA, Colombia -- The Colombian government pledged an all-out effort Wednesday to find a bishop and prelate kidnapped by suspected rebels earlier this week. The pope "vehemently" called for their release.

NASA finds leak that led to shuttle's delay

By Abdullah AlShihri · Thursday, Nov. 14,2002 1:15 a.m.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA has found the oxygen leak that delayed space shuttle Endeavour's launch earlier this week, but now is trying to determine whether the ship's robot arm was damaged during inspections.

Iraq accepts UN resolution, return of inspectors

By Abdullah AlShihri and Edith M. Lederer · Thursday, Nov. 14,2002 1:15 a.m.

UNITED NATIONS -- Facing a tight deadline and the threat of war, Iraq accepted a tough, new U.N. resolution on Wednesday that will return weapons inspectors to the country after nearly four years. Iraq's U.N. ambassador said his country hadn't placed any conditions on the resolution's terms. In an argumentative and sometimes threatening nine-page acceptance letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri attacked the United States and Britain, the co-sponsors of the resolution, and called the U.N. action unjust and illegal. But he declared nonetheless that Baghdad would abide by the resolution.

House approves homeland security bill in victory for Bush

By Abdullah AlShihri and Alan Fram · Thursday, Nov. 14,2002 12:31 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The House voted emphatically Wednesday to create a Homeland Security Department, propelling President Bush nearer his goal of answering last year's terrorist attacks with the biggest restructuring of government in half a century. The 299-121 roll call -- and a pair of favorable procedural votes in the Democratic-run Senate -- signaled that lawmakers were ready to award a legislative triumph to a president whose hand was strengthened by Republican victories in last week's congressional elections.