-- MySQL dump 10.8 -- -- Host: localhost Database: cnn -- ------------------------------------------------------ -- Server version 4.1.7-standard /*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT=@@CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT */; /*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS=@@CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS */; /*!40101 SET @OLD_COLLATION_CONNECTION=@@COLLATION_CONNECTION */; /*!40101 SET NAMES utf8 */; /*!40014 SET @OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS=@@UNIQUE_CHECKS, UNIQUE_CHECKS=0 */; /*!40014 SET @OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@@FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS, FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0 */; /*!40101 SET @OLD_SQL_MODE=@@SQL_MODE, SQL_MODE="NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO" */; -- -- Table structure for table `cnnarticles` -- DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `cnnarticles`; CREATE TABLE `cnnarticles` ( `uid` int(50) NOT NULL auto_increment, `url` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '', `article_date` date NOT NULL default '0000-00-00', `checked_at` datetime default NULL, `title` varchar(255) default NULL, `dates` text, `complete_text` text, `section` varchar(255) default NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`uid`) ) TYPE=MyISAM; -- -- Dumping data for table `cnnarticles` -- -- WHERE: uid > 7015 /*!40000 ALTER TABLE `cnnarticles` DISABLE KEYS */; INSERT INTO `cnnarticles` VALUES (7016,'/2004/US/12/29/laser.plane/index.html','2004-12-30','2005-01-13 01:06:04','Six commercial airliners in the past four days have had their cockpits illuminated by laser beams while attempting to land, a government official told CNN Wednesday.','2004 A report for the FAA in June 2004 examined the effect of laser \n','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Six commercial airliners in the past four days have had their cockpits illuminated by laser beams while attempting to land, a government official told CNN Wednesday.\n\nThe incidents have happened all over the place and in kind of odd places, the official said without elaborating.\n\nNone of the flights was affected. \n\nThe government official, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity, said it was unclear whether this weeks incidents were the result of kids who got a laser light for Christmas or whether there is some deliberate attempt to target aircraft.\n\nThe cockpit of a Continental Airlines 737 was illuminated by a laser Monday as it approached Cleveland, authorities said.\n\nFBI spokesman Bob Hawk said the light, which shined into the cockpit at around 8 p.m., came from a suburb about 15 miles from the airport. \n\nThe FBI said no harm was done and the light did not affect the planes landing.\n\nOn November 22, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security sent an intelligence bulletin to police agencies to alert them that terrorist groups have shown an interest in using laser beams to try to bring down airliners.\n\nTerrorist groups overseas have expressed interest in using these devices against human sight, the bulletin said. The U.S. intelligence community has no specific or credible evidence that terrorists intend to use lasers to target pilots in the homeland.\n\nThe bulletin said lasers were not a proven method of attacking aircraft but that they could lead to a crash.\n\nIn certain circumstances, if laser weapons adversely affect the eyesight of both pilot and co-pilot during a non-instrument approach, there is a risk of airliner crash, the bulletin said.\n\nIt is against federal law to intentionally shine a laser beam at a commercial airline flight.\n\nIn September, a Delta Air Lines pilot reported damage to his retina from a laser beam during a landing in Salt Lake City, Utah.\n\nA report for the FAA in June 2004 examined the effect of laser beams on pilots. Of 34 pilots who were exposed to lasers during simulated flights, 67 percent experienced adverse visual effects at even the lowest level of laser exposure. Two high exposure levels resulted in significantly greater performance difficulties and nine aborted landings.\n\nThe potential for an aviation accident definitely exists, said the report.','US'),(7017,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/03/cabinet.main/index.html','2004-12-04','2005-01-13 01:06:57','At the urging of President Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has agreed to remain in his Cabinet post, a senior administration official said Friday.','2001rist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath. His br\n2001-09-11errorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their af\n','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- At the urging of President Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has agreed to remain in his Cabinet post, a senior administration official said Friday.\n\nThe official said the president asked Rumsfeld, 72, to stay during a weekly meeting on Monday because the nation is at war and he is the best person for the job.\n\nRumsfeld has said he wants to finish his reforms at the Pentagon and continue overseeing the Iraq war and that countrys hoped-for transformation.\n\nEarlier in the day, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson resigned, becoming the eighth member of Bushs 15-member Cabinet to step down since Bush won re-election. (Full story)\n\nFriday morning, Bush nominated Bernard Kerik to lead the Department of Homeland Security, his latest move to restock his Cabinet for the second term.\n\nBush called the former New York City police commissioner a dedicated, innovative reformer who insists on getting results.\n\nHe cited Keriks work in New York where Bush said Kerik had great success in reducing crime in New York City.\n\nKerik, 49, also led the New York City Police Department through the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath.\n\nHis broad practical hands-on experience makes Bernie superbly qualified to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Bush said. (Profile)\n\nI am deeply humbled and honored for the opportunity to serve you and this great country, Kerik said in accepting the nomination. Should I receive the consent of the Senate, I will devote every power I possess toward fulfilling the vital mission you have set before me and the Department of Homeland Security.\n\nAn administration official said New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani made personal pitches to the White House at least twice on Keriks behalf.\n\nA senior administration official described Kerik as a proven crisis manager with credibility and firsthand understanding of the war on terror.\n\nThe country is well aware of his courageous service in responding to the World Trade Center attack, his efforts to coordinate rescue and recovery work at Ground Zero, the senior administration official said.\n\nKerik would succeed Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, 59, who announced his resignation Tuesday. (Full story)\n\nNew Yorks two senators, both Democrats, expressed support for Kerik.\n\nIf ever a state deserves to have a citizen appointed to [head the Department of] Homeland Security, it is New York, said Sen. Charles Schumer.\n\nBernard Kerik knows firsthand the challenges and needs of New York and other high-threat areas, Sen. Hillary Clinton said in a statement. As a member of the presidents Cabinet, he can make that case every single day.\n\nNew York officials have long complained that they receive an inadequate share of federal Homeland Security money, given the fact that the nations largest city faces a heightened threat from terrorists. Other resignations\n\nAttorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, have also announced they\re leaving.\n\nAnd this week, John Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, announced he will leave his post in January after less than seven months on the job. (Full story)\n\nSo far, Bush has tapped five replacements. He nominated White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed Ashcroft, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to take over at the State Department, domestic policy adviser Margaret Spellings to replace Paige and Carlos Gutierrez to be the next commerce secretary.\n\nOn Thursday, Bush nominated Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns to be the new secretary of agriculture. (Full story)\n\nAll of the Cabinet nominees must be confirmed by the Senate.\n\nCNNs Elaine Quijano and Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report. ','ALLPOLITICS'),(7018,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/02/danforth.resigns/index.html','2004-12-03','2005-01-13 01:07:12','John Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will leave his post in January after less than seven months on the job.','2001adviser Condoleezza Rice. In 2001, Bush appointed Danforth as h\n1994the Senate before retiring in 1994 and returning to his law prac\n','\n\nUNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- John Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will leave his post in January after less than seven months on the job.\n\nIn a letter of resignation sent to President Bush on November 22, Danforth said he wanted to return home to St. Louis to spend more time with his wife. Sally Danforth has recently had health problems. (Text of resignation letter)\n\nForty-seven years ago, I married the girl of my dreams, and, at this point in my life, what is more important to me is to spend more time with her, Danforth said in his letter to Bush. Because you know Sally, you know my reason for going home.\n\nDanforth, 68, said he plans to leave the United Nations on January 20, the day Bush will be inaugurated for a second term. He told Bush he would still be available for short-term assignments.\n\nA former U.S. senator from Missouri, Danforth was sworn in as Americas U.N. ambassador in July, replacing John Negroponte, who became the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq.\n\nDanforth had been mentioned as a possible choice to succeed outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell, but Bush opted to instead appoint national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.\n\nIn 2001, Bush appointed Danforth as his envoy to help mediate between warring factions in Sudan. Last month, with Danforth holding the presidency of the U.N. Security Council, members traveled from New York to Nairobi, Kenya, for a special session on the Sudan crisis.\n\nThe U.S. ambassador has been pressing U.N. members to take a stronger stand against human rights abuses in the African country.\n\nGermanys U.N. ambassador, Gunter Pleuger, praised Danforth.\n\nAlthough John Danforth has been with us only for a very short time, Pleuger said, we really liked him as a very open and accessible colleague and we are very sorry to see him go. \n\nDanforth, a Republican, served three terms in the Senate before retiring in 1994 and returning to his law practice. He is also an ordained Episcopal priest, and he presided at the state funeral for former President Ronald Reagan in June, shortly after being nominated to the U.N. post.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7019,'/2003/WORLD/meast/08/05/cnna.irq.kerik/index.html','2003-08-05','2005-01-13 01:07:37','Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik has been working with Coalition Provisional Authority officials in Iraq to rebuild the countrys police force.','','','WORLDmeast'),(7020,'/2003/WORLD/meast/05/30/cnna.irq.kerik/index.html','2003-05-30','2005-01-13 01:07:49','Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik is in Baghdad to advise the U.S. and Iraqi officials working to rebuild the countrys police force. He discussed with CNNs Bill Hemmer on Friday the issues the new force will face.','','','WORLDmeast'),(7021,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/02/bush.cabinet.ap/index.html','2004-12-05','2005-01-13 01:07:55','President Bush on Thursday selected Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns, a Republican attorney who grew up on an Iowa dairy farm, as secretary of Agriculture to oversee the nations farm and food programs.','1991ayor of Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1991. He won the governors offic\n1998e in 1998 and in 2002 became the first \n2002 and in 2002 became the first \n2001 Weeks after taking office in 2001, an outbreak of foot-and-mout\n2006Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson in 2006. Johanns graduated with a ba\n1971lege in Winona, Minnesota, in 1971. He earned a law degree from \n1974Creighton University in 1974 and was a clerk for Nebraska \n1970. He practiced law in the mid-1970s and became a partner in the L\n1977rris, Holdeman & Titus in 1977. First a Democrat, Johanns w\n1982ter Board of Commissioners in 1982. He left the board in 1987 an\n1987. He left the board in 1987 an\n1988d became a Republican in 1988. Before becoming mayor of Lin\n1989n the Lincoln City Council in 1989 as an at-large member.\n2001-09-11d States. After the September 11 attacks that year, \n','\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Thursday selected Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns, a Republican attorney who grew up on an Iowa dairy farm, as secretary of Agriculture to oversee the nations farm and food programs.\n\nBush said Johanns was an experienced public servant from Americas agricultural heartland with a long record of being a faithful friend to Americas farmers.\n\nJohanns, 54, would succeed Ann M. Veneman, who recently announced her resignation despite saying earlier that she wanted to stay.\n\nSo far, seven of Bushs 15-member Cabinet have announced they won be part of the second term. More are expected, and administration officials say Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson appears to be next.\n\nBush announced his intention to nominate the two-term governor in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.\n\nThe nomination, which requires Senate confirmation, reflects the administrations desire to focus heavily on farm trade over the next four years.\n\nAs his wife Stephanie looked on, Johanns thanked Bush for inviting him to serve, saying I have enormous respect for you.\n\nI look forward to advancing your rural agenda for the 21st century, Johanns said.\n\nBorn in Iowa and raised on a dairy farm, Johanns became a lawyer and served in county and city government before becoming mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1991. He won the governors office in 1998 and in 2002 became the first Republican to win re-election in more than four decades.\n\nIm very proud of my ag background. I do feel that those years on that dairy farm did much to define who I am as a person, Johanns said.\n\nAs governor, Johanns led a delegation of Nebraskas farm and business leaders on a trade mission to Japan, Taiwan, China, Singapore and a half dozen other countries.\n\nBush said that in his second term, he would put a high priority on helping farm families, including keeping taxes low and working to repeal the estate tax.\n\nBush praised Veneman, saying she had done a good job in dealing with agricultural issues, including fighting hunger, improvements in school nutrition programs, protecting forests and leading efforts to prevent the spread of mad cow disease when the nations first case was reported a year ago.\n\nVenman earned the trust of farmers and ranchers across America, Bush said.\n\nVeneman, a peach farmers daughter who became the first woman to the head the Agriculture Department, presided during a period of unprecedented wariness about the safety of the nations food supply. \n\nWeeks after taking office in 2001, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Europe prompted Veneman to increase inspections and testing to prevent its arrival in the United States. After the September 11 attacks that year, concern grew that terrorists might seek to contaminate the nations food supply.\n\nIn the only confirmed U.S. case of mad-cow disease, a Canadian-born Holstein was found to have been infected in Washington state last December. \n\nVeneman quickly upgraded the countrys defenses, banning high-risk meat products and meat from cows that could not stand or walk on their own, testing more cattle and promising to speed a nationwide animal tracking system.\n\nJohanns had been considered a possible challenger to Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson in 2006.\n\nJohanns graduated with a bachelors degree from St. Marys College in Winona, Minnesota, in 1971. He earned a law degree from Creighton University in 1974 and was a clerk for Nebraska Supreme Court Judge Hale McCown. He practiced law in the mid-1970s and became a partner in the Lincoln law firm of Nelson, Johanns, Morris, Holdeman & Titus in 1977.\n\nFirst a Democrat, Johanns was elected to, and served as chairman of, the Lancaster Board of Commissioners in 1982. He left the board in 1987 and became a Republican in 1988. Before becoming mayor of Lincoln, he served on the Lincoln City Council in 1989 as an at-large member.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7022,'/2005/BUSINESS/01/12/earnings.apple.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 01:08:01','Apple Computer Inc.s first-quarter earnings have more than quadrupled, dramatically exceeding Wall Street expectations, based on strong holiday sales of laptop computers and its wildly popular iPod music players.','2003t from the holiday quarter of 2003. iPods have made Apple a Wal\n2001 million since their debut in 2001. In the past year, Apples \n','SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- Apple Computer Inc.s first-quarter earnings have more than quadrupled, dramatically exceeding Wall Street expectations, based on strong holiday sales of laptop computers and its wildly popular iPod music players.\n\nCompany shares soared nearly 12 percent Wednesday in extremely heavy late trading.\n\nFor the three months ended December 25, Apple said it earned $295 million, or 70 cents per share. In the same period last year, the company earned $63 million, or 17 cents per share.\n\nRevenue for the quarter was $3.49 billion, up nearly 75 percent from $2 billion in the year-ago quarter.\n\nAnalysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had projected earnings of 49 cents a share on revenue of $3.18 billion.\n\nWe came in quite a bit stronger than we guided, and Id attribute that to the fantastic results of iPod, said Peter Oppenheimer, Apples chief financial officer.\n\nApple, which holds $2.48 billion in cash, said Wednesday that it shipped a record 271,000 iBook laptops last quarter. \n\nIt collected more than $1.2 billion from 4.58 million iPods, a 525 percent boost from the holiday quarter of 2003.\n\niPods have made Apple a Wall Street darling, and the company has sold more than 10 million since their debut in 2001.\n\nIn the past year, Apples stock has tripled, and the company holds 65 percent of the hard drive-based portable music player market.\n\nAnalysts are expecting scorching sales. In a research report Wednesday, Darcy Travlos of Caris & Co. called the new items nothing short of brilliant.\n\nNew products will contribute positively to both revenue and margins, Travlos wrote. Apple is in front of the curve.\n\nApple shares climbed 90 cents, or 1.4 percent, to close Wednesday at $65.46 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. In extended trading after the earnings report was released, the stock gained another $7.64, or 11.7 percent.\n\nThe earnings came a day after Apple introduced a cut-rate computer the size of a paperback. The 40-gigabyte Mac mini will cost $499, an 80-gigabyte model $599.\n\nThe units, which go on sale January 22, mark Apples most brazen attempt to woo entry-level technology shoppers away from computers that rely on the Microsoft Windows operating system.\n\nApple has only 3 percent of the U.S. computer market, and company executives say they\re aiming with the Mac mini to woo PC users who may have felt Apple products were too expensive.\n\nThe bare-bones minis are smaller than some stand-alone external computer drives and do not come with monitors, mice or keyboards.\n\nApple also introduced Tuesday the tiny iPod shuffle, which starts at $99 and seeks to maintain Apples dominance in the portable music business.\n\nThe shuffle is a flash memory-based digital music player, more durable and lightweight than iPods that use hard drives for storage.\n\nThe shuffle is smaller than most packs of chewing gum, weighs less than an ounce and is a third of an inch thick. It has no display -- only a scroll wheel for the controls so stored songs can either be played sequentially or automatically shuffled in random order.\n\nBut Apple executives warned that adding two new products would make it difficult to provide accurate financial guidance for upcoming quarters. They would not provide estimates on sales or even say how many minis and shuffles their factories could produce.\n\nWe\re very pleased with the reception that we\re getting today, said Timothy Cook, executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations. But frankly its too early to gauge demand on these.\n\nProfit margins on the mini and shuffle are lower than the companys 27 percent gross margins. Although Apple executives wouldn provide many details, analysts speculate the shuffle margin is about 20 percent, and the mini is as low as 18 percent.\n\nIn a conference call Wednesday, Oppenheimer warned financial analysts not to expect a repeat of the last quarters revenue growth of nearly 75 percent.\n\nIts our objective to grow at 15 percent or better, Oppenheimer told analysts. As you model the company, that would be something to think about.\n\n','BUSINESS'),(7023,'/2005/BUSINESS/01/12/argentina.debt.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 01:08:18','Three years after declaring the biggest default by a sovereign nation, Argentina has launched a marketing blitz urging investors worldwide to accept new terms for restructuring more than $100 billion in debt.','2001 public debt in late December 2001 after days of deadly street r\n2003chner, who took office in May 2003, has adopted a hardline stanc\n1990estructured their debt in the 1990s. For Argentine businesses, a\n','BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Three years after declaring the biggest default by a sovereign nation, Argentina has launched a marketing blitz urging investors worldwide to accept new terms for restructuring more than $100 billion in debt.\n\nArgentinas government has proposed to pay as little as 25c on every dollar borrowed.\n\nOpening a campaign aimed at winning over bondholders, Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna was expected to detail the countrys final offer that is to be rolled out to investors worldwide on Friday.\n\nThe restructuring -- considered the most complex and largest of its kind -- will see Argentina issue between $38.5 billion and $41.8 billion in new restructured debt with lower interest rates and longer maturities.\n\nBut the proposed deal has met resistance by some foreign bondholders angry over the deep losses they are being asked to assume.\n\nThe debt swap is being closely watched on Wall Street and in Europe as a potential case study of how emerging markets hit by financial turmoil grapple with creditors and how far they can go in dictating terms of repayment.\n\nArgentina, South Americas second-largest economy and one of the worlds largest producers of beef and soybeans, halted payment on its public debt in late December 2001 after days of deadly street riots and political unrest sparked by economic turmoil.\n\nAt the height of the crisis, the government also froze bank accounts and devalued the currency in a move that saw nearly half of the country pushed into poverty.\n\nSince then, President Nestor Kirchner, who took office in May 2003, has adopted a hardline stance with creditors, arguing a larger payout could threaten the countrys two-year economic recovery. He also said it could siphon off funds for badly needed social programs.\n\nKirchners stance has put him at odds with the International Monetary Fund and raised calls from creditors for an improved offer. Many argue the country can increase payment now that the economy is growing again.\n\nLast year, the economy expanded by 8.5 percent, generating a tax revenue windfall that could be used to improve repayment terms with bondholders, economists say.\n\nBut Argentine officials have described the offer paying from 25 cents to 30 cents on the dollar as its final proposal -- a message they say will be repeated during a global roadshow in the coming weeks when officials travel to the United States and Europe to promote it.\n\nThis roadshow as we see it is instrumental, in terms of making the exchange available for all bondholders that want to get valuable paper back, Guillermo Neilsen, Argentinas chief debt negotiator, told Dow Jones Newswires.\n\nWe know that we have to convince some people. I myself have to behave like a preacher in the sense of preaching the gospel of the new Argentina and conveying to participants that this is the best we can do, he said. \n\nWe cannot turn the clock backward. We are offering a solution.\n\nTo be successful, analysts say Argentine officials need to convince at least 70 percent to 75 percent of creditors to accept the offer -- a goal many say could be achievable in part because of investor fatigue over the often-acrimonious talks now stretching into a fourth year.\n\nBut a leading group of individual bondholders in Argentina has called on other creditors to turn down the offer.\n\nIn a statement, the group known as the Association for Those Condemned by the Default and Pesification said the terms are totally ruinous for those who accept them.\n\nThis makes it easier for future governments to not comply with payments, the Argentine group added.\n\nArgentines hold most of the defaulted debt, or 38.4 percent, followed by European, U.S. and Japanese bondholders.\n\nMany of the bondholders contend the loss would be much greater than other deals offered by Ecuador and Russia after those countries restructured their debt in the 1990s.\n\nFor Argentine businesses, any eventual restructuring would mean a reopening of credit lines to help accelerate the economys expansion.\n\nUntil now, Argentina has seen its economy return to growth without tapping into international credit markets thanks in large part to a spike in prices for its agricultural commodities.\n\n','BUSINESS'),(7024,'/2005/BUSINESS/01/12/asia.stox.open.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 01:08:24','Tokyo stocks opened lower Thursday as the U.S. dollar declined against the yen and the euro.','','TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Tokyo stocks opened lower Thursday as the U.S. dollar declined against the yen and the euro.\n\nThe benchmark Nikkei Stock Average of 225 selected issues was down 54.45 points, or 0.48 percent, at 11,398.94 points shortly after the open. On Wednesday, the index lost 86.60 points, or 0.75 percent.\n\nThe dollar bought 102.48 yen at 9 a.m. (0900 GMT) Thursday, down 0.76 yen from late Wednesday but above the 102.38 yen it bought in New York overnight.\n\nStocks fell due to concerns about the dollars weakness against the yen and the euro. The U.S. currency fell overnight in New York due to an unexpected widening of the November U.S. trade deficit.\n\nA weaker dollar hurts Japanese exporters overseas earnings when converted back into yen.\n\nThe U.S. trade data Wednesday showed a new record deficit of $60.3 billion in November versus a consensus for a narrowing to $53.6 billion. \n\nThe October trade gap was revised up to $56.0 billion from $55.4 billion. The record trade gap fueled market concerns about the current account deficit, which has been the main factor driving the dollar down in recent months.\n\nThe euro rose to $1.3263 early Thursday in Tokyo from $1.3117 late Wednesday. The euro also rose against the Japanese currency, to 135.79 yen from 135.44 yen.\n\nU.S. stocks, however, gained Wednesday as investors focused on strong earnings news from Intel Corp. instead of a government report that high oil prices and lower exports had pushed the U.S. trade deficit to a record level.\n\nThe Dow Jones industrial average was up 61.56, or 0.58 percent, at 10,617.78. The Nasdaq composite index rose 12.91, or 0.62 percent, to 2,092.53.\n\nIn Tokyo early Thursday, the index of all issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchanges first section fell 3.65 points, or 0.32 percent, to 1,144.24 points. The TOPIX lost 9.41 points, or 0.81 percent, the day before.\n\nThe yield on Japans benchmark 10-year government bond was unchanged from Wednesdays finish of 1.3600 percent, with the price of 100.34 points.\n\n','BUSINESS'),(7025,'/2004/WORLD/meast/12/08/rumsfeld.troops/index.html','2004-12-09','2005-01-13 01:08:41','U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld faced tough questioning Wednesday from troops about to be deployed to Iraq.','2003month. This is up from August 2003 when only 15 per month were m\n','\n\n(CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld faced tough questioning Wednesday from troops about to be deployed to Iraq.\n\nSoldiers at Camp Buehring, a staging area in the Kuwait desert, peppered Rumsfeld with queries about the standard of equipment they would be using and about the Pentagons stop-loss policy, which prevents troops from leaving the military service even if they are eligible to retire or quit.\n\nOne soldier, identified by The Associated Press as Army Spc. Thomas Wilson of the 278th Regimental Combat Team, a Tennessee National Guard outfit, asked Rumsfeld why more military combat vehicles were not reinforced for battle conditions.\n\nWhy do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles? Wilson asked.\n\nThe question prompted cheers from some of the approximately 2,300 troops assembled in the large hangar to hear Rumsfeld deliver a pep talk at what the Pentagon called a town hall meeting.\n\nRumsfeld said armored military vehicles have been brought to the region from all over the world, from where they\re not needed to a place they\re needed.\n\nIn Washington, Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said about 450 armored Humvees are being produced each month. This is up from August 2003 when only 15 per month were made.\n\nThats about the time commanders in Iraq started asking for them because of the increased use of roadside bombs by insurgents.\n\nIts essentially a matter of physics, not a matter of money, Rumsfeld said. Its a matter of production and the capability of doing it.\n\nIn April, the Pentagon said it was spending $400 million to replace the Armys thin-skinned Humvees in Iraq with the so-called uparmored reinforced versions. \n\nAs you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want, Rumsfeld said.\n\nHe added, You can have all the armor in the world on a tank, and it can [still] be blown up.\n\nRumsfelds response to the question drew quick criticism from one Democratic legislator.\n\nSen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut said he sent a letter to Rumsfeld asking whether the military met a self-imposed July 31 deadline to fully armor the troops.\n\nI understand how you may be forced into a situation earlier than youd like where you might not have everything you want, but its now going into the third year, Dodd said.\n\nInitial war estimates said U.S. forces might need as many as 800 heavily armored vehicles in Iraq, but current estimates call for as many as 6,000, said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Don Shepperd, a CNN military analyst.\n\nThe command over there basically distributes the armored vehicles to those they think that need them the most, Shepperd said. Everybody would like to have one, but theres simply not enough in theater right now.\n\nMaj. Gen. Gary Speer, deputy commanding general of U.S. forces in Kuwait, told the AP that as far as he knows vehicles going to Iraq from Kuwaits Camp Buehring have at least Level 3 armor.\n\nThese vehicles would have locally fabricated armor for side panels, but not necessarily bulletproof windows or protection against blasts through floorboards, according to the AP.\n\nSpeer said he wasn aware of anyone looking through landfills for scrap metal and glass, the AP reported.\n\nMaj. Gen. Gus L. Hargett, adjutant general, or commander, of the Tennessee National Guard, disputed Speers comments.\n\nI know that members of his staff were aware and assisted the 278th in obtaining these materials, Hargett said in a news release.\n\nAbout 19,000 armored Humvees are in the Central Commands area of operations, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan, Di Rita said. That is about 2,000 short of what commanders have requested, he said.\n\nDi Rita pointed out it is Pentagon policy that troops driving Humvees into Iraq drive only armored vehicles. Unarmored Humvees are transported into the country on flatbed trucks and used only inside compounds and other relatively safe areas, he said.\n\nThe Army has about $1.2 billion in its budget for armored Humvees and armor kits, Di Rita said.\n\nAnother soldier asked Rumsfeld about the stop-loss order. Critics of the policy have called it a backdoor draft. A group of soldiers filed a lawsuit this week challenging the policy.\n\nMy husband and myself both joined a volunteer Army, said the woman, who identified herself as a staff sergeant in a logistics unit from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Currently, Im serving under the stop-loss. I would like to know how much longer you foresee the military using this program.\n\nRumsfeld said the policy is something you prefer not to have to use in a perfect world.\n\nIts based on unit cohesion, Rumsfeld said. The principle is that -- in the event there is something that requires a unit to be involved in, and people are in a personal situation where their time was ending -- they put a stop-loss on it so cohesion is maintained.\n\nHe did not specify how long the stop-loss order would continue.\n\nIts basically a sound principle. Its nothing new; its been well understood by soldiers, Rumsfeld said. My guess is it will continue to be used as little as possible, but that it will continue to be used.\n\nAbout 7,000 U.S. soldiers have been affected by the stop-loss order, Army officials said.\n\nCNNs Mike Mount contributed to this report.Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.','WORLDmeast'),(7026,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/19/rumsfeld.ap/index.html','2004-12-20','2005-01-13 01:08:47','Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld should shoulder his share of blame for escalating problems in Iraq but leading senators on two key committees say he should not step down -- yet.','2003 since the war began in March 2003. Meanwhile, soldiers have com\n','\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld should shoulder his share of blame for escalating problems in Iraq but leading senators on two key committees say he should not step down -- yet.\n\nA growing number of lawmakers have issued statements of no-confidence in Rumsfeld, but Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, the Armed Services Committee chairman, said a change of civilian leadership at the Pentagon now would be too disruptive, given the scheduled January 30 elections in Iraq.\n\nWe should not at this point in time entertain any idea of changing those responsibilities, he told NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday.\n\nThe committees ranking Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, said Monday that problems in the conduct of the war in Iraq and its aftermath were caused by the administrations wrongheaded policies and should therefore be laid at President Bushs door.\n\nIf I thought those policies would change by changing the secretary of defense, Id be all for it, Levin said on CNN. But I don see that that is the ticket to policy changes.\n\nSen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday, We really can go through that ordeal now of finding a successor. Rumsfeld should be held accountable, and he should stay in office, Lugar said.\n\nSen. Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska, saying he had no confidence in Rumsfeld, nevertheless stopped short of calling on the secretary to step down. I find it astounding. ... Things are worse than theyve ever been in Iraq, Hagel said on CBS Face the Nation. He said it was up to President Bush whether to replace Rumsfeld.\n\nMore than 1,300 American troops have died since the war began in March 2003. Meanwhile, soldiers have complained about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment.\n\nRumsfelds since-abandoned use of a mechanical device to sign letters of condolence had added to the criticism by Hagel, a Vietnam veteran, and others.\n\nRumsfeld, who agreed to Bushs request this month to stay in the Cabinet during the presidents second term, won a vote of confidence from the White House on Sunday.\n\nSecretary Rumsfeld is doing a spectacular job, White House chief of staff Andrew Card told ABCs This Week.\n\nThe president has provided good direction for our military, and Secretary Rumsfeld is transforming our military to meet the threats of the 21st century, Card said.\n\nCritics have raised questions again about whether enough U.S. troops are in Iraq to bring security. Iraqs interim president, Ghazi al-Yawar, said last week the U.S.-led coalition made a mistake by dismantling Iraqi security forces after last years invasion.\n\nIraqi leaders have also said that former army officers and police officers with clean records should be reinstated to help organize the Iraqi military.\n\nLevin said he supported that idea, and the United States also must reach out to Arab countries to help persuade Iraqs Muslims of the Sunni sect to participate in the election despite the increased violence.\n\nThe administrations biggest mistake in Iraq was the rapid disbanding of military forces after Saddam Husseins regime was toppled and not trying to maintain some of it in place to have continuity and to rapidly put together a security force, Warner said.\n\nRumsfelds performance has also come under criticism from Republican Sens. Trent Lott of Mississippi and John McCain of Arizona, among others, as well as Democrats.\n\nLott said last week that Rumsfeld did not listen to uniformed officers and that Bush should make a change at the Pentagon in the next year or so.\n\nWarner said Sunday that Bush should stay the course, especially with the Iraqi vote next month.\n\nWe are going to have a tough period after that election, and we should press our confidence in the commander in chief and his principal subordinates, he said.Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7027,'/2004/WORLD/meast/12/21/iraq.scene.ap/index.html','2004-12-21','2005-01-13 01:09:02','It was a brilliant, sunny day with blue skies and warmer than usual weather in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.','','\n\nMOSUL, Iraq (AP) -- It was a brilliant, sunny day with blue skies and warmer than usual weather in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.\n\nHundreds of U.S. soldiers had just sat down for lunch in their giant mess hall tent.\n\nIt was about noon Tuesday when insurgents hit their tent with a rocket attack.\n\nSoldiers were knocked off their feet and out of their seats. A fireball enveloped the top of the tent, and shrapnel sprayed into the men. Twenty-two people were killed.\n\nAmid the screaming and thick smoke that followed, quick-thinking soldiers turned their lunch tables upside down, placed the wounded on them and gently carried them into the parking lot.\n\nMedic! Medic! soldiers shouted.\n\nMedics rushed into the tent and hustled the rest of the wounded out on stretchers.\n\nScores of troops crammed into concrete bomb shelters outside. Others wobbled around the tent and collapsed.\n\nI can hear! I can hear! one female soldier cried as a friend hugged her.\n\nNear the front entrance to the chow hall, troops tended a soldier with a gaping head wound. Within minutes, they zipped him into a black body bag. Three more bodies were in the parking lot.\n\nThe military asked that the dead not be identified until families could be notified. \n\nSoldiers scrambled back into the hall to check for more wounded. The attack blew a huge hole in the roof of the tent. Puddles of bright red blood, lunch trays and overturned tables and chairs covered the floor.\n\nGrim-faced soldiers growled angrily about the attack as they stomped away.\n\nMother [expletive]! one mumbled.\n\nSgt. Evan Byler, of the Richmond, Virginia-based 276th Engineer Battalion, steadied himself on one of the concrete bomb shelters. He was eating chicken tenders and macaroni when the bomb hit. The blast knocked him out of his chair. When the smoke cleared, Byler took off his shirt and wrapped it around a seriously wounded soldier.\n\nByler held the bloody shirt in his hand, not quite sure what to do with it.\n\nIts not the first close call I have had here, said Byler, who survived a blast from a roadside bomb while riding in a vehicle earlier this year.\n\nByler saw a soldier collapse from shock on the side of the road. Byler and Lt. Shawn Otto put the grieving soldier on a passing pickup truck.\n\nThe 276th, with about 500 troops, had made it a year without losing a soldier and is preparing to return home in about a month.\n\nWe almost made it. We almost made it to the end without getting somebody killed, Otto said glumly.\n\nInsurgents have fired mortars at the chow hall more than 30 times this year. During the summer, one round killed a female soldier as she scrambled for cover in one of the concrete bomb shelters. Workers are building a new steel and concrete chow hall for the soldiers just down the dusty dirt road.\n\nLt. Dawn Wheeler was waiting in line for chicken tenders when a round hit on the other side of a wall from her. A soldier who had been standing beside her was on the ground, struggling with shrapnel buried deep in his neck.\n\nWe all have angels on us, she said as she pulled away in a Humvee.\n\nMaj. James Zollar, the units acting commander, spoke to more than a dozen of his officers in a voice thick with emotion. He urged them to keep their troops focused on their missions.\n\nThis is a tragic, tragic thing for us, but we still have missions, he told them. Its us, the leaders, who have to pull them together.\n\nJust hours before the blast, Zollar had awarded a Purple Heart to a soldier from the 276th who was wounded in a mortar attack on another part of the base in October.\n\nZollar eventually turned the emergency meeting over to Chaplain Eddie Barnett. He led the group in prayer.\n\nHelp us now, God, in this time of this very tragic circumstance, Barnett said. We pray for your healing upon our wounded soldiers.\n\nWith heads hung low, the soldiers trudged outside. They had work to do.Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.','WORLDmeast'),(7028,'/2004/WORLD/meast/12/21/britain.iraq/index.html','2004-12-21','2005-01-13 01:09:14','In his first trip to Baghdad, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has pleaded with world leaders to come together in support of Iraqs upcoming elections, saying there is a clear choice "between democracy and terror."','','\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- In his first trip to Baghdad, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has pleaded with world leaders to come together in support of Iraqs upcoming elections, saying there is a clear choice between democracy and terror.\n\nBlairs surprise visit to the Iraqi capital on Tuesday came amid continuing daily violence and two days after a series of deadly attacks claimed more than 70 lives -- including an election worker. \n\nHours after Blair left at least 22 people were killed and 51 wounded as multiple rounds hit a dining hall at a U.S. military base near Mosul, Pentagon officials said. (Full story)\n\nThose killed in Tuesdays attack include U.S. troops, members of the Iraqi national guard, and Iraqi civilians, officials add.\n\nU.S. and Iraqi authorities have long predicted violence would spike as the January 30 elections approach, saying insurgents want to prevent the development of a democratic government.\n\nBlair said he met with members of the election commission -- and he called them heroes who are risking their lives every day in order to make sure that the people of Iraq get a chance to decide their own destiny.\n\nStanding beside interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi at a news conference, Blair -- President George W. Bushs chief ally in launching the war in Iraq two years ago -- acknowledged the dangers and the fact that much of the world opposed the original invasion.\n\nWhatever peoples feelings or beliefs about the removal of Saddam Hussein and the the wisdom of that, there surely is only one side to be on in what is now very clearly a battle between democracy and terror, he said.\n\nOn the one side you have people who desperately want to make the democratic process work and have the same democratic freedoms other parts of the world enjoy. And on the other side people who are killing and intimidating and trying to destroy a better future for Iraq.\n\nSeventy-four British troops have died since the Iraq war began, according to the British Ministry of Defense. Blair has previously visited his nations troops in southern Iraq.\n\nHis visit to Baghdad was not previously announced to protect his security. Previous visits to Iraq by other top British and U.S. officials, including President Bush, were also not announced in advance.\n\nAn impassioned speaker, Blair argued Tuesday that the entire world has a stake in the success of Iraqs elections.\n\nTerrorists are engaged in a wicked, destructive attempt to derail the elections and prevent democracy, he said. \n\nAnd where should the rest of the world stand? To say Thats your problem, go and look after it or You\re better off having Saddam running the country? As if the only choice they should have in the world is a choice between a brutal dictator killing hundreds of thousands of people or terrorists and insurgents.\n\nThere is another choice for Iraq -- the choice is democracy. The choice is freedom. And our job is to help them get there because thats what they want.\n\nAllawi said Iraqi efforts to improve security and combat the insurgency are improving. What you see now shall disappear in the very near future, he vowed.\n\nHe said the majority of Iraqis want to see the development of democracy, freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. These are the important values that have been brought into Iraq, and for the first time the Iraqis feel the sense of liberty. It is a dream which is coming true.\n\nBlair has faced trouble at home, as the vast majority of his nation opposed the Iraq war. At a news conference with Bush last month, a British reporter asked Blair whether about criticism that he is like a poodle for the Bush administration -- an analogy both he and Bush flatly rejected.\n\nHe used Tuesdays news conference to send a message to his countrymen.\n\nIf Iraq becomes a stable, democratic country and we defeat the terrorism here -- which is the same type of terrorism that we face the world over -- if we defeat it here, we deal it a blow worldwide. If Iraq is a stable and democratic country, that is good for the Middle East. And what is good for the Middle East is actually good for the world, including Britain.Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.','WORLDmeast'),(7029,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/21/iraq.bush.reut/index.html','2004-12-21','2005-01-13 01:09:20','The White House vowed Tuesday that the "enemies of freedom" in Iraq will be defeated as a deadly attack at a U.S. base in northern Iraq presented a fresh challenge for President Bush.','','\n\nWASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The White House vowed Tuesday that the enemies of freedom in Iraq will be defeated as a deadly attack at a U.S. base in northern Iraq presented a fresh challenge for President Bush.\n\nWhite House spokesman Scott McClellan spoke to reporters just as word came from Mosul and before the casualty toll of 22 dead and 50 wounded was known.\n\nA new poll also showed a majority of Americans now believe the Iraq war was not worth fighting.\n\nAs we move forward in helping the Iraqi people build a free and democratic future, the enemies of freedom seek to derail that transition, and its important that we continue to go after the Saddam [Hussein] loyalists and the terrorists who want to turn back to the past, McClellan said.\n\nThey will be defeated.... They are being defeated, he said, adding that it was important U.S. forces continue to adapt to circumstances in Iraq.\n\nThe rocket and mortar attack in Mosul took place as Bush prepared to make a Christmas-time visit to see families of wounded soldiers at a housing facility at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.\n\nIn a sober assessment, Bush warned on Monday that an upsurge in violence in Iraq was a result of those who want to disrupt January 30 elections and said the insurgents strategy was having an effect.\n\nNo question about it, the bombers are having an effect, Bush told a news conference.\n\nAn ABC News/Washington Post poll said on Monday that a majority of Americans now say the war in Iraq was not worth fighting, a view that has driven down the public approval ratings of both Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.\n\nThe president has never been one to govern based on polls. Polls are snapshots in time, and we are working to continue to build upon the progress being made in Iraq, McClellan said.\n\nFifty-six percent of those questioned, a new high, said the cost of the war outweighed the benefits and was not worth it. \n\nThat was a gain of 7 percentage points from a poll conducted in July.\n\nFifty-seven percent said they disapproved of the way Bush was handling the situation in Iraq and 53 percent disapproved of the way Rumsfeld was doing his job, according to the survey.\n\nHowever, 60 percent said the Iraqi elections scheduled for late January should go forward regardless of the security situation.\n\nThe poll also found that despite growing dissatisfaction with Iraq, most Americans, 58 percent, still say U.S. forces should remain there until order is restored.Copyright 2004 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7030,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/21/bush.mosul/index.html','2004-12-21','2005-01-13 01:09:26','President Bush expressed his "heartfelt condolences" to the families of American troops killed in Tuesdays rocket attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, telling reporters they died in "a vital mission for peace."','','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush expressed his heartfelt condolences to the families of American troops killed in Tuesdays rocket attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, telling reporters they died in a vital mission for peace.\n\nThe explosion at a dining hall on a U.S. military base in Mosul killed 22 people and wounded 57, including Americans and Iraqis, U.S. military officials said. \n\nNineteen U.S. military personnel were among the dead, officials said.\n\nAny time of the year is a time of sorrow and sadness when we lose a loss of life, Bush said after a visit Tuesday with wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. This time of year is particularly sorrowful for the families as we head into the Christmas season.\n\nBut Bush said U.S. troops in Iraq are engaged in a very important and vital mission, to help establish a democratic state in what was a place of tyranny and hatred and destruction.\n\nIm confident democracy will prevail in Iraq, he said. I know a free Iraq will lead to a more peaceful world.\n\nMosul has been a site of repeated attacks in recent weeks. When the U.S. military launched a major offensive in Falluja in November, there was concern some insurgents had fled to Mosul and would launch attacks from there. \n\nThe U.S. military recently conducted an offensive to try to flush out insurgents in Mosul, but the violence has continued.\n\nTuesdays attack came shortly after British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Baghdad on a surprise visit to Iraq.\n\nDuring a news conference on Monday, Bush said terrorists will attempt to delay the Iraqi elections set for January 30. He said terrorists would attempt to intimidate the Iraqi people and to disrupt the democratic process in any way they can.\n\nBut Bush said, Im confident that terrorists will fail, the elections will go forward and Iraq will be a democracy that reflects the values and traditions of its people.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7031,'/2004/WORLD/europe/12/21/france.hostages/index.html','2004-12-21','2005-01-13 01:09:38','Two French journalists held hostage by an Iraqi insurgency group since August have been released, the French Foreign Ministry says.','','\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two French journalists held hostage by an Iraqi insurgency group since August have been released, the French Foreign Ministry says.\n\nTheir captors, a group known as the Islamic Army in Iraq, said Tuesday it had delivered the two to the French Embassy in Baghdad, the Arab-language television network Al-Jazeera reported.\n\nChristian Chestnot, a reporter for Radio France International, and Georges Malbrunot of Le Figaro were reported missing August 21 after they left Baghdad for Najaf.\n\nA Foreign Ministry spokesman said they are in the hands of French diplomats, but did not specify their location or condition. \n\nAn Iraqi insurgency group said in a statement posted on Islamist Web sites Tuesday that it released the two journalists for several reasons -- including some French government positions on Iraq and appeals by Islamic groups for the pairs freedom.\n\nThe militant group had earlier demanded the French government repeal a ban on the wearing of head scarves by Muslim girls in public schools.\n\nThe law, which also covers religious items such as yarmulkes and large crosses, took effect at the start of the school year. Many experts have said fear of radical Islam contributed to the ban. \n\nThe French government has been attempting to win the journalists freedom but had balked at repealing the ban. \n\nFrench Muslim leaders had joined government officials in condemning the kidnappings.\n\nFrance has the largest Muslim population in Europe, estimated at five million.\n\nAlthough France was opposed to the war in Iraq, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has said, neutrality doesn exist. The Frenchmen are deluding themselves if they think they can remain outside of this. Today the extremists are targeting them, too. \n\nIn its statement Tuesday, the militant group said: The Islamic Army in Iraq announces the release of the two French journalists for the following reasons:\n\nNo evidence to prove the spying charges. \n\nThe proof of their fine position towards our beloved Palestine. \n\nSome French government positions towards Iraq. \n\nAppeals by Islamic groups and organizations. \n\nThus the legitimate court decided to release them today at 4 p.m. and they were handed over to the French embassy directly, the statement said, according to a translation.\n\nAn interview was conducted with the pair prior to their release. It will be broadcast later, it said. \n\nIn doing so, the Islamic Army in Iraq wishes to confirm its insistence on applying the rule of God in all matters including prisoners and hostages. \n\n--CNN Correspondent Jim Bittermann in Paris contributed to this report','WORLDeurope'),(7032,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/17/war.criminals.ap/index.html','2004-12-17','2005-01-13 01:09:44','Legislation signed by the president Friday gives the Justice Department expanded powers to track down and deport aliens who were engaged in war crimes and human-rights abuses in their home countries.','1979 Investigations was set up in 1979 to prosecute and remove Nazi-\n','\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) -- Legislation signed by the president Friday gives the Justice Department expanded powers to track down and deport aliens who were engaged in war crimes and human-rights abuses in their home countries.\n\nThe Anti-Atrocity Alien Deportation Act, first introduced in Congress five years ago, was part of the massive intelligence community overhaul bill that President Bush signed into law.\n\nSen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, who sponsored the legislation in the Senate with Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said it updated the charter of Justices Office of Special Investigations, which has been responsible for identifying Nazi war criminals who sought refuge in the country. \n\nThe new law will allow Justice to investigate other war criminals as well.\n\nNow we can pursue the new generations of war criminals and human-rights abusers, Leahy said in a statement.\n\nRep. Mark Foley, R-Florida, the House sponsor with Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-New York, said an estimated 800 to 1,000 war criminals and human-rights abusers seek refuge in the United States every year from such countries as Haiti, Honduras, North Korea, Rwanda and Cuba.\n\nThe United States is currently home to many immigrants who fled torture in their home countries, Foley said in a statement. What many people don know is that their torturers also come here to live.\n\nThe measure expands the scope of aliens subject to deportation and denial of entry to those who have engaged in torture, genocide and religious persecution.\n\nThe Office of Special Investigations was set up in 1979 to prosecute and remove Nazi-era criminals. \n\nJustice Department spokesman Brian Sierra said the department will review the new law before deciding on staff changes.Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7033,'/2005/US/01/03/tsunami.formerpresidents.ap/index.html','2005-01-03','2005-01-13 01:09:58','President Bush on Monday tapped two former presidents -- his father, President George H.W. Bush, and his predecessor, President Bill Clinton -- to lead a nationwide, private fund-raising campaign to help victims of the Indian Ocean tsunamis.','2001y following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Bush fac\n2001-09-11ately following the September 11, 2001, terrorist at\n','WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Monday tapped two former presidents -- his father, President George H.W. Bush, and his predecessor, President Bill Clinton -- to lead a nationwide, private fund-raising campaign to help victims of the Indian Ocean tsunamis.\n\nI ask every American to contribute as they are able to do so, Bush said in the White Houses Roosevelt Room, the two former presidents at his side.\n\nClinton and the first President Bush are to lead an effort to encourage the American people and businesses to support relief and reconstruction activities in areas devastated by the tsunamis, the president said. He also ordered that American flags fly at half-staff all week in sympathy for the victims of a great tragedy, particularly the many thousands of dead and orphaned children.\n\nIn the coming days, Presidents Clinton and Bush will ask Americans to donate directly to reliable charities already providing help to tsunami victims, Bush said. Ive asked the former presidents to solicit contributions both large and small.\n\nThe president urged Americans to give money instead of other items. Cash donations are most useful, he said.\n\nThe announcement came as the White House has been scrambling to repair an image battered at home and abroad by perceptions that U.S. aid for the tsunamis lagged behind other countries -- especially considering the outpouring of support for America from other countries in the hours and days immediately following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.\n\nBush faced criticism for waiting until three days after the December 26 earthquake and tsunami to interrupt his holiday vacation and make his first personal comments about the deadly disaster. Other countries also were quicker to commit large amounts of aid money, and Japan has outpaced the U.S. total of $350 million pledged so far.\n\nBut private donations began pouring in from people in the United States and around the world at unprecedented levels almost immediately. Bushs press secretary, Scott McClellan, dismissed any suggestion the White House campaign to encourage private giving was behind that curve as well, saying the new effort was about ensuring that impressive flow continues.\n\nThis will bring even more focus on the need to provide support for these international organizations in the affected areas, he said. This is a human tragedy that is really beyond comprehension and we want to make sure we\re doing everything we can both from the government perspective as well as private support to help those who are suffering.\n\nBush has not yet made a personal contribution, but plans to give an unspecified amount, McClellan said.\n\nThe Pentagon has decided to send the USNS Mercy, a 1,000-bed hospital ship based at San Diego, California, to join the tsunami relief effort in south Asia, two officials said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The ship, currently at sea for a previously scheduled test, is capable of receiving patients by helicopter or by ship, either at anchor or while underway.\n\nLater Monday, Bush, accompanied by first lady Laura Bush as well as his father and Clinton, paid brief visits to the embassies of the four nations hit hardest by the disaster -- Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.\n\nAt the Indonesian and Indian embassies, Mrs. Bush presented officials with bouquets of white roses and the foursome signed condolence books.\n\nWe look forward to working with the Indonesian government to help those who need food, medicine, water and shelter to get their lives back in order so the great country of Indonesia can rise up from this disaster. May God bless the people of Indonesia, the president said in a brief statement at the Indonesian embassy. He made similar remarks at other embassies.\n\nWhile at the Indian embassy, Bush said he told the ambassador he intends to travel to India this year. In the meantime, though, our country stands with the people who have suffered, he said.\n\nThe president also was waiting to hear back from a delegation he dispatched to the region to assess what more the United States government can do to help. That team, led by Secretary of State Colin Powell and the presidents brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, arrived in the region Monday.\n\nPowell said in Bangkok, Thailand, that the relief effort appears to be going so well that he sees no immediate need for more U.S. governmental money. Coordinating all the international aid is now the most urgent task, he said.\n\nThe White Houses Freedom Corps outfit, which helps facilitate volunteer efforts around the country, is to assist the two former presidents in soliciting private contributions. The former presidents will travel the country and do media interviews as part of their effort, McClellan said.\n\nMondays appearance by Bush was the fifth statement -- either written or verbal -- from the president on the disaster in six days. Aides normally tight-lipped about the presidents behind-the-scenes activities have been eagerly offering tidbits of Bushs calls to other leaders on the crisis and his monitoring activities.\n\n','US'),(7034,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/03/asia.quake/index.html','2005-01-04','2005-01-13 01:10:16','Relief workers are struggling to reach areas cut off by last weeks Indian Ocean tsunamis, as the death toll mounts and hope of finding thousands of missing people fades.','1964de quake, the strongest since 1964, has been followed by dozens \n','(CNN) -- Relief workers are struggling to reach areas cut off by last weeks Indian Ocean tsunamis, as the death toll mounts and hope of finding thousands of missing people fades.\n\nThe destruction brought by the December 26 earthquake and flooding has hampered, and in some cases prevented, delivering food and other supplies.\n\nNowhere do we have the kind of problems that we\re seeing in Sumatra and Aceh, Jan Egeland, the U.N.s emergency relief coordinator, said Monday.\n\nWe have not yet fully grasped that this was the epicenter of the catastrophe, he said.\n\nThe 9.0 magnitude quake, the strongest since 1964, has been followed by dozens of aftershocks.\n\nIn Indonesia, the largest number of deaths were reported on the west coast of Aceh province on the island of Sumatra -- closest to the epicenter of the initial quake.\n\nThe coast is low, it takes the full blast of the tsunami which was at its highest at that point, and now the villages are gone, Egeland said. \n\nThey had hardly any roads at all and now they are gone.\n\nMore armed forces and aid workers have arrived at the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, and then advancing into the provinces more remote areas, he said. (Mike Chinoy on the scene)\n\nThe death toll from Malaysia to East Africa has climbed to nearly 155,000, after Indonesias toll was raised to more than 94,000 by the countrys health ministry on Monday.\n\nTens of thousands are still missing --including many tourists -- in the aftermath of the disaster that struck a dozen countries. \n\nGovernments around the globe have offered more than $2 billion in aid to the countries hit by the disaster.\n\nJapan is the largest contributor, pledging $500 million; the United States was second, with $350 million committed. (Contributions by country)\n\nMichael Elmquist, a deputy to the head of the U.N.s Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said: Its the greatest and biggest aid effort in the world, a scale never tried before. \n\nHe said 50 tons of food already had been distributed throughout the province. \n\nAnother 400 tons of food has arrived in Banda Aceh, he said, while 12,500 tons were waiting on docks along the east coast of Sumatra. \n\nElmquist said the food is enough to feed everyone in the province for six to eight weeks.\n\nBut relief planners are still struggling to get the supplies from the east coast to the islands west coast. \n\nNothing remained of the bridge connecting Banda Aceh and the west coast -- just 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the epicenter -- except the low pillars that once held the roadway.\n\nAn Indonesian army garrison at the bridge was devastated -- of the 270 soldiers and their families stationed there, only 12 people survived.\n\nWhere there were survivors, they swarmed military helicopters -- the only transportation that could reach most of the areas -- bringing packages of food, water and medical supplies.\n\nIndias navy launched its largest relief operation, part of a $25 million effort to help Sri Lanka, where more than 47,062 people are dead and more than 16,000 others are missing.\n\nEleven Indian ships were dispatched to the island nation and military helicopters also ferried in relief supplies. \n\nAlready, India has delivered six ton of supplies to the tsunami-hit areas and plans to ship in 20 ton more.\n\nIn addition to relief supplies, India is sending engineers and skilled workers to help rebuild Sri Lankas devastated economy.\n\nIndia itself was hit hard by the tsunami, with at least 9,400 people dead, most on its east coast and in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, closer to Thailand and Indonesia than their mother country.\n\nMadhusree Mukerjee, an Indonesian journalist and expert on the indigenous peoples of the islands, said the Andamans -- the northernmost of the islands -- suffered property damage but little loss of life.\n\nThe real devastation is in the Nicobar Islands, she told CNN.\n\nIndian officials report more than 5,600 people missing on the islands. \n\nMukerjee said the population of the Nicobar Islands is about 45,000 and the tsunamis washed over many of the Nicobar Islands many times.\n\nIn one, Car Nicobar, which is also home to an Indian Air Force base, we have been told all 15 villages have been washed out, she said.\n\nMukerjee said the Indian government -- which declined international aid, saying it could handle the emergency itself -- was doing as good a job as could be expected. \n\nBut she said Andaman and Nicobar could have benefited from assistance from the much closer Thailand, which also declined international financial aid.\n\nThai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told CNN that his country did not need financial help but was appreciative of expertise and equipment -- especially forensics expertise.\n\nWe have never had anything like this, he said, and it is getting harder to identify corpses. \n\nShinawatra said he was pleased to see cooperation between the private and public sectors -- and how fast the area came back to normal activity.\n\nOwners of hotels that survived the tsunami in Phuket, for example, are encouraging vacationers to return -- and some are. The owners say the return of the tourists is essential to their survival.\n\nSome 70 percent of the hotels reservations have cancelled, officials said.\n\nBut CNNs Aneesh Raman said the juxtaposition of tourists on the beach where thousands died a week ago was odd, as was watching relatively normal beach activities while knowing hundreds of thousands elsewhere were in desperate need of aid.\n\nMeanwhile, Annan, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and other world leaders are to meet Thursday in Jakarta at a donor conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to compare notes on the disaster. \n\nPowell and President George W. Bushs brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, arrived Monday in Bangkok to start a visit to the region that would include Phuket, Aceh and Sri Lanka. (Full story)\n\nAnnan is expected to visit some of the tsunami-battered area after the Jakarta conference as well. \n\nThe initial billions of aid will take care of stabilization and life-saving efforts. Beyond that is the long reconstruction effort, and potentially tens of billions more -- and as much as a decade longer. \n\nSuch financial needs will need to come from all sectors, and in the United States, President George W. Bush called together two former presidents -- his father, George H.W. Bush, and his predecessor in the office, Bill Clinton -- to head up an effort to convince businesses to give more to the effort. \n\nWith the two ex-presidents by his side, Bush asked every American to contribute as they are able. (Full story)\n\n-- CNN Correspondents Mike Chinoy and Atika Shubert in Indonesia; Paula Hancocks in Sri Lanka; and Aneesh Raman in Phuket, Thailand, contributed to this report. \n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7035,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/03/powell/index.html','2005-01-03','2005-01-13 01:10:36','A U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived Monday in Bangkok, Thailand, on the first stop of a tour to the tsunami-devastated regions of southern Asia.','','WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived Monday in Bangkok, Thailand, on the first stop of a tour to the tsunami-devastated regions of southern Asia.\n\nPowell told reporters that the United States and other countries may have to increase their contributions at some point, but said that the most immediate challenge was getting supplies already in the aid pipeline to victims in the most remote areas. \n\nIn Thailand, Powell plans to meet with Lt. Gen. Robert Blackman, the commander of the U.S. military task force assisting in the relief effort. He also will meet with Thai officials and inspect damage and relief efforts in the Phuket region.\n\nJoining Powell is Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the presidents brother who helped oversee disaster relief following deadly hurricanes in his state.\n\nPowell said the U.S. delegation hoped to visit the Indonesian province of Aceh, which was badly damaged by the powerful waves.\n\nOn Thursday, Powell, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi of Japan and John Howard of Australia and a delegation from the European Union are scheduled to attend a donor conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Full story)\n\nBefore returning to the United States on Friday, the U.S. delegation plans to stop in Sri Lanka, he said.\n\nOthers in the delegation include Mike Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency; Andrew Natsios, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development; and James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.\n\nNatsios said that a top priority of U.S. relief efforts is getting survivors involved in cleanup and other recovery work, in part to keep them busy and in part because cleaning up the debris is viewed as critical. \n\nThe physical evidence of the mess is a reminder every hour of the day that everything is gone, Natsios said. He also said a high-profile U.S. delegation might help restore a sense of hope that they are not being forgotten and not being lost. \n\nThe death toll from the December 26 tsunamis stood at nearly 155,000 on Monday. (Full story)\n\nBush told reporters before leaving Miami that the mission was to determine immediate and long-term relief and reconstruction needs, and also to show that our country really cares.\n\nI know the president has deep concerns about what has happened, said Bush, whose state was battered by four major hurricanes over the summer. And the fact that Im his brother, symbolically, may give some people a sense that the president really does care, as he does.\n\nHe said the hurricane damage his state sustained pales by comparison to what happened in these countries. Florida is expected to receive about $10 billion in disaster aid by the time reconstruction efforts are complete, the governor said.\n\nPowell responded to the suggestions the Bush administration was slow to respond, or that its initial response was not generous enough.\n\nI don think the American people should be getting the impression their president and their government was not hard at work on this from day one, Powell said during a session with reporters traveling with him from Washington.\n\nHe said all of the affected countries were pleased with the U.S. response, which he said grew in urgency and size as more details about the scope of the tsunami became clear.\n\nPowell said the delegation will report to President Bush at the end of the trip, and if it is believed a greater U.S. contribution is necessary, we will scale up as it is necessary to scale up. \n\nThe United States has committed $350 million in relief funds, the largest contribution behind Japans $500 million. (Full story)\n\nThe United Nations says a total of $2 billion has been promised. \n\nU.S. military aid flights have delivered about 215 tons of relief supplies to the battered region, said Capt. Rodger Welch, a Navy operations officer in Hawaii. And a contingent of 200 Marine combat engineers based in Okinawa, Japan, will join the American task force already dispatched to the region to help distribute that aid, Welch said. \n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7036,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/06/powell.group.disbanded/index.html','2005-01-06','2005-01-13 01:10:45','U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has announced that the four-nation "core group" launched to coordinate tsunami relief efforts was being disbanded.','1999Indonesia the parts failed in 1999 because U.S. military equipme\n','JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has announced that the four-nation core group launched to coordinate tsunami relief efforts was being disbanded. \n\nThe group would instead be folded under the United Nations oversight of the daunting relief and reconstruction effort, Powell told a conference of tsunami relief donors in the Indonesian capital on Thursday. \n\nU.S. officials had insisted the group -- consisting of the United States, Australia, Japan and India -- would be complimentary to U.N. efforts. \n\nBut those officials now say given the urgent need to improve coordination and reduce confusion in the relief and reconstruction effort, that it was decided the core group was no longer necessary. \n\nThe core group helped to catalyze the international response, Powell said, according to a prepared text released by the State Department. \n\nHaving served its purpose, it will ... now fold itself into the broader coordination efforts of the United Nations. \n\nU.S. President George W. Bush formed the international coalition on December 29 to respond to the massive tsunami that wreaked havoc along the coastlines of the Indian Ocean. \n\nHe announced that the United States had established a regional core group with India, Japan and Australia to help coordinate relief efforts. Im confident more nations will join this core group in short order.\n\nEarlier in the day, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued an appeal on behalf of the world body for $977 million that the U.N. estimates it will need through June to carry out the largest humanitarian operation in its history.\n\nOf that $977 million, Annan said $229 million was needed for food and agriculture; $122 million for health care; $61 million for water and sanitation; $222 million for shelter and non-food items.\n\nAfter the one-day conference officially ended, Powell said he was very happy with its outcome, noting that it helped improved the United States international ties.\n\nThere was not one single discussion about Iraq, he said.\n\nThe secretary said he believed the international community has a sense of great urgency in regards to the tsunami disaster. He also countered skeptics who doubt all the monetary pledges will be kept.\n\nWhen the United States says $350 milllion, we mean $350 million, he said.\n\nThe U.S. is close to a deal with Indonesia, which had been stalled six years ago, to give the country spare airplane parts to help the humanitarian effort, Powell said.\n\nIndonesia has about 24 of the transport aircraft but only about seven are operational because of the lack of parts.\n\nThe deal to give Indonesia the parts failed in 1999 because U.S. military equipment was being used against separatist rebels.\n\nPowell said the humanitarian need tops the reservations we have, adding that if the deal is finalized the U.S. will keep a watchful eye on how the aircraft are used.\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7037,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/05/tsunami.aid/index.html','2005-01-06','2005-01-13 01:11:02','U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has appealed for $977 million in emergency relief over the next six months for the "unprecedented global catastrophe" triggered by the Asian tsunamis.','','JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has appealed for $977 million in emergency relief over the next six months for the unprecedented global catastrophe triggered by the Asian tsunamis.\n\nIn a bid to get aid to millions of people affected by the disaster, Annan told heads of state, relief officials and health experts at the start of the donor conference in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta that the cash was needed immediately.\n\nWhile nations around the world have pledged more than $3 billion in aid so far, most of that cash isn in hand to begin the work for the largest humanitarian operation in U.N. history.\n\nWe have started a new year with a singular chance to prove that our humanity is intact and well -- a chance to prove that when calamity strikes, we are equal to the task, Annan told delegates, including U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Japanese leader Junichiro Koizumi.\n\nOfficials say 156,000 people died after a quake off the coast of Indonesia on December 26 triggered killer waves that hit a dozen nations bordering the Indian Ocean.\n\nTens of thousands of people are still missing, and officials say the death toll may never be known as many people were swept out to sea or buried under mud and rubble.\n\nIt seems at times like a nightmare from which we are still hoping to awake, except that for millions of people in 12 affected countries, spanning two continents, and for tens of thousands of visitors from nations around the world, this nightmare is devastatingly real, Annan said.\n\nMore than 500,000 people have been injured, more than one million displaced and more than two million in need of food, Annan said on Thursday.\n\nAnnan told delegates that the international community must work to stop the tsunami from being followed by a second wave of death, from preventable causes.\n\nMore people and material are needed in the region to move aid into remote hard-hit areas, he said, urging donor nations who have pledged money for tsunami relief to come forward quickly with cash donations, because speed is needed to prevent deaths from disease and starvation.\n\nIndonesia was singled out at the most needy nation in a 95-page document compiled by the U.N.s humanitarian affairs ahead of Thursdays summit in Jakarta.\n\nThe quake was centered off the coast of Indonesia, and so far more than 94,000 people have died in that nation alone.\n\nThe conferences host, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has called it the most destructive disaster in living memory.\n\nThe United Nations says almost 40 percent (around $372 million) of the emergency fund should be directed to Indonesia, with nearly half of that going to shelter and other non-food items.\n\nIndonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, the Seychelles, Somalia and Sri Lanka have also been singled out for aid.\n\nIn addition to raising money, the conference is focusing on coordination of relief efforts, overcoming bottlenecks slowing delivery and looking at the possibility of a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean.\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7038,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/02/world.relief.contribution.reut/index.html','2005-01-09','2005-01-13 01:11:08','Following is a list of monetary contributions pledged by governments and the World Bank to help Indian Ocean nations hit by the December 26 earthquake and tsunami, compiled from reports by Reuters bureaus and U.N. agencies. (Private donations are in paren','1608Bank 250.00 Total: 5,031.00 (1608.438) \n','LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Following is a list of monetary contributions pledged by governments and the World Bank to help Indian Ocean nations hit by the December 26 earthquake and tsunami, compiled from reports by Reuters bureaus and U.N. agencies. (Private donations are in parentheses where available)\n\n(in millions of U.S. dollars)\n\nADB 675.00\n\nAfrican Union 0.10\n\nAlgeria 2.00\n\nAustralia 815.00 (106.00)\n\nAustria 10.88 (24.48)\n\nBahrain 2.00\n\nBelgium 16.32\n\nBritain 96.00 (187.00)\n\nBulgaria 0.14\n\nCanada 80.00 (76.00)\n\nChina 83.00\n\nCroatia 0.69 (0.148)\n\nCyprus 0.37\n\nCzech Republic 0.69 (5.50)\n\nDenmark 76.83 (23.13)\n\nEU 529.30\n\nFinland 66.16 (22.42)\n\nFrance 64.57 (49.00)\n\nGermany 660 (333.00)\n\nGreece 1.34 (22.50)\n\nHungary 1.20\n\nIndia 25.00\n\nIreland 13.62 (21.20)\n\nItaly 95.00\n\nJapan 500.00\n\nKuwait 10.00\n\nLibya 2.00\n\nLuxembourg 6.80\n\nMali 0.20\n\nNetherlands 34.00 (148.20)\n\nNew Zealand 3.60\n\nNiger 0.25\n\nNorth Korea 0.15\n\nNorway 181.90 (61.00)\n\nPoland 1.00 (1.30)\n\nPortugal 10.59 (4.63)\n\nQatar 25.00\n\nSaudi Arabia 30.00 (101.13)\n\nSenegal 0.20\n\nSingapore 23.10\n\nSlovakia 0.23\n\nSlovenia 0.24 (0.70)\n\nSouth Korea 50.00\n\nSpain 68.02\n\nSweden 80.00\n\nSwitzerland 23.81 (97.10)\n\nTaiwan 50.25\n\nTurkey 1.25\n\nUAE 20.00\n\nUSA 350.00 (324.00)\n\nVenezuela 2.00\n\nWorld Bank 250.00\n\nTotal: 5,031.00 (1608.438)\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7039,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/05/australia.aid/index.html','2005-01-06','2005-01-13 01:11:25','Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said his country would donate an additional billion Australian dollars ($764.5 million) to a partnership with Indonesia for rehabilitation in the wake of the tsunami disaster.','1999ving since hitting a nadir in 1999 when Australia led an interna\n2002 terrorism in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings and subsequent \n','JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said his country would donate an additional billion Australian dollars ($764.5 million) to a partnership with Indonesia for rehabilitation in the wake of the tsunami disaster.\n\nThe aid package announced on Wednesday -- the largest single pledge so far -- will be made up of $A500 million in grants and $A500 million in concessional loans.\n\nThe money is in addition to the $A60 million ($45.5 million) already pledged by Australia to help tsunami victims.\n\nGermany is the second biggest donor, pledging $680 million, with Japan at third with $500 million. (Contributions by country)\n\nThe grants will be used for short term restoration projects such as rebuilding schools and the loans for longer term development projects, Howard told media in Jakarta.\n\nIt is a program of long-term, sustained cooperation and capacity building, Howard said.\n\nThe Australian leader is in Indonesia for Thursdays regional summit on the catastrophe. \n\nThe money would be distributed over five years, Howard said, and would add to Australias existing development program with Indonesia, which already includes $A800 million ($611.6 million) over five years.\n\nWhile there will naturally be a clear focus on the areas devastated by the tsunami, all areas of Indonesia will be eligible for assistance under the partnership, the prime minister said.\n\nHoward said the aid package would place relations between Australia and Indonesia on an even firmer footing.\n\nHe said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had been overwhelmed by Australias generosity.\n\nThe package was probably the largest single aid project in Australias history, Howard said.\n\nThe sometimes rocky relationship between Australia and Indonesia has been steadily improving since hitting a nadir in 1999 when Australia led an international peacekeeping task force into the then Indonesian territory of East Timor.\n\nCooperation between the two nations has been spurred by joint security efforts to fight regional terrorism in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings and subsequent attacks in Jakarta, including last years bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta. \n\nCNNs Grant Holloway in Sydney contributed to this story.\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7040,'/2005/WORLD/europe/01/05/tsunami.germany.ap/index.html','2005-01-05','2005-01-13 01:11:34','Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder stepped up the German governments pledge of financial aid to tsunami victims to 500 million euros ($660m) as European nations moved to increase help to the devastated region.','','BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder stepped up the German governments pledge of financial aid to tsunami victims to 500 million euros ($660m) as European nations moved to increase help to the devastated region.\n\nGermany had previously pledged 20 million euros ($27m), but Schroeder said once the short-term effects of the tsunami were taken care of, the region would need much more help in rebuilding its infrastructure with concrete projects over time.\n\nNaturally, they won be realized overnight, Schroeder said, adding that the money would be made available over a minimum of three and maximum of five years.\n\nSchroeders pledge represents the largest firm pledge of aid from any single country to the region in Southeast Asia affected by the tsunami.\n\nThe whole German nation has solidarity with the people of the region and we are all proud ... of the German peoples readiness to help, Schroeder told reporters.\n\nThe pledge pushes Japan to second on the donor list, with its commitment to provide $500 million. The United States is third, with its pledge of $350m.(Donations by country)\n\nBritain has pledged $95 million but Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that his government would step up that contribution to several hundred million pounds.\n\nIn addition to the pledge from Germany, Finance Minister Hans Eichel said that the Group of Seven and Eight leading industrial nations will probably agree on a debt relief program for the countries hit by the earthquake and tsunami, Schroeder said.\n\nThough Germanys government is strapped for cash, Schroeder said the $500 million will be financed within its budget plans in this and following years.\n\n','WORLDeurope'),(7041,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/05/missing.americans/index.html','2005-01-06','2005-01-13 01:11:46','Thirty-five Americans are confirmed or presumed dead in the aftermath of last weeks killer tsunamis, according to Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty.','','WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thirty-five Americans are confirmed or presumed dead in the aftermath of last weeks killer tsunamis, according to Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty.\n\nOn Wednesday, the U.S. State Department initally said that 20 Americans were presumed dead and 16 were confirmed dead in Thailand and Sri Lanka.\n\nUpon further evaluation, officials learned that one of the victims was duplicated in the tally. Plus, the number of Americans confirmed dead rose to 17.\n\nAs a result, the number of presumed dead now stands at 18, for a total of 35.\n\nAnother State Department official said the confusion is a perfect indication as to what they\re up against in trying to make an accurate determination as to how many Americans were killed.\n\nThe powerful tsunamis swept through coastal communities from Thailand to East Africa on December 26, killing more than 155,000 people.\n\nState Department officials are working to whittle down a list of inquiries -- calls from worried family and friends of Americans believed to have been in the affected region at the time of the disaster.\n\nOn Wednesday, the U.S. list stood at 3,100. As of Thursday morning, the number had dropped to 2,609, State Department officials said.\n\nOfficials emphasized one inquiry did not necessarily mean one American was missing. They said duplication is likely both in names of those presumed missing and in callers, registering on behalf of the same individual presumed missing.\n\nThe number of Americans who may have died is expected to be a hundred or hundreds, an official said.\n\nCNNs Andrea Koppel contributed to this report. \n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7042,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/05/tsunami.myanmar/index.html','2005-01-05','2005-01-13 01:11:58','The reclusive country of Myanmar was "incredibly fortunate" not to have suffered more from the December 26 tsunamis, Joanna MacLean of the International Federation of the Red Cross says.','','(CNN) -- The reclusive country of Myanmar was incredibly fortunate not to have suffered more from the December 26 tsunamis, Joanna MacLean of the International Federation of the Red Cross says.\n\nAccording to various reports from the United Nations, local agencies and the IFRC, 86 people in Myanmar, formerly Burma, are confirmed dead and the death toll is not expected to exceed 100, MacLean said. \n\nIt is really amazing, she said. I, in fact, was in Thailand at the time and came back immediately afterwards because I feared the worst. \n\nMacLean said Myanmars military government has been cooperative in the wake of the aftermath. \n\nShe credited Myanmars rocky shoreline and the angle of the coast with preventing the damage that killed over 5,000 in Thailand and thousands more on Indias Andaman Islands, which are about 200 miles (320 km) off the coast of mainland Myanmar.\n\nMyanmars Irrawaddy Delta south of Yangon was hit the hardest, MacLean said. \n\nHowever, the loss of life was stemmed, according to eyewitness accounts, because survivors fled for higher ground after the first wave hit. \n\nThe three waves were half an hour apart, which meant the people who already saw the first wave and then even saw the second had time to go to the monasteries, which are always on higher ground, and to the schools, MacLean said. \n\nBetween 5,000 and 6,000 people were left homeless, but many have returned to their villages because they fled out of fear. \n\nThis is not an emergency situation, she said. \n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7043,'/2003/WORLD/meast/08/05/sprj.irq.main/index.html','2003-08-05','2005-01-13 01:12:35','A civilian contractor from the United States was killed Tuesday in Iraq when the car he was driving ran over an improvised explosive device, the U.S. military said, on a day marked by a number of incidents in which a U.S. soldier was injured.','','','WORLDmeast'),(7044,'/2003/HEALTH/08/04/military.illness/index.html','2003-08-04','2005-01-13 01:12:49','The U.S. Army said Monday it has activated two medical teams to help investigators determine what has caused about 100 cases of pneumonia -- two of them fatal -- among service members in the Persian Gulf since March 1.','','','ROOTHEALTH'),(7045,'/2003/US/05/30/bush.travel/index.html','2003-05-30','2005-01-13 01:13:05','President Bush arrived Friday in Poland, where he kicks off an ambitious seven-day, six-nation trip aimed at tackling a list of top diplomatic concerns, including building support for Middle East peace and mending fences with European countries that oppos','','','ROOTUS'),(7046,'/2003/US/05/30/nyt.kristof/index.html','2003-05-30','2005-01-13 01:13:11','On Day 71 of the Hunt for Iraqi W.M.D., yesterday, once again nothing turned up.','','','ROOTUS'),(7047,'/2003/WORLD/europe/05/30/britain.pow/index.html','2003-05-30','2005-01-13 01:13:29','A British soldier was being questioned Friday by military police over allegations that Iraqi prisoners of war were mistreated, officials said.','','','WORLDeurope'),(7048,'/2003/US/05/30/bush.europe/index.html','2003-05-30','2005-01-13 01:13:37','WASHINGTON (CNN) – On the eve of a trip to Europe to attend the G-8 summit, no one is expecting the U.S. president to just forgive and forget.','','','ROOTUS'),(7049,'/2003/WORLD/meast/05/29/sprj.irq.int.blair/index.html','2003-05-29','2005-01-13 01:13:42','UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has praised British troops in Iraq for their role in overthrowing Saddam Hussein amid renewed criticism over the coalitions failure to find weapons of mass destruction.','','','WORLDmeast'),(7050,'/2003/WORLD/meast/05/29/sprj.irq.iraq.violence/index.html','2003-05-29','2005-01-13 01:13:55','The latest attack in a wave of violence this week against U.S. forces in Iraq has taken the life an American soldier, U.S. Central Command said Thursday, bringing the total number of U.S. military personnel killed this week in hostile acts to five.','','','WORLDmeast'),(7051,'/2003/WORLD/europe/05/29/amnesty.report/index.html','2003-05-28','2005-01-13 01:14:08','The U.S. has rejected an accusation from Amnesty International that the U.S.-led war against terror is sowing fear and danger in the name of global security.','','','WORLDeurope'),(7052,'/2003/LAW/05/26/findlaw.analysis.leavitt.tribunals/index.html','2003-05-26','2005-01-13 01:14:26','On May 20, Cambodians marked the anniversary of the day in 1973 when the Khmer Rouge began their drive to remake Cambodian society by recalling family members and friends who were killed during this Maoist-inspired agrarian revolution.','','','ROOTLAW'),(7053,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/18/bush.cabinet/index.html','2004-11-18','2005-01-13 01:14:44','President Bush is half way through the job of restocking his Cabinet, naming three new members to help him push through his second term agenda.','2002 particularly about a January 2002 draft memo he authored as Whi\n','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush is half way through the job of restocking his Cabinet, naming three new members to help him push through his second term agenda.\n\nThe administration has been busy in the weeks since the November 2 election, which has seen the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.\n\nSo far, Bush has name three replacements, all very close associates\n\nHe nominated White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed Ashcroft, Condoleezza Rice, his national security advisor and trusted confidant, to take over at the State Department and domestic policy adviser Margaret Spellings to replace Paige.\n\nBushs top political adviser, Karl Rove, spoke to Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska last Friday about the possibility of replacing Veneman at the Department of Agriculture, according to two sources familiar with their conversation. \n\nNelson told CNN he could not confirm or deny whether Rove made an offer, adding that he is happy in his current job. \n\nBut when pressed as to whether he would consider the job if Bush offered it, Nelson said, Any time the president talks, you listen. \n\nIf Nelson took the job, he would be the second Democrat in the Bush Cabinet, joining Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. (Sources: Dem approached for agriculture post)\n\nSuch a move could also increase the GOP majority in the Senate to 56, because Republican Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns would choose Nelsons replacement.Confirmation preparations\n\nAll of the Cabinet nominees must be confirmed by the Senate.\n\nGonzales was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, where he met with Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.\n\nLeahy told reporters that Gonzales was a more uniting figure than Ashcroft and added that Gonzales has a far better chance of confirmation with substantial votes from both sides of the aisle than a divisive candidate.\n\nGonzales is expected to face tough questions during his confirmation hearings, particularly about a January 2002 draft memo he authored as White House counsel on the treatment of suspected terrorist prisoners and whether the Geneva Conventions apply to them. \n\nLeahy said he warned Gonzales the subject would be raised extensively in the confirmation hearings and that he must be responsive to the questions. \n\nI think its important for his own credibility and the credibility of the Department of Justice, said Leahy. \n\nA date for the hearing has not been set. (Leahy: Gonzales likely to be confirmed)\n\nSeveral Senate Republican staffers told CNN Wednesday that confirmation hearings for Rice would be held next month.\n\nThe Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hold the hearings either December 6, 7 or 8, staffers said, but the final Senate vote on confirmation would not take place until the new Congress is sworn in, in early January.\n\nCNNs Ed Henry, John King, Andrea Koppel and Carol Cratty contributed to this report.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7054,'/2005/WORLD/africa/01/13/safrica.thatcher.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 01:14:58','Mark Thatcher has pleaded guilty to unwittingly helping to finance a foiled coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea in exchange for a fine and a suspended jail sentence.','1995s lived in South Africa since 1995, was arrested at his suburban\n','CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- Mark Thatcher has pleaded guilty to unwittingly helping to finance a foiled coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea in exchange for a fine and a suspended jail sentence. \n\nThatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, will pay a $506,000 fine in a deal that lets him leave South Africa to rejoin his family in the United States. \n\nIf he does not pay the fine, he faces a five-year prison sentence with a further four years suspended for five years, Judge Abe Motala said Thursday in the Cape High Court. \n\nThatchers court appearance Thursday was unexpected. He had not been scheduled back in court until February 18.\n\nThatcher, who has lived in South Africa since 1995, was arrested at his suburban Cape Town home on August 25 and charged with violating this countrys anti-mercenary laws.\n\nHe also faces charges in Equatorial Guinea, where 19 other defendants are already on trial in connection with an alleged plot last year to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled Africas third-largest oil producer for the past 25 years. Officials there have said they will seek Thatchers extradition from South Africa.\n\nEquatorial Guinea alleges Thatcher and other mainly British financiers worked with the tiny countrys opposition figures, scores of African mercenaries and six Armenian pilots in a takeover attempt foiled in March. \n\nThe high court in South Africa ordered Thatcher to answer questions submitted by Equatorial Guinea under oath in November, but that appearance was postponed to give his lawyers a chance to appeal the ruling.\n\n','WORLDafrica'),(7055,'/2004/WORLD/meast/12/08/iraq.main/index.html','2004-12-09','2005-01-13 01:15:14','A high-ranking official in the Iraqi Finance Ministry and his driver were killed on a violent stretch in central Baghdad, ministry sources said Wednesday.','1988n thought to have ordered the 1988 chemical attack on Kurds in I\n','\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A high-ranking official in the Iraqi Finance Ministry and his driver were killed on a violent stretch in central Baghdad, ministry sources said Wednesday.\n\nAzhar Abdul Ghani al-Yasiri and his driver were gunned down Tuesday as the two were driving from the ministry in the Baghdad district of Karakh, the sources said.\n\nIt happened on Haifa Street, which has been the scene of intense fighting between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces.\n\nMeanwhile, elements of the the U.S. Armys 1st Cavalry Division late Wednesday launched Operation High Noon, a mission to search about 1,000 homes in the heavily insurgent Adhamiyah district of northern Baghdad.\n\nCommanders said the operation was in response to last Fridays attack, when suicide bombers drove a minibus loaded with explosives into a Shiite mosque in Adhamiyah, killing 14 civilians and wounding 19 others, many of whom had gathered for morning prayers.\n\nEarlier Wednesday, two American soldiers were wounded and an Army vehicle damaged when a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy detonated in Baghdad, the military said.\n\nNorth of the capital, a car bomb also went off Wednesday near a U.S. military convoy in Samarra, killing the driver but causing no military casualties, said a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division. \n\nIn a separate attack in Samarra, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade on a U.S. patrol near a mosque, prompting the patrol to return fire, the military said. No casualties were reported on either side. Plan eyes vote over many days\n\nIraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim on Wednesday endorsed a proposal by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi to spread the nations first free election over several days, saying, It would be better for us and the voters.\n\nKadhim said the committee planning security for the January 30 election had discussed the idea.\n\nThe final decision on the issue remains in the hands of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, Kadhim said. No official recommendation has been submitted to that panel.\n\nKadhim said the plan would call for various provinces to have elections on specific days, as opposed to a nationwide vote on a single day.\n\nDistributing the vote over several days would allow the ministry to allocate resources and personnel to ensure voter safety and security essential to successful elections, Kadhim said.\n\nIn newspaper reports Tuesday, Allawi suggested the elections could be spread out over 15 to 20 days to improve the chances that more Iraqis will vote.\n\nBut Abdul Hussein al-Hindawi, head of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, said he doubted that such a proposal was possible.\n\nHe noted there are questions about the technical viability of such a plan, and the problem that, under Iraqs transitional administrative law, the elections cannot be held after January 31.\n\nInsurgent attacks plaguing Iraq have prompted calls from many Iraqis for a delay in the elections, but the interim government and the United States appear determined to leave the date unchanged.\n\nThere has been particular concern about the ability to hold elections in parts of the Sunni Muslim heartland, where insurgent attacks have been significant.\n\nAllawi visited Russia on Tuesday and met with President Vladimir Putin, who reportedly predicted that Iraq will have problems with its election.\n\nFrankly speaking, I cannot imagine how elections can be organized when the entire country is occupied by foreign troops, Putin was quoted as saying by Russias Interfax news agency.Other developments\n\nFour members of a U.S. special operations unit have been punished for excessive use of force after Defense Intelligence Agency investigators reported the troops tried to keep them from reporting the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday. (Full story)\n\nFormer members of Saddam Husseins Baath party may be funding the Iraqi insurgency from Syria, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told the Arabic satellite news channel Al-Arabiya on Wednesday. We will take these matters up with the Syrians, Armitage said, adding, There have been some activities that the Syrians have undertaken which have been positive, but certainly not enough.\n\nThe nephew of the man known in Iraq as Chemical Ali was detained by U.S. troops in Iraq earlier this week, several U.S. officials confirmed to CNN Wednesday. The arrest of the nephew, Izz al-Din al-Majid, is considered particularly significant because U.S intelligence believes he controls billions of dollars that has been used to fund the insurgency in Iraq. His uncle, Ali Hassan al-Majid is a cousin of Saddam Hussein, and is the man thought to have ordered the 1988 chemical attack on Kurds in Iraq. He is in U.S. custody. \n\nBritish Defense Minister Geoff Hoon visited British troops Wednesday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. While in Basra, Hoon will hold talks with local officials.\n\nSouth Koreas president made a surprise visit Wednesday to his countrys troops in Iraq. President Roh Moo-hyun stopped in the Erbil region of northern Iraq. South Korea has 3,600 troops in Iraq, but they don serve in combat roles. The country has the third largest contingent after the United States and Britain. \n\nA classified CIA cable and briefings indicate that the overall situation in Iraq is not expected to improve anytime soon, according to an article in Tuesdays New York Times. The cable, reportedly written by the CIAs Baghdad station chief, outlines a pessimistic immediate future for Iraqs politics, economics and security. (Full story)\n\nJordanian King Abdullah II said forces in Iraq are getting close to capturing militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Hes slipped through the net once or twice where we got closer to him than he would have liked, Abdullah said. The Iraqis, Jordanians and coalition forces are working very hard to track him down -- and we\re getting close. The king said he based his assessment on hard intelligence. (Full story)\n\nCNNs Ayman Mohyeldin and Nermeen Mufti contributed to this report.','WORLDmeast'),(7056,'/2004/US/12/19/rumsfeld.signature/index.html','2004-12-19','2005-01-13 01:15:44','Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld faced renewed criticism Sunday from lawmakers, including one prominent Republican, after he said he has not personally signed letters sent to family members of troops killed in action.','','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld faced renewed criticism Sunday from lawmakers, including one prominent Republican, after he said he has not personally signed letters sent to family members of troops killed in action.\n\nRumsfeld made the acknowledgment in a statement to military newspaper Stars and Stripes, saying that he would begin signing such letters.\n\nStars and Stripes had reported that Rumsfelds letters carried a mechanical reproduction of his signature, which angered some military families.\n\nSen. Chuck Hagel, a leading GOP critic of Rumsfeld, called the news about the letters astounding, and noted that President Bush signs each of his letters to military families.\n\nI think its very reflective of how out of touch this crowd is, the Nebraskan said on CBS Face the Nation. My goodness, thats the least that we could expect of the secretary of defense.\n\nBut Bush chief of staff Andrew Card said Rumsfeld enjoys the presidents confidence, and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said Rumsfelds dismissal would be a gift to the jihadists and the insurgents in Iraq.\n\nSecretary Rumsfeld is doing a spectacular job, and the president has great confidence in him, Card said on ABCs This Week.\n\nHe is helping to lead our troops as they meet an awesome responsibility to protect us and to bring freedom to others. Hes also transforming the military. And any time you do that, there are controversies.\n\nMore than 1,300 U.S. troops have died in Iraq, and more than 1,000 of those have been killed in combat. In fighting in Afghanistan and elsewhere, more than 60 have been killed in hostile action.\n\nIn his statement published Friday, Rumsfeld said he wrote and approved the now more than 1,000 letters sent to family members and next of kin of each of the servicemen and women killed in military action. \n\nWhile I have not individually signed each one, in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members, I have directed that in the future I sign each letter.Charges of failed leadership\n\nBut his critics characterized the flap as another failure of Rumsfelds leadership.\n\nHagel, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said some fellow Republicans have argued that the dispute over Rumsfeld is a matter of style over substance.\n\nI would suggest that those who believe that, in my party and elsewhere, they better wake up and smell the coffee, he said.\n\nWe\re isolating ourselves in the world ... And I think that the leadership of the Pentagon has done that in many ways to us, Hagel said. This issue of a secretary of defense not personally signing these letters is just astounding. \n\nAnd Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, told CBS he was shocked.\n\nWe ask these young men and women to sacrifice themselves, to give their lives, said Reed, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. I believe its part of that leadership of that department that the secretary of defense would personally write these letters, personally sign them at least.\n\nSome lawmakers have complained that Rumsfeld failed to adequately plan and equip troops for the resistance in Iraq. Those complaints increased this month when a soldier asked Rumsfeld directly at a town hall meeting in Kuwait why some troops were not provided with armor for vehicles. (Full story)\n\nRumsfeld said armor was being produced as quickly as humanly possible -- which turned out not to be true. Some lawmakers said they have long been telling the White House that manufacturers were not working at capacity and were offering to make more.\n\nSen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, said on CNNs Late Edition that he was among them.\n\nAlthough Rumsfeld has agreed to sign the letters, Bayh said, Whats most important here is that we do what it takes to minimize the number of letters that have to be sent.\n\nHe accused the administration of failing to recognize its errors. \n\nWe have to learn from these mistakes so that we do better to minimize the number of casualties to win this thing, Bayh said. Its the lack of any introspection that I find to be very troubling.Polarizing figure\n\nRepublican Sen. John McCain of Arizona has said he has no confidence in the defense secretary, but Bush has said he wants Rumsfeld to stay. (Full story)\n\nRepublican sources told CNN before the presidential election last month that some top GOP figures were holding off on criticizing the Bush administration until after the vote -- but would then give the president an earful. \n\nStill, some Republicans remain supportive of the secretary. Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters Sunday that Rumsfeld is learning from the criticism.\n\nTo go through another secretary of defense set of hearings and nominations and all the turmoil of this would be very destructive in my judgment to the momentum of what we need to do, the Indiana Republican said.','US'),(7057,'/2004/WORLD/meast/12/19/iraq.main/index.html','2004-12-19','2005-01-13 01:16:00','Deadly car bombings on Sunday hit the Iraqi Shiite Muslim holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, killing 67 people, officials said.','','\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Deadly car bombings on Sunday hit the Iraqi Shiite Muslim holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, killing 67 people, officials said. \n\nIn Najaf, a suicide car bomber plowed his vehicle into a funeral procession and exploded it just yards from the citys Imam Ali shrine, killing at least 51 people, the head of Iraqi security operations said.\n\nHospital officials said that at least 92 people were wounded, and that hospitals were overwhelmed and ferrying the injured to facilities outside the city.\n\nAll roads into Najaf have been temporarily shut down, and the Old City surrounding the Imam Ali Mosque has been closed off, said police spokesman Haidar al-Jazairi. Authorities have erected 35 checkpoints in the area to monitor movement.\n\nNajaf police chief Ghalib Jazairi said police had arrested an Iraqi suspected of involvement in the bombing.\n\nThe suspect was picked up trying to escape the city in an explosives-packed car, Jazairi said. Jazairi did not name the suspect but said he was of Iraqi nationality and believed to have been a remnant of Saddam Husseins Baath Party. \n\nIraqi forces have controlled Najafs security for weeks. On November 30, a U.S. Marine commander said Iraqi security forces had taken over, noting that no major incidents had occurred in the city since August, when fighting ended between militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and U.S. and Iraqi forces.\n\nThe Karbala attack killed 16 people and wounded 37, authorities said. \n\nIt took place near the Bab Baghdad bus station, police said. Hospital sources confirmed the casualty figures.\n\nThe blasts came just four days after seven people died in a bombing attack near Karbalas Imam Hussein Mosque. Wednesday was the first day of campaigning for the January 30 election. (Full story)\n\nAlso on Sunday, gunmen fired on a vehicle, killing three people on Baghdads Haifa Street, police said. An Independent Electoral Commission source said one victim was a senior election official and two were bodyguards.\n\nA series of photographs from The Associated Press showed the victims being dragged from a car. At least one was forced to kneel, and all were shot.\n\nA fourth person was killed on the street in a separate shooting overnight, police said.\n\nInsurgent attacks in Iraq have prompted calls from many Iraqis to delay the elections. Iraqs interim government and the United States appear determined to leave the date unchanged.Ten kidnapped\n\nKidnappers have taken hostage 10 Iraqi employees for the Washington-based Saudi group, a security source in Baghdad said Sunday.\n\nThe Associated Press Television News released video showing four masked and armed militants holding 10 men hostage.\n\nInsurgents said they would kill the hostages if the company doesn leave Iraq, AP reported.\n\nThe Sandi Group provides security, transportation, lodging and translation services in Iraq.\n\nA company official in Baghdad said it is looking into the report.Voter registration site attacked\n\nSundays attack on the election workers came a day after a mortar attack on an Iraqi voter registration site north of Baghdad. The attack killed an Iraqi civilian and wounded eight others, a U.S. Army spokesman said.\n\nFour mortar rounds slammed into the site -- which was in a youth center in Dujay, a town between the north-central cities of Tikrit and Samarra, said the spokesman with the Armys 1st Infantry Division.\n\nThere has been concern about the ability to hold elections in parts of the Sunni Muslim heartland, where insurgent attacks have been significant.\n\nOn January 30, Iraqi voters are expected to choose a 275-member transitional national assembly. That body will put together a permanent constitution that will go before voters in a referendum. If the law is approved, there will be elections for a permanent government by the end of next year. Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has announced he will vie for an assembly seat.Other developments\n\nA roadside bomb hit an Iraqi university bus on Sunday in the northern city of Mosul, wounding two students aboard, the U.S. military said. On Saturday, a roadside bomb meant for U.S. forces hit a bus instead, killing one student and wounding six others.\n\nAn investigative hearing has been held for two prominent members of Saddam Husseins deposed regime: Ali Hassan al-Majid -- also known as Chemical Ali for his alleged role in the gassing of Kurds in the late 80s -- and Sultan Hashem Ahmed, Saddams former defense minister, an investigative magistrate said Saturday. Raad al-Juhyi, head of a panel of investigative judges, said the hearing was not part of upcoming trials for the former regime that were announced this week. (Full story) \n\nIn a raid Saturday in western Samarra, American soldiers detained three people and confiscated bomb-making materials, binoculars and a bag of black powder, the U.S. military said. Soldiers detained four people in another raid Saturday near Ad Dwar.\n\nCNNs Karl Penhaul, Cal Perry, Kianne Sadeq, Nermeen al-Mufti, Kevin Flower and Stephanie Halasz contributed to this report.Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.','WORLDmeast'),(7058,'/2004/US/12/19/time.bush.intl.reut/index.html','2004-12-19','2005-01-13 01:16:19','U.S. President George W. Bushs bold, uncompromising leadership and his clear-cut election victory made him Time magazines Person of the Year for 2004, its managing editor said Sunday.','2004ines Person of the Year for 2004, its managing editor said Su\n2000ice to appear on the cover in 2000 after winning the presidentia\n1990 was named Man of the Year in 1990 for what Time called his mast\n1927es first Man of the Year in 1927. Some selections have been no\n1938ular, such as Adolf Hitler in 1938, Joseph Stalin in 1939 and 19\n1939, Joseph Stalin in 1939 and 19\n1979Irans Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. This year the magazine name\n','\n\nNEW YORK (Reuters) -- U.S. President George W. Bushs bold, uncompromising leadership and his clear-cut election victory made him Time magazines Person of the Year for 2004, its managing editor said Sunday.\n\nTime chose Bush for sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his 10-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters this time around that he deserved to be in the White House for another four years, Jim Kelly wrote in the magazine.\n\nBush was also Times choice to appear on the cover in 2000 after winning the presidential election despite losing the popular vote.\n\nHis father, President George H. W. Bush, was named Man of the Year in 1990 for what Time called his mastery of foreign policy and his wavering domestic record.\n\nLast year the magazine picked The American Soldier.\n\nObviously many supporters of the president will be pleased, many people who do not support the president will probably sigh, Kelly said.\n\nBut even those who may not have voted for him will acknowledge that this is one of the more influential presidents of the last 50 years.\n\nKelly said he and his staff debated giving the award to others including Karl Rove, the presidents influential political adviser, and filmmakers Michael Moore and Mel Gibson.\n\nThe winner must be the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse, he said.\n\nU.S. aviator Charles Lindbergh was Times first Man of the Year in 1927. Some selections have been notoriously unpopular, such as Adolf Hitler in 1938, Joseph Stalin in 1939 and 1942, and Irans Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.\n\nThis year the magazine named the conservative Power Line as its first Blog of the Year. Kelly said blogs, Web sites that often mix news, gossip and opinion, are here to stay.Copyright 2004 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.','US'),(7059,'/2004/WORLD/meast/12/20/iraq.falluja/index.html','2004-12-20','2005-01-13 01:16:28','More than a month after U.S.-led forces conducted a major offensive in Falluja, some residents who fled the city are being allowed to return to their homes, Iraqs interim government said Monday.','','\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- More than a month after U.S.-led forces conducted a major offensive in Falluja, some residents who fled the city are being allowed to return to their homes, Iraqs interim government said Monday.\n\nBeginning Thursday, residents of the Andalus District may return, the government said in a written statement.\n\nA leaflet distributed to Fallujans staying elsewhere in Iraq -- some of them in makeshift refugee camps -- said residents of other districts will be allowed to follow later, over a period of two or three weeks. \n\nBut the government statement said the pace of returns will be adjusted according to the supply of basic services and supplies, and security requirements.\n\nBefore heavy fighting between insurgents and U.S. forces picked up months ago in Falluja, U.S. and Iraqi officials estimated the citys population at between 250,000 and 300,000.\n\nBy the time the United States began its three-week operation in November -- aimed at routing out insurgents at their home bases -- officials said less than 5 percent of Fallujans remained in the city.\n\nIn the fighting that ensued, U.S. officials said about 1,200 insurgents were killed, as were 51 U.S. troops and eight Iraqi troops. It was unclear how many civilians were killed or wounded.\n\nU.S. officials have said in recent days they would soon approve the return of residents to Falluja.\n\nThe leaflet to Fallujans promised all necessary requirements for families will be available including food, water, blankets, kerosene heaters and health care. There will also be plastic sheeting available to help families make their homes habitable. \n\nFamilies will be able to collect food rations from food distribution warehouses in the city. Water will be available from water tanks placed around the city and from water tankers.\n\nWater mains will not be available, nor will electricity.\n\nEach family will be eligible for 150,000 Iraqi dinars -- equivalent to about $100. Some poor families in Iraq get by on about that much money a month.\n\nFamilies can receive this money from banks; they do not have to return to Falluja to receive it.\n\nThe government is also compensating families for damage to their homes and possessions. \n\nThe leaflet, giving these figures in U.S. dollars, said amounts paid will range from $2,000 for slight damage or damage to possessions to $10,000 for severe damage. The assessments will be carried out within weeks of their return, the leaflet said.\n\nFamilies whose homes were destroyed will either be compensated or allocated a new home in two new housing estates which the government is planning to build in Falluja, the leaflet said.\n\nOn their way into town, families will be screened. Each family should have the Food Ration Card, Civil Affairs Identity Card or any other document to prove their identity and area of residence in Falluja, the leaflet said.\n\nVehicles will be searched, and no privately owned weapons will be allowed in.\n\nMany city residents are worried that Falluja may still be unsafe, and that heavy fighting between insurgents and U.S. or Iraqi forces could break out again.\n\nIraqs interim government sought to assuage those concerns.\n\nThe time has come for residents to return to their city of Falluja Dr. Hachem al-Hassani, the Minister for Industry and Minerals, said in the statement. He is leading Falluja rebuilding efforts.\n\nHe said U.S.-led Multi-National Forces and the interim government have done a great job in preparing the city for people to return. Explosives have been removed, standing water and sewage has been cleared and repairs have started on essential services.\n\nSecurity will be provided by Iraqi police and the Iraqi National Guard, as well as the U.S.-led forces, the statement said.\n\nThe government is determined that terrorist elements do not once again hijack Falluja and its residents.','WORLDmeast'),(7060,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/08/intelligence.key.facts/index.html','2004-12-09','2005-01-13 01:16:38','Here are some of the key provisions of the intelligence reform bill that finally made it through Congress Tuesday:','','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Here are some of the key provisions of the intelligence reform bill that finally made it through Congress Tuesday:\n\nCreates the new position of director of national intelligence, separate from the CIA director, to direct and manage the activities of agencies across the intelligence community and serve as the principal adviser to the president for intelligence concerns. The director will also have authority over much of the intelligence budget.\n\nChanges the structure of the National Counterterrorism Center, which was established last August by executive order from President Bush. Previously, the center was part of the CIA, with its director appointed by the CIA director. Now, the president will appoint the centers director, with confirmation by the Senate .The center is designed to analyze and interpret intelligence information related to terrorism and to conduct strategic planning for counterterrorism activities.\n\nRequires intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security agencies to share information, mandating links between federal, state and local agencies and the private sector, as well as creating common standards for issuing security clearances and classifying information.\n\nRequires the Department of Homeland Security to test a new advanced screening system for airline passengers; upgrade baggage screening procedures and security in baggage areas; upgrade air cargo security; improve training for federal air marshals; upgrade explosive detection systems; and develop other advanced detection equipment at airports.\n\nRequires DHS to explore new technologies to deal with possible transportation threats, such as an air defense system to protect planes from ground-launched missiles; blast-resistant cargo and baggage containers; and biometric identification for airport access.\n\nEstablishes mandatory penalties for possession or trafficking in missile systems designed to destroy aircraft.\n\nStrengthens visa application requirements and establishes a visa and passport security program within the State Department.\n\nRequires DHS to develop a system to use biometric data to track people entering and exiting the United States.\n\nAdds 10,000 full-time border patrol agents and 4,000 new investigators for Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the next five years, as well as increasing by 40,000 the number of detention beds available to house aliens awaiting deportation.\n\nRequires federal agencies to establish minimum standards for issuing drivers licenses and birth certificates, and requires DHS to establish standards for ID used to board airplanes. However, states will not be prevented from issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.\n\nBeefs up efforts to go after terrorist financing, including more funding to combat money laundering and financial crimes and more authority to track cross-border financial transactions.\n\nCreates an independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Board, made up of private citizens appointed by the president, to examine executive branch policies to make sure they don violate privacy and civil liberties.\n\nAllows grand jury information, which is normally secret, to be shared with government officials in order to prevent or respond to terrorist threats.\n\nCreates a National Counteproliferation Center to address threats from international weapons proliferation.\n\nCreates an Intelligence Directorate within the FBI to restructure the agencys intelligence capability. Intelligence personnel will also be placed in FBI field offices.\n\nRequires the FBI to update its information technology systems and report its progress to Congress.\n\nRequires DHS to devise a plan to patrol the U.S-Mexican border with remotely piloted aircraft and to test advanced technology -- including sensors, video and unmanned aircraft -- to secure the U.S.-Canadian border.\n\nMakes smuggling aliens into the United States a federal crime and establishes and Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center.\n\nCriminalizes possessing or trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.\n\nPeople who perpetrate terrorist hoaxes can be prosecuted and forced to make reimbursement for response costs.\n\nNon-citizens who receive military-type training from designated terrorist organizations can be deported.\n\nCreates watch lists for passengers on ships.\n\nUpgrades security features of pilot licenses.\n\nRequires the General Accountability Office to study potential weaknesses in the U.S. asylum system.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7061,'/2005/US/01/03/tsunami.presidents/index.html','2005-01-04','2005-01-13 01:17:07','Former Presidents Bush and Clinton launched a joint effort across partisan lines to raise money for victims of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunamis after the White House tapped them Monday to lead an effort to drum up private donations.','1992 the president he defeated in 1992. And the elder Bush defended\n','WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Presidents Bush and Clinton launched a joint effort across partisan lines to raise money for victims of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunamis after the White House tapped them Monday to lead an effort to drum up private donations. \n\nPresident George W. Bush named his two immediate predecessors on Monday, saying, The greatest source of Americas generosity is not our government; its the good heart of the American people.\n\nFlanked by his father and Clinton, Bush told reporters at the White House, I have asked two of Americas most distinguished private citizens to head a nationwide charitable fund-raising effort.\n\nThe two men will ask Americans to donate directly to reliable charities already providing help to tsunami victims, the president said.\n\nBoth former leaders emphasized that cash, rather than goods, is what relief agencies need right now.\n\nIts better to give the aid agencies the money and let them spend it as they need it the next several weeks, Clinton said on CNNs Larry King Live.\n\nI want people here at home in America and throughout the world who are listening to this program to know that if you only have a dollar, $5, $10 to give -- if a million of you do, that youll make a huge difference, Clinton said.\n\nBoth presidents said American charitable efforts could boost the image of the United States abroad.\n\nWhat is being seen around the world is something that a lot of people in these afflicted countries might not realize happens, and that is when theres a tragedy outside of our shores, America comes together, the elder Bush said.\n\nThat sends a strong message around the world of our own true compassion, Bush said. I think a lot of good can come out of this horrible disaster.\n\nThe United States has pledged $350 million in tsunami aid, the largest single contribution by a government after Japans $500 million. \n\nThe president and Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is visiting southern Asia, have said additional tens of millions of dollars will be spent on U.S. military operations to assist the victims. Even more millions have been raised through donations from private citizens.\n\nBush was criticized for initially pledging $15 million, and then raising that to $35 million two days after the disaster struck. He also was rebuked for not speaking publicly on the matter for the first three days.\n\nU.S. officials said Bush made phone calls on the matter right away and raised the pledge when the scope of the devastation became clear.\n\nAll week long, as we announced the smaller amounts, Powell said, I made it clear and the president made it clear that we knew those numbers would rise. But you can just throw a number out. You have to get some sense of what is needed.\n\nIn an earlier interview with CNN, both of the former presidents rejected criticism that President Bush and the United States were slow to respond.\n\nI don see how he could have done more, said Clinton, sitting with the president he defeated in 1992.\n\nAnd the elder Bush defended his son, saying the criticism of the administration is part of the inside-the-Beltway game.\n\nThats not what this is about. Its about saving lives, he said. Its about caring. And the president cares.\n\nEarlier Monday, the two former leaders joined President Bush and first lady Laura Bush on a visit to the embassies of the four hardest-hit countries -- Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. \n\nYou can help but be moved, the elder Bush said. I noticed President Clinton talking to a woman in one of the embassies who lost both her mother and her father and a brother, I believe it was, and it just breaks you up. \n\nU.N. officials have said it will cost billions of dollars over a period of years to rebuild the destroyed region. The World Bank, which has pledged $250 million, said Sunday it may triple that pledge later.\n\nFlorida Gov. Jeb Bush, the presidents brother who has overseen disaster relief efforts after hurricanes in his state, is visiting the region with Powell. (Full story)\n\nSecretary Powell and Gov. Bush will report their findings directly to me so we can ensure that our government provides the most effective assistance possible, the president said.\n\nThe devastation in the region defies comprehension, he said, noting that U.S. flags are flying at half-staff through Friday to honor the victims.\n\nThe government is in close contact with the governments of the affected countries. And America is playing a leading role in the relief and recovery efforts, he said.\n\nPrivate donations may alleviate pressure on the U.S. government -- which faces its largest deficit -- to contribute more money.\n\nNorway announced plans Monday to raise its pledge from $16 million to about $180 million -- an 11-fold increase that would make its contribution the single largest per capita pledge of any nation by a wide margin.\n\nWith a population of a little more than 4.5 million, Norways pledge would come out to approximately $39.50 per citizen. The U.S. pledge of $350 million comes out to $1.19 per person.\n\n','US'),(7062,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/01/japan.relief.pledge/index.html','2005-01-03','2005-01-13 01:17:23','Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has announced his nation would offer $500 million in grant aid for the tsunami-stricken regions of southern Asia.','','TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has announced his nation would offer $500 million in grant aid for the tsunami-stricken regions of southern Asia.\n\nSaturdays announcement makes Japan the single largest contributor in the relief efforts.\n\nJapan had previously pledged $30 million.\n\nThe decision to increase Japans aid comes one day after the United States increased its aid to the region from $35 million to $350 million, which at the time was the largest contribution by a nation.\n\nThe increase followed criticism that the initial amount was far from enough. (Full story)\n\nMore than $2 billion has now been pledged by the international community. \n\nAid has begun to reach tsunami victims in remote areas of Indonesia as a United Nations official says the death toll could grow from 138,000 to 150,000. (Full story)\n\nU.S. military helicopters Saturday dropped relief supplies into parts of Indonesias hard-hit Aceh province virtually cut off from the rest of the world for nearly a week after a powerful earthquake and subsequent tsunamis claimed 80,000 lives in Indonesia. \n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7063,'/2005/WORLD/meast/01/04/tsunami.saudis/index.html','2005-01-04','2005-01-13 01:17:43','Saudi Arabia, criticized in the Arab world for not offering more money for tsunami disaster relief, said Tuesday it will triple the aid it has pledged to $30 million and will hold a fund-raising telethon to benefit victims.','','RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- Saudi Arabia, criticized in the Arab world for not offering more money for tsunami disaster relief, said Tuesday it will triple the aid it has pledged to $30 million and will hold a fund-raising telethon to benefit victims.\n\nThe Saudi government, which initially pledged $10 million to the relief effort, issued a statement that it is raising its emergency humanitarian aid in light of the recent assessment of the magnitude of the tragedy.\n\nThe government said it would continue to assess the situation. (Donations by country)\n\nThe December 26 tsunamis killed more than 150,000 people in at least 11 countries along the Indian Ocean. (Full story)\n\nU.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the world has donated or pledged more than $2 billion for the relief effort. \n\nThe U.S. government has pledged $350 million in tsunami aid, the second largest single contribution behind Japans $500 million. \n\nIn addition, the Saudi Press Agency said the countrys interior minister would supervise a charity fund-raising campaign on television Thursday.\n\nIn some Internet chat rooms, users expressed anger at the reaction among Arab governments and media to the tsunami disaster.\n\nAn Arab talk-show host said, Many Arab viewers have become racist. Unfortunately, the tragedy that befell Asians has no effect on many of them.\n\nAnother observer wrote, This is a chance for Arabs to show their humanity and prove that they can give generously regardless of race, ethnicity and religion. Giving just because it is the right thing to do.\n\nOthers pointed out that Indonesia, with a death toll of 94,000 in the disaster, is the worlds most populous Muslim nation.\n\n','WORLDmeast'),(7064,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/05/asia.tsunami/index.html','2005-01-06','2005-01-13 01:17:54','South Asian countries will need $977 million in cash assistance over the next six months to recover from the tsunami disaster, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said.','','BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (CNN) -- South Asian countries will need $977 million in cash assistance over the next six months to recover from the tsunami disaster, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said. \n\nAnnan spoke at the opening of a regional summit aimed at helping Indian Ocean nations rebuild after the December 26 disaster, when a massive earthquake triggered tsunamis that devastated coastal areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand and killed people as far away as east Africa. \n\nHe told delegates that the international community must work to stop the tsunami from being followed by a second wave of death, from preventable causes.\n\nTogether, we have the power to stop those next waves, he said. (Full story)\n\nThe international community has stepped forward with pledges of more financial assistance totalling $3 billion for countries devastated by the tsunami.\n\nIn addition to raising money, the conference is focusing on the coordination of relief efforts and overcoming bottlenecks that are slowing the delivery of aid.\n\nNew promises of aid money came from Australia and Germany on Wednesday.\n\nWe are not able really to record all the generous contributions that we are getting, said U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland.\n\nThey are coming so often, and they are so big that we really have to confirm that we heard right, that the number of zeroes was right.\n\nAustralian Prime Minister John Howard said his country will donate an additional billion Australian dollars (US$764.5 million) to a partnership with Indonesia for rehabilitation in the wake of the tsunami disaster. (Full story) \n\nEarlier on Wednesday, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder announced the German government was increasing its pledge to 500 million euros (US$660 million). (Full story)\n\nSome observers have said a bidding war was underway.\n\nThe United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator says he is pleased to see what he calls competitive compassion.\n\nJan Egeland had earlier called wealthy nations stingy with their early response to the disaster.\n\nU.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had a firsthand look at damage in the Indonesian province of Aceh on Wednesday.\n\nI have never seen anything like this, Powell, a military veteran, told reporters at a news conference in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh following a two-hour helicopter tour of the surrounding area with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the brother of U.S. President George W. Bush.\n\nWeve all seen pictures on our television sets and in our newspapers of the damage that occurred here, but only by seeing it in person from a helicopter flying low over the city can you get a real appreciation of what it must have been like when the tsunami came through and caused so much death and destruction.\n\nPowell spoke shortly before millions of people in Europe observed three minutes of silence to mourn the dead and missing. (Full story)\n\nMeanwhile, a senior U.S. official said Powell is growing frustrated with the slow process of whittling down the list of unaccounted-for Americans and has told his aides he wants faster progress. \n\nPowell said there is a need to get dental records and DNA samples from relatives of those remaining unaccounted for. The bodies now being recovered are decomposed and bloated, making them hard to identify. (Full story)\n\nThe death toll from the earthquake and tsunamis, which shattered tourist resorts and seaside communities from Thailand to East Africa, has topped 155,000. \n\nMore than 94,000 of the dead were in Indonesia.\n\nBanda Aceh airport has become the nerve center of the relief effort on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, which bore the brunt of the earthquake.\n\nPowell, who will brief the U.S. president and members of Congress when he returns to Washington, said the trip gave him a better understanding of the needs of Banda Aceh and the challenges facing the Indonesian government.\n\nWashington has said it plans to double the number of U.S. military helicopters operating in the tsunami-stricken region from 46 to more than 90. (Full story)\n\nThe United States has so far pledged $350 million for relief efforts, and Powell promised more if it is needed because of the human dimensions of this catastrophe.\n\nPowell said on Tuesday in Thailand that the United States had thrown its financial and military weight into southern Asia relief efforts, not to gain favor in the Islamic world but because its what Americans do.(Full story)\n\nIndonesia is the largest Muslim nation in the world and was the hardest hit by the disaster.\n\nA contingent of U.S. Marines is in Sri Lanka, where more than 46,000 people have died and at least 14,000 are missing. \n\nIn India, officials report that almost 6,000 people are missing on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which run northward from Sumatra in the Bay of Bengal. Most of those -- more than 4,600 -- are missing from a single small island, Katchal.\n\nSo far, Indias death toll is 9,682.\n\nIndia has experienced the same difficulties as Indonesia in reaching the remote islands, which are closer to Indonesia and Thailand than to their mother country.\n\nBecause they are islands, access is even more limited, as few have any place to land an aircraft and the waves destroyed boat docks.\n\nIndonesian authorities have taken steps to protect displaced or orphaned children from traffickers after the disaster, barring people from leaving the country with children under 16 from its hard-hit Aceh province. (Full story)\n\nSweden has begun paying homage to the many nationals who died, putting on a formal and symbolic ceremony for the first bodies returning to home soil. (Full story)\n\nMyanmars rocky shoreline and the angle of the coast prevented the damage that killed more than 5,000 in Thailand and thousands more on Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are about 200 miles (320 km) off the coast, a Red Cross official told CNN (Full story)\n\nCNN Correspondents Mike Chinoy in Aceh, Satinder Bindra in Sri Lanka, and Aneesh Raman contributed to this report.\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7065,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/04/indonesia.children/index.html','2005-01-10','2005-01-13 01:18:09','Indonesian authorities have taken steps to protect displaced or orphaned children from traffickers after last weeks tsunami disaster, barring people from leaving the country with children under 16 from its hard-hit Aceh province.','','(CNN) -- Indonesian authorities have taken steps to protect displaced or orphaned children from traffickers after last weeks tsunami disaster, barring people from leaving the country with children under 16 from its hard-hit Aceh province.\n\nRiaz Saehu, the press secretary for the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, said Jakarta was implementing the measure because the government would like to protect the children from potential traffickers.\n\nWe are afraid the children can be taken advantage of, he said.\n\nThe disaster is believed to have left as many as 13,000 children orphaned in the region. \n\nBut John Budd, a spokesman for the U.N. childrens fund UNICEF, said it was unclear how many children had lost parents or were only separated from their families.\n\nBudd said the fears have been stoked by reports from relief agencies that criminal gang members in Aceh have been posing as aid workers or parents. \n\nAnd a couple was arrested on charges of attempting to traffic in children in the city of Medan, which he said was notorious for the practice -- both for adoption and for the sex trade.\n\nIn addition, an e-mail message received by a UNICEF worker in Malaysia offered 300 orphans for adoption, promising that All paperwork will be taken care of, he said.\n\nTo even start talking about orphans at the moment is utterly premature, he said.\n\nUNICEF is working with Indonesias government to set up child centers in the region to help reunite orphaned children with members of their extended families, he said. \n\nIndonesian officials and aid workers began setting up a registration system for children Tuesday, Budd said.\n\nThe Indonesian government -- the president and vice president, as well as the police here -- are deeply concerned about it, and we\re supporting them, he said.\n\nAnother UNICEF official, Simon Ingram, said there are indications traffickers are active in the tsunami-stricken regions. Asked about Indonesia barring people leaving the country with young Aceh children, he said, That was a step we were pleased they took.\n\nRuud Lubbers, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said it is unclear if trafficking is occurring on a large scale, but we are trying to prevent it.\n\nWe are prepared for this sort of behavior and terrible things, so we are cautious, he said.\n\nUNICEF has launched a four-point plan to save the children in the region:\n\n-- Focusing on basics such as clean water, adequate sanitation, nutrition and routine medical care.\n\n-- Giving a high priority to identifying children who have lost their families, and reuniting them with their extended families and communities.\n\n-- Ensuring the children are protected from child traffickers and sex predators.\n\n-- Helping children cope with the tragedy by getting them back in school as soon as possible and training teachers about signs of severe trauma.\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7066,'/2003/HEALTH/08/05/otsc.irq.gupta/index.html','2003-08-05','2005-01-13 01:18:16','Two U.S. Army medical teams are helping investigators to determine what caused about 100 cases of pneumonia in the Persian Gulf, including two deaths.','','','ROOTHEALTH'),(7067,'/2003/US/05/30/bush.trip/index.html','2003-05-30','2005-01-13 01:18:27','On the eve of a trip to Europe to attend the G-8 summit, U.S. President George W. Bush says he is not mad at France and other countries that opposed the war in Iraq.','','','ROOTUS'),(7068,'/2003/US/05/29/sprj.irq.wmd/index.html','2003-05-28','2005-01-13 01:18:40','U.S. intelligence officials say they are now confident that trucks laden with high-tech equipment found in Iraq were designed as mobile biological weapons production facilities.','','','ROOTUS'),(7069,'/2003/WORLD/meast/05/29/sprj.irq.int.weapons/index.html','2003-05-29','2005-01-13 01:18:48','Nearly two months after the fall of Saddam Husseins regime, coalition leaders are facing criticism for failing to find the weapons of mass destruction that they claimed were the reason for attacking Iraq.','','','WORLDmeast'),(7070,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/16/rice.powell/index.html','2004-11-17','2005-01-13 01:20:07','President Bush on Tuesday nominated Condoleezza Rice, his confidante and national security adviser, as secretary of state.','','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Tuesday nominated Condoleezza Rice, his confidante and national security adviser, as secretary of state. \n\nShe will succeed Colin Powell, who announced his resignation Monday. \n\nDuring the last four years I have relied on her counsel, benefited from her great experience and appreciated her sound and steady judgment, Bush said in a ceremony in the White House Roosevelt Room.\n\nBush said he was honored that she agreed to take the post.\n\nThe secretary of state is Americas face to the world, and in Dr. Rice the world will see the strength, the grace and the decency of our country, he said.\n\nBush said that Rices deputy, Steve Hadley, would succeed her as national security adviser.\n\nRice said it had been a privilege to work for Bush during his first term.\n\nI look forward, with the consent of the Senate, to pursuing your hopeful and ambitious agenda as secretary of state, she said.\n\nShe also praised Powell.\n\nIt is humbling to imagine succeeding my dear friend and mentor Colin Powell. He is one of the finest public servants our nation has ever produced, she said. Colin Powell has been a great and inspirational secretary of state. It was my honor to serve alongside him, and he will be missed. \n\nIf confirmed, Rice, who turned 50 on Sunday, would be the first black woman, and only the second woman ever, chosen as the nations top diplomat. (Rice nomination would make history)\n\nA modern-day renaissance woman who traded the stately halls of Stanford University for the political swirl of Washington, Rice became one of Bushs most trusted wartime advisers. (Hopes, fears for Rice appointment) \n\nThe secretary of state is fourth in line to succeed the president.\n\nIn the continuing shake-up, Powells longtime friend, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, submitted his letter of resignation Monday, his office told CNN Tuesday. \n\nRices nomination is among a host of personnel changes in the Bush administration.\n\nPowell is the most prominent of four Cabinet officials whose resignations were announced Monday by the White House.\n\nNow that the election is over, Powells letter to the president reads, the time has come for me to step down as secretary of state and return to private life. I, therefore, resign as the 65th secretary of state, effective at your pleasure.\n\nThe other resignations announced Monday were Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. \n\nOn Tuesday, two senior administration officials told CNN that Homeland Security Department Secretary Tom Ridge also will leave his Cabinet post, but the White House would not confirm the report. (Full story)\n\nBrian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the department, said the report was news to us. \n\nRoehrkasse said Ridge has not made any decisions about his future and at this time there have not been any discussions with the White House.\n\nPowell told reporters Monday that he will always treasure the four years that I have spent with President Bush and with the wonderful men and women of the Department of State.\n\nI think weve accomplished a great deal.\n\nPowell, after announcing his resignation, was praised Monday as a great statesman and a voice of moderation. (Powell praised)\n\nOne of Powells best-known moments as secretary of state was his speech last year to the U.N. Security Council in which he made a case for invading Iraq.\n\nHe said that Saddam Hussein was still developing weapons of mass destruction despite years of U.N. disarmament demands. Those claims about Iraq weaponry were never borne out.\n\nCNNs John King, Andrea Koppel, Suzanne Malveaux and Elise Labott contributed to this report.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7071,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/17/agriculture.secretary/index.html','2004-11-18','2005-01-13 01:20:27','Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska has been approached about becoming agriculture secretary in the Bush administration, according to two sources.','2006lly tough re-election race in 2006, running as a Democrat in a s\n','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska has been approached about becoming agriculture secretary in the Bush administration, according to two sources.\n\nHis appointment could add a second Democrat to Bushs Cabinet, as well as possibly increasing the GOPs Senate majority. \n\nRepublican Gov. Mike Johanns would get to choose Nelsons replacement, which could increase the GOPs advantage in the Senate to 56 seats.\n\nAgriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced her resignation Monday.\n\nPresident Bushs top political adviser, Karl Rove, spoke to Nelson about the possibility in a telephone conversation last Friday, according to the two sources familiar with their conversation. Nelson has thus far declined to accept what the sources described as an offer or solicitation.\n\nNelson told CNN he could not confirm or deny that an offer from Rove was made, adding that he is happy in his current job.\n\nBut when pressed as to whether he would consider the job if Bush offered it, Nelson said, Any time the president talks, you listen.\n\nAttempts to reach Rove for comment were not immediately successful. His office would not confirm or deny a specific conversation with Nelson, adding that it is Roves practice not to divulge private conversations with members of Congress.\n\nTwo Bush administration officials said they were not aware of any job offer or discussion of a Cabinet post with Nelson. However, one of the officials confirmed that Rove spoke with Nelson in recent days, characterizing the call as an effort to reach out to discuss second-term priorities.\n\nNelson, 63, a former two-term governor, faces a potentially tough re-election race in 2006, running as a Democrat in a state that Bush carried by 33 points. However, the Nebraska moderate has been willing to cross the aisle to support Bushs agenda, including his tax cuts and the war in Iraq.\n\nGiven Nelsons past work with the administration, a senior administration aide said he had certainly the profile of someone we would look at because of his past experience as a governor. He also hails from a major farm state.\n\nCurrently, the only Democrat in Bushs Cabinet is Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. ','ALLPOLITICS'),(7072,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/08/cnna.feinstein/index.html','2004-12-09','2005-01-13 01:20:42','Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday said a plane carrying a bipartisan group of senators who were leaving Iraq had to take evasive action after an apparent surface-to-air missile was fired at it.','','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday said a plane carrying a bipartisan group of senators who were leaving Iraq had to take evasive action after an apparent surface-to-air missile was fired at it.\n\nCNNs Wolf Blitzer spoke to the Democratic lawmaker from California about her close call and what she saw on the ground during her fact-finding mission to Iraq.\n\nBLITZER: Before we get to the substance, give us your bottom-line assessment right now. Is the country ready for elections January 30?\n\nFEINSTEIN: I think its tough.\n\nI think fear is back. I think the de-Baathification program went too deep and threw out of work too many Sunnis who have now become part of the problem, instead of part of the solution. And that is not going to get settled in the election. \n\nMy hope is that they will put together a strong unity ticket. I really believe thats the only solution at this stage.\n\nAnd Im really surprised I haven heard it discussed more. But it may be safe in 14 provinces, but it certainly isn in the Sunni Triangle.\n\nBLITZER: How dangerous was it? For example, even in the most secure part of the Green Zone in Baghdad, where you were, how frightened were you?\n\nFEINSTEIN: Well, when we came in, about a half-hour before, a missile or a rocket, had hit the cell phone center. It killed four people. The next day, 20 people were killed.\n\nSo, its an ongoing occurrence. And, you know, if they have .81-millimeter rockets, they can launch them from many miles away and they\re just kind of launched blind right into Iraq. So its terrible, what they do to people and the fear that it restores in people.\n\nAnd, you know, its a very serious situation, because, when people are afraid like this and theres still sewage in the streets and they don have electricity 24/7 and food is difficult, all they yearn for is some form of normalcy.\n\nBLITZER: There was a very disturbing report. We spoke with Sen. Chuck Hagel, who was on this trip a few days ago.\n\nWhen you took off on that C-130 military transport plane from Baghdad, you were flying already, and there was concern a missile had been launched against your plane. You were inside. What was going on? Talk a little bit about that.\n\nFEINSTEIN: Well, when we got into the C-130, right in the middle of it was a flag-draped coffin with two military people standing at attention. That was sobering, very sobering in and of itself.\n\nAnd then all the lights go out, and its completely black. And the C-130 takes off. And then there are little portholes in the side. And you can see out of the porthole these flashing lights. And we didn know what they were. And the plane takes evasive action, which is something else. I mean, you go up and down and sideways very fast. So, we knew something was happening. We didn know quite what. And, afterwards, when we landed in Kuwait, I asked the pilot if that really was a missile coming at us. And he said there was no way of him knowing, that, the minute the flares go off, he takes the evasive action.\n\nBLITZER: Did you ever think it was all over you for, Sen. Feinstein?\n\nFEINSTEIN: Well, not really, but it got a little dicey. But I didn think it was all over.\n\nBLITZER: So, what is your bottom-line assessment now as you look back on what you saw? You heard the comments today from Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. He was questioned pointedly by U.S. troops in Kuwait heading into Iraq. They don think they have enough armor for their vehicles. They\re clearly deeply concerned. And a lot of them are National Guard and Reserve troops who don necessarily want to be there.\n\nFEINSTEIN: Well, soldiers told us they didn think they had enough equipment.\n\nNow, this wasn the brass. This is the rank-and-file people. And one general said, for example, he needed a trained Iraqi army division in Falluja. And he said, whatever you could do, pass it on. So we passed it on wherever we could when we went back to Baghdad, to Gen. Casey, to others. And, I mean, its clear that they need more, and particularly now, because incidents are happening on a regular basis.\n\nBLITZER: We\re glad you\re back safe and sound, Sen. Feinstein. Thanks for joining us.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7073,'/2004/WORLD/meast/12/09/rumsfeld.reporter/index.html','2004-12-10','2005-01-13 01:21:20','The question a U.S. soldier asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday about the lack of armor on some combat vehicles in Iraq was planted by a newspaper reporter embedded with the soldiers unit, the reporter told colleagues in an e-mail.','','\n\n(CNN) -- The question a U.S. soldier asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday about the lack of armor on some combat vehicles in Iraq was planted by a newspaper reporter embedded with the soldiers unit, the reporter told colleagues in an e-mail.\n\nEdward Lee Pitts, Chattanooga Times Free Press military affairs reporter, said he wanted to ask the question himself but was denied a chance to speak to Rumsfeld at what the Pentagon called a town hall meeting for GIs in Kuwait.\n\nPitts wrote the e-mail to co-workers at the Tennessee newspaper Wednesday, and it was published Thursday on the Web site of the Poynter Institute, a center for journalistic studies in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Papers editor responds)\n\nI just had one of my best days as a journalist today, Pitts wrote from Kuwait, where he is embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, a Tennessee National Guard outfit preparing for deployment to Iraq.\n\nAs luck would have it, our journey North was delayed just long enough so I could attend a visit today here by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.\n\nSoldiers at Camp Buehring, a staging area in the Kuwait desert, peppered Rumsfeld with queries, including one about armored vehicles from Spc. Thomas Wilson of the 278th. (Full story)\n\nWhy do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles? Wilson asked.\n\nThe question prompted cheers from some of the approximately 2,300 troops assembled in a hangar to hear Rumsfeld.\n\nPitts said he was told only soldiers could ask questions, so he and two GIs worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor their vehicles going into combat have.\n\nTo make sure the soldiers were picked, Pitts said he found the Sgt. in charge of the microphone for the question and answer session and made sure he knew to get my guys out of the crowd.\n\nWilson was the second soldier recognized.\n\nWhen he asked Rumsfeld why after two years here soldiers are still having to dig through trash bins to find rusted scrap metal and cracked ballistic windows for their Humvees, Pitts wrote, the place erupted in cheers so loud that Rumsfeld had to ask the guy to repeat his question.\n\nRumsfeld said armored military vehicles have been brought to the region from all over the world, from where they\re not needed to a place they\re needed.\n\nIts essentially a matter of physics, not a matter of money, Rumsfeld said. Its a matter of production and the capability of doing it.\n\nAs you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want.\n\nRumsfelds response was aired repeatedly on news channels, including CNN. The Pentagon held news conferences to discuss the issue.\n\nEven President Bush weighed in, telling reporters at the White House Thursday that the military is working to address the issue, and that he didn blame the soldier for asking such a tough question.\n\nIf I were a soldier overseas wanting to defend my country, I would want to ask the secretary of defense the same question. And that is, Are we getting the best we can get us? And they deserve the best, Bush said. \n\nIn his e-mail, Pitts said he had been trying to get this story out since he learned several weeks ago that he would be assigned to an unarmored truck, and the Times Free Press published two stories on the issue.\n\nBut it felt good to hand it off to the national press, Pitts wrote. I believe lives are at stake with so many soldiers going across the border riding with scrap metal as protection. It may be too late for the unit I am with, but hopefully not for those who come after.\n\nPitts wrote that Wilson told him he felt good b/c he took his complaints to the top. When he got back to his unit most of the guys patted him on the back but a few of the officers were upset b/c they thought it would make them look bad.\n\nMilitary officials had given the Tennessee Guard unit reassurance all along that this would be taken care of, said Tom Griscom, the papers publisher and executive editor.\n\nWe have pictures of soldiers in the 278th literally going through [a] scrap heap scavenging steel plate for their vehicles, Griscom said.\n\nThey [the soldiers] spoke for themselves, Griscom said.\n\nGriscom said he supported the way Pitts handled the situation.\n\nLee called in here yesterday on the [satellite] phone, told us how the questions had unfolded, he said.\n\nI am supportive of his trying to find a way to get a question asked, Griscom said.\n\nThough there was some discussion at the paper about Pitts handling of the matter, Griscom said, I would not start by saying we made a mistake. I personally do not think we made a mistake.\n\nProfessor Stuart Loory, who holds the Lee Hills Chair in Free Press Studies at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, said he doesn consider the manner in which the question was asked to be a problem for the reporter.\n\nReporters don have the same access any longer that they did to ask their own questions, he said. And planting a legitimate question with somebody who may have the access, I think, is an acceptable practice.\n\nThe question is whether or not the soldier who asked the question really believed in it, and my guess is that he did, or he wouldn have asked it, said Loory, who also is editor in chief of Global Journalist magazine.\n\nPentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita disagreed.\n\nTown hall meetings are intended for soldiers to have dialogue with the secretary of defense, Di Rita said in a news release.\n\n... The secretary provides ample opportunity for interaction with the press. It is better that others not infringe on the troops opportunity to interact with superiors in the chain of command.','WORLDmeast'),(7074,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/14/mccain.ap/index.html','2004-12-14','2005-01-13 01:21:32','U.S. Sen. John McCain said Monday that he has "no confidence" in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, citing Rumsfelds handling of the war in Iraq and the failure to send more troops.','2008t not right now, he said of a 2008 presidential bid. Pentagon s\n','\n\nPHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain said Monday that he has no confidence in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, citing Rumsfelds handling of the war in Iraq and the failure to send more troops.\n\nMcCain, speaking to The Associated Press in an hourlong interview, said his comments were not a call for Rumsfelds resignation, explaining that President Bush can have the team that he wants around him.\n\nAsked about his confidence in the secretarys leadership, McCain recalled fielding a similar question a couple weeks ago.\n\nI said no. My answer is still no. No confidence, McCain said.\n\nHe estimated an additional 80,000 Army personnel and 20,000 to 30,000 more Marines would be needed to secure Iraq.\n\nI have strenuously argued for larger troop numbers in Iraq, including the right kind of troops -- linguists, special forces, civil affairs, etc., said McCain, R-Arizona. There are very strong differences of opinion between myself and Secretary Rumsfeld on that issue.\n\nWhen asked if Rumsfeld was a liability to the Bush administration, McCain responded: The president can decide that, not me.\n\nMcCain, a decorated Navy veteran and former Vietnam prisoner of war, is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has oversight of military operations and considerable influence over the Pentagon budget.\n\nIf Senate Republicans maintain their majority two years from now, McCain would be in line to become the committees chairman, something he said hed weigh when considering whether to run for president again.\n\nIn a couple of years I might give it some consideration, but not right now, he said of a 2008 presidential bid.\n\nPentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said McCain has frequently expressed his views regarding troop levels in Iraq, and he is an important member of the committee.\n\nRumsfeld has relied upon the judgment of the military commanders to determine what force levels are appropriate for the situation at hand, Di Rita said.\n\nDespite the troop levels, McCain believes military morale remains high, but he acknowledged that involuntary extensions of tours of duty were frustrating to soldiers.\n\nHe said Iraq must have a functioning independent government before U.S. troops leave.\n\nI believe well be in Iraq militarily for many years, which would not be a problem to the American people, he said. I think what is not acceptable to the American people is an increasing flow of dead and wounded.Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7075,'/2004/WORLD/meast/12/16/iraq.main/index.html','2004-12-16','2005-01-13 01:21:37','Saddam Hussein met Thursday with an attorney for the first time since his capture last year, a member of his legal defense team said.','1974lling of religious figures in 1974; gassing of Kurds in Halabja \n1988in 1988; killing the Kurdish Barzani \n1983clan in 1983; killing members of political\n1986ies in the last 30 years; the 1986-88 \\Anfal\\ campaign of \n1991Kurds; the suppression of the 1991 uprisings by Kurds and Shiite\n1990s; and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The charg\n1980 gassing of Kurds in the late 1980s, noting that the casualties o\n2003 captured him on December 13, 2003. Ghazzawi contends that the \n','\n\n(CNN) -- Saddam Hussein met Thursday with an attorney for the first time since his capture last year, a member of his legal defense team said.\n\nJordanian Issam Ghazzawi, who is in Amman, told CNN that the ousted Iraqi leader talked with lawyer Khalil al-Dollemeh for about four hours.\n\nHes in very good health. Hes in ... very high spirits. Everything is OK with him, Ghazzawi said about Saddam. \n\nGhazzawi said that Saddam brought his notes and his requests, and he thanked the members of the committee.\n\nAt a July hearing, seven preliminary charges were outlined in the former rulers arrest warrant -- the killing of religious figures in 1974; gassing of Kurds in Halabja in 1988; killing the Kurdish Barzani clan in 1983; killing members of political parties in the last 30 years; the 1986-88 \\Anfal\\ campaign of displacing Kurds; the suppression of the 1991 uprisings by Kurds and Shiites; and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The charges were not formal. (Full story)\n\nOf course, hes not guilty, said Ghazzawi, contending that the criminal proceedings are unfair and that Saddam legally remains president of Iraq.\n\nHe said Saddam had total immunity for any acts committed as president of Iraq and as a member of the Revolutionary Command Council before becoming the nations ruler.\n\nGhazzawi blamed Iran for the gassing of Kurds in the late 1980s, noting that the casualties occurred during the Iran-Iraq war.\n\nThe meeting came as an Iraqi special tribunal gears up proceedings against war crimes suspects, including the ex-dictator and 11 other high-profile members of his former regime.\n\nThe Iraqi Defense Ministry said this week that Ali Hassan al-Majid -- also known as Chemical Ali -- would be tried first, possibly by the end of the month. (Full story)\n\nMinistry of Justice official Nouri Abdul-Rahim said Saddam will be the last of senior leaders to enter the war crimes trial process. U.S. forces captured him on December 13, 2003.\n\nGhazzawi contends that the American invasion of Iraq was illegal and that L. Paul Bremer, former head of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, did not have the right to order the formation the court.\n\nGhazzawi said he doubted Saddam could get a fair trial in Iraq but indicated it is possible for a transparent proceeding elsewhere.\n\nWell defend our client to the best of our ability, he said.Iraqi official gunned down\n\nWhile the former regime faces trial soon, the interim government continues to be a target of violence.\n\nA senior Iraqi Communications Ministry official was gunned down early Thursday in Baghdad, a ministry spokesman said.\n\nSuspected insurgents killed Kassim Imhawi, director general of the ministry, in a drive-by shooting. A car pulled along side Imhawis vehicle, riddled it with bullets and fled, the spokesman said. The attack also killed one of Imhawis bodyguards and wounded two others, the representative said.\n\nGovernment officials often have been the targets of insurgents, who consider them to be collaborators with the United States.Al-Zarqawi may be in Baghdad\n\nThe most wanted man in Iraq, Islamic militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is most likely in Baghdad after losing his sanctuary in the western city of Falluja, but he is having a tougher time planning and launching attacks, a top U.S. general says.\n\nHe can operate pretty safely, we think, said Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy chief of U.S. forces in the Middle East, on Wednesday.\n\nIn some areas of Baghdad, there are those that would hide him and those that would passively allow him to operate. You can find him someplace else tomorrow.\n\nThe United States has offered a $25 million reward for al-Zarqawis death or capture, accusing him of leading a terrorist network inside Iraq.\n\nAl-Zarqawi leads the al Qaeda-allied Base of Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for attacks on U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces and the beheading of international hostages.\n\nU.S. soldiers and Marines, aided by about 2,000 troops from Iraqs fledgling army, recaptured Falluja in November after insurgents had effectively controlled the city for months.Other developments\n\nCiting a dangerous environment in Iraq, Britains Foreign and Commonwealth Office updated its travel advisory, urging citizens against travel to Baghdad and the provinces of Al Anbar, Salah ad Din, Diyala, Wasit and Babil, the British Embassy said Thursday. \n\nThe Italian Foreign Ministry said Thursday it is investigating a report that an Italian was abducted and killed in Iraq, cautioning that nothing has been confirmed. The ministry said The Associated Press contacted it after a photographer in Iraq claimed insurgents showed him the body of a man killed in Iraq with papers identifying him as Salvatore Santoro, 52, of Italy. The government said Santoro previously contacted the Italian Embassy in Lebanon and said he was going to Iraq with a British humanitarian aid company.\n\nThe U.S. Army will spend $4.1 billion over the next several months to ensure that all of its wheeled vehicles in Iraq are properly armored, Army officials said Wednesday. The project should be completed by June. About 40 percent of wheeled vehicles, including Humvees and transport trucks, in Iraq are awaiting proper armor to be added on, Army officials said. The Pentagon and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have been criticized over the lack of armored vehicles.\n\nCNNs Kevin Flower, Chris Lawrence, Mike Mount, Karl Penhaul, Cal Perry and Auday Sadik contributed to this report.','WORLDmeast'),(7076,'/2004/WORLD/meast/12/18/iraq.tribunal/index.html','2004-12-18','2005-01-13 01:21:47','Captured former Iraqi official Ali Hassan al-Majid -- also known as "Chemical Ali" -- and another jailed member of Saddam Husseins regime were interrogated in court Saturday before a tribunal of investigative judges.','1988n, allegedly orchestrated the 1988 chemical weapons attack on Ir\n2003as taken into U.S. custody in 2003. Pictures from the court tri\n1990 Iraq invaded that country in 1990. In April 2003, coalition o\n2003. In April 2003, coalition o\n','\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Captured former Iraqi official Ali Hassan al-Majid -- also known as Chemical Ali -- and another jailed member of Saddam Husseins regime were interrogated in court Saturday before a tribunal of investigative judges.\n\nIraqi officials have said al-Majid will be among the first officials from the Saddam era to be tried in war crime proceedings. But tribunal leader Raad al-Juhyi said the hearing was not part of the upcoming trials.\n\nThe panel of judges also questioned Saddams former defense minister, Sultan Hashem Ahmed, al-Juhyi said. Attorneys for the two men were present, the panel head said, giving no details of what was said in the hearing.\n\nThe hearing was closed to the media.\n\nSaddam and 11 high-profile members of his ousted regime face war crime allegations, and Iraqi officials have said al-Majids trial would begin before the end of December.\n\nAt one point, interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi had said trials would begin next week.\n\nAl-Majid, who also is Saddams cousin, allegedly orchestrated the 1988 chemical weapons attack on Iraqi Kurds.\n\nMost accounts, including those of international humanitarian organizations, say more than 5,000 Kurds were killed in the attack.\n\nAl-Majid was taken into U.S. custody in 2003.\n\nPictures from the court tribunal showed al-Majid handcuffed and dressed in a jacket and shirt with no tie. He walked with a cane.\n\nInterim Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said the investigation of ex-defense minister Ahmed is aimed largely at gathering information for al-Majids trial.\n\nMuch is riding on the first trial -- it could help to determine whether the nations new judicial system has legitimacy in the eyes of Iraqis, Americans and the world. It also will help set a tone and pattern for future cases, leading up to Saddams trial.\n\nMany international observers have said they are concerned that Iraqs judicial system, established as part of the interim government, may not be prepared to hold trials of such magnitude.\n\nSaleh acknowledged the system is not up to where it should be, but he said there is substantial evidence against the top members of the former regime.\n\nAl-Majid was the king of spades in the deck of cards issued by the U.S. military and No. 5 on the American list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis.\n\nHe was a general, presidential adviser, a member of Saddams inner circle, commander of the Baath Party Regional Command, a member of the Revolutionary Command Council and head of the Central Workers Bureau.\n\nHe coordinated the resistance in southern Iraq during the war, according to the U.S.-led coalition, and was the de facto governor of Kuwait after Iraq invaded that country in 1990. \n\nIn April 2003, coalition officials initially suspected al-Majid was killed in a U.S.-led airstrike on his house, but they later retracted the claim. He then was thought to have been in hiding in northern Iraq, possibly in Tikrit, home of his clan.','WORLDmeast'),(7077,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/03/woman.survivor.tree.ap/index.html','2005-01-03','2005-01-13 01:22:06','A Malaysian tuna ship rescued an Indonesian woman who drifted for five days in the Indian Ocean after last weeks tsunami swept her out to sea from her home on Sumatra island, an official said Monday.','','KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- A Malaysian tuna ship rescued an Indonesian woman who drifted for five days in the Indian Ocean after last weeks tsunami swept her out to sea from her home on Sumatra island, an official said Monday. \n\nMelawati, 23, was spotted alive Friday while clinging to an uprooted sago palm tree in waters near Aceh province, said Goi Kim Par, manager of the Malaysian International Tuna Port.\n\nMelawati uses only one name. \n\nShe suffered leg injuries and was extremely weak, but remained conscious and arrived for medical treatment Monday afternoon at Malaysias northwestern Penang island, Goi added. \n\nIt was not immediately clear when or how she would return to Aceh, he said.\n\n Meanwhile, the Malaysian government said it will allow the countrys airspace and at least two airports to be used for tsunami relief operations in Indonesia.\n\n The U.N. World Food Program is expected to use the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Airport on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur as a staging post for supplies to be dropped off before they are sent on to Aceh province on Sumatra island, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.\n\n Malaysia will also let the United States use its airspace and northern Langkawi airport to dispatch humanitarian assistance to Aceh, the statement added. \n\nRegional officials have said airports in the Sumatran towns of Medan and Banda Aceh are overstretched because of the massive amount of aid and personnel arriving. \n\nThe island of Penang might also open up its main airport for donors to drop off supplies if the federal government approves it, said Penang Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon. \n\nSeparately, the International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, expressed hope that a one-day donors summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday would improve how international aid is being coordinated to help Asian countries recover from the tsunamis. \n\nFor example, some parts of Sri Lanka have a surplus of aid, while others have not enough, Azrul Mohamad Khalib, a Kuala Lumpur-based ICRC spokesman, told a news conference. \n\nMalaysias death toll from last weeks tsunami climbed to 68 after a two-year-old girl succumbed to injuries late Sunday following a week in an intensive care ward. \n\nMore than 200 people were injured and more than 7,000 evacuated on Malaysias northwestern coast, which is separated from Sumatra by a narrow strait \n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7078,'/2005/US/01/03/powell/index.html','2005-01-03','2005-01-13 01:22:13','A U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Colin Powell was expected to arrive Monday in Bangkok, Thailand, on the first stop of a tour to the tsunami-devastated regions of southern Asia.','','WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Colin Powell was expected to arrive Monday in Bangkok, Thailand, on the first stop of a tour to the tsunami-devastated regions of southern Asia.\n\nJoining Powell is Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the presidents brother who helped oversee disaster relief following deadly hurricanes in his state.\n\nThe delegation planned to visit the Thai island of Phuket before traveling to Jakarta, Indonesia, Powell told CBS Face the Nation.\n\nOn Thursday, Powell, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other world leaders are scheduled to attend a donor conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta. (Full story)\n\nPowell said the U.S. delegation hoped to visit the Indonesian province of Aceh, which was badly damaged by the powerful waves.\n\nBefore returning to the United States on Friday, the delegation plans to stop in Sri Lanka, he said.\n\nOthers in the delegation include Mike Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency; Andrew Nations, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development; and James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.\n\nThe death toll from the December 26 tsunamis stood at more than 156,000 on Monday. (Full story)\n\nBush told reporters before leaving Miami that the mission was to determine immediate and long-term relief and reconstruction needs, and also to show that our country really cares.\n\nI know the president has deep concerns about what has happened, said Bush, whose state was battered by four major hurricanes over the summer. And the fact that Im his brother, symbolically, may give some people a sense that the president really does care, as he does.\n\nHe said the hurricane damage his state sustained pales by comparison to what happened in these countries. Florida is expected to receive about $10 billion in disaster aid by the time reconstruction efforts are complete, the governor said.\n\nOn Sunday, Powell sharply rebutted criticism that the initial U.S. response to the disaster was slow and inadequate.\n\nI think that we have responded appropriately, he told CNNs Late Edition, adding, We\re a little push-backy, I guess I can say, with respect to the claims that we didn respond well. We did.\n\nThe United States has committed $350 million in relief funds, the largest contribution behind Japans $500 million. (Full story)\n\nThe United Nations says a total of $2 billion has been promised. \n\nU.S. military aid flights have delivered about 215 tons of relief supplies to the battered region, said Capt. Rodger Welch, a Navy operations officer in Hawaii. And a contingent of 200 Marine combat engineers based in Okinawa, Japan, will join the American task force already dispatched to the region to help distribute that aid, Welch said. \n\nU.N. and regional leaders have praised the planned mission and U.S. support for the region.\n\nU.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland, who sparked international debate last week when he called wealthy nations stingy with foreign aid in general, told Late Edition the United States has been ideal in the way it has responded to the disaster.\n\nThey have also provided military assets that we are reliant upon now, as we try to reach out to the most remote places in Sumatra and Aceh, which are the worst-hit of the areas, he said.\n\n','US'),(7079,'/2004/US/12/31/us.aid/index.html','2004-12-31','2005-01-13 01:22:27','The United States will increase its aid pledge from $35 million to $350 million to help victims of the tsunamis in south Asia, CNN has learned.','','\n\n(CNN) -- -- The United States will increase its aid pledge from $35 million to $350 million to help victims of the tsunamis in south Asia, CNN has learned. \n\nThe increase followed criticism that the initial amount was far from enough. \n\nThe director of the U.S. Agency for International Development told CNN on Friday that the $35 million pledge was only the first step in U.S. aid to the countries that were devastated by Sundays earthquake and tsunamis.\n\nThe money was committed on Sunday when the emergency took place, Andrew Natsios told CNNs American Morning. Its action on the ground that is needed. We will get more than enough money from the president and Im sure Congress later on when we need it.\n\nSen. Patrick Leahy Thursday said the intial U.S. offer gave the wrong impression to the rest of the world.\n\nThats about half of what the little country of Spain is spending, the Vermont Democrat said. We have to spend a great deal more than that. We should have been eagerly telling that part of the word, especially the Muslim part of that world, that we here in America are generous, a good people, and we are strongly committed to help them.\n\nMore than 135,000 deaths had been reported Friday in several countries along the Indian Ocean and that number was expected to climb as reports come in from remote parts of the region.\n\nGetting aid into Indonesias Aceh province has been difficult because of an ongoing civil war. Natsios said the U.S. has been able to reallocate staff and supplies into areas of the province that were untouched for four days after the quake and subsequent tsunami struck.\n\nUnited Nations officials said that the international community had pledged a combined half-a-billion dollars in support, and that figure jumped to more than $800 million Friday when the United States increased its pledge.','US'),(7080,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/01/asia.quake/index.html','2005-01-02','2005-01-13 01:22:44','Survivors in the remote Indonesian town of Keude Teunom swarmed U.S. military helicopters ferrying water, medicine and other supplies Saturday to devastated areas of the country hard to reach by road.','2004rian emergencies worldwide in 2004, he said. Egeland said the\n','BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (CNN) -- Survivors in the remote Indonesian town of Keude Teunom swarmed U.S. military helicopters ferrying water, medicine and other supplies Saturday to devastated areas of the country hard to reach by road. \n\nDozens of survivors ran across the mud-covered earth to reach the choppers. Most of the town in the Aceh province has been destroyed. The only buildings left standing are shells of what previously existed. \n\nAceh has drowned. We are finished. There is nothing, one survivor in the village on the west coast of Sumatra said. \n\nAnother man said simply, Thank you, thank you. \n\nOne helicopter brought milk and nutritional supplements. Another brought a medical team to assess the survivors. Other helicopters were due to bring in water and other supplies.\n\nA CNN correspondent who was on one of the military helicopters said the flight was startling.\n\nWe passed town after town after town that looked like it had been literally flattened by an atomic bomb, Mike Chinoy said.\n\nOn the ground were scenes of extraordinary desperation, he said.\n\nThe remote regions of Aceh province in Indonesia are the focus of attempts to save survivors and prevent the possible spread of disease, aid workers said. \n\nThe estimated death toll rose Saturday to more than 140,000 people in the 11 Asian and African nations affected by a magnitude 9 earthquake and resulting tsunamis nearly a week ago. About 80,000 of the dead were in Indonesia.\n\nU.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland predicted Saturday that 5 million people ultimately will be affected by the disaster, including 1 million homeless.\n\nMany of the early troubles that slowed relief efforts -- including fuel shortages and airport logjams -- have been fixed, a U.N. official said Saturday.\n\nAuthorities set up a staging ground at the Banda Aceh airport where Australian C-130s and Indonesian military planes brought in supplies.\n\nU.S. UH-60 helicopters from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, each able to carry more than 3,000 pounds of supplies, were then dispatched to the remotest regions.\n\nThe U.S. military also distributed aid to the remote western coastal town of Meulaboh, where Indonesias government believes at least half of the 50,000 residents were wiped out by the tsunamis.\n\nThe massive waves left the town inaccessible by vehicle after destroying roads and bridges.\n\nMeanwhile, about 200 U.S. Marines will deploy Sunday to Colombo, Sri Lanka, to help organize a relief effort, said Jeffrey Lunstead, the U.S. ambassador to the country. \n\nLunstead said he told Sri Lankan officials, Tell us what you need and we will get it for you. \n\nPresident George W. Bush said in his weekly radio address: As the people of this devastated region struggle to recover, we offer our love and compassion, and our assurance that America will be there to help.\n\nHe said that U.S. flags will be flown at half-staff this week. (Full story)\n\nSecretary of State Colin Powell and Bushs brother Jeb, governor of Florida, will lead a U.S. mission to the region Sunday. (Full story)\n\nEleven ships from the Indian navy were dispatched to Sri Lanka and military helicopters ferried in supplies, part of a $25 million aid effort. \n\nThe office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said it would begin an emergency airlift on Sunday to Indonesia that should get 400 tons of supplies to 100,000 people in Aceh province.\n\nPledges of international financial support for countries devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunamis have reached $2 billion, Egeland said Saturday. \n\nThe new amount, which includes contributions from many countries and the World Bank, is larger than what was pledged following all of the other humanitarian emergencies worldwide in 2004, he said. \n\nEgeland said the United Nations needs cargo airplanes, 100 boats, several hundred trucks, 10 fully equipped base camps with staff support for the aid personnel and water treatment units. \n\nJapans prime minister said Saturday his country had increased its funding pledge to $500 million from $30 million. (Full story) \n\nU.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will attend a donor conference Thursday in Jakarta, Indonesia, the United Nations said Saturday. Afterward, he will visit stricken areas in the region, said U.N. spokesman Brendan Varma.\n\nAnnan will press for pledges then visit some of the tsunami-stricken areas in south Asia, Varma said. (Full story)\n\nAid workers are concerned primarily with providing clean water and proper sanitation, a World Health Organization official said Saturday. \n\nGiven the very difficult conditions in which people are now living, it seems very, very likely that we\re going to get some increases in disease and therefore death, said Dr. David Nabarro, executive director of Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments for the WHO. \n\nA second wave of death could come if diseases such as cholera, pneumonia and malaria break out on a widespread scale, Nabarro said. \n\nRelief workers in the eastern Sri Lankan provinces of Batticaloa and Ampara were hampered Saturday by flash floods that displaced about 3,000 residents from camps and makeshift homes. \n\nThailand will set up a panel to discuss an early warning tsunami system, a government spokesman said. The panel will be led by a Thai meteorologist, said the spokesman, who did not give details when the panel would convene.\n\nSome New Years celebrations around the world were canceled while others were somber. (Full story)\n\nCNNs Mike Chinoy in Banda Aceh, Indonesia; Atika Shubert in Medan, Indonesia; Satinder Bindra in Galle, Sri Lanka contributed to this report. Journalist Iqbal Athas in Colombo, Sri Lanka, also contributed.\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7081,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/04/asia.quake/index.html','2005-01-05','2005-01-13 01:22:53','U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the United States is throwing its financial and military weight into southern Asian relief efforts not to gain favor in the Islamic world but because its what Americans do.','','JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the United States is throwing its financial and military weight into southern Asian relief efforts not to gain favor in the Islamic world but because its what Americans do.\n\nThe opportunity for Muslims to see American values in action is a welcome byproduct, he said.\n\nThe United States is responding the way it is because this is a human catastrophe, the secretary said at a news conference after his arrival in Jakarta, Indonesia Tuesday.\n\nIn my career in public service, I have never seen anything like this.\n\nPowell said the United States has so far pledged $350 million for the relief -- and promises more if thats needed -- because of the human dimensions of this catastrophe.\n\nAnd it turns out that a majority of those nations are Muslim nations, he said. Wed be doing it if they weren .\n\nWashington also plans to double the number of U.S. military helicopters operating in the tsunami-stricken regions from 46 to more than 90. (Full story)\n\nIndonesia, where Powell will attend a meeting of officials from countries affected by the tsunamis on Thursday, is the largest Muslim nation in the world and was the hardest hit by the December 26 earthquake and tsunamis.\n\nWe are doing it regardless of religion, Powell said, but I think it does give the Muslim world -- and the rest of the world -- an opportunity to see American generosity, American values in action, where we care about the dignity of every individual and the worth of every individual. (Full story)\n\nMeanwhile, a contingent of U.S. Marines has arrived in Sri Lanka, charged with Herculean humanitarian tasks left in the wake of last months devastating tsunamis.\n\nBy Wednesday, between 900 and 1,200 Marines will be in Sri Lanka, along with heavy-lifting helicopters, bulldozers, generators and tonnes of food, water and medical supplies.\n\nWater will happen pretty fast, Brig. Gen. Frank Panter, told CNN. We have bottled water. We also have reverse osmosis purification units.\n\nPanters Marines are bound for Sri Lankas southern coast.\n\nWe can remove some of the debris, bring water purification and medical support, the general said. Weve estimated, with the force load that we have planned, in about four days we can start making a significant impact.\n\nThe death toll from the December 26 earthquake and tsunamis, which shattered tourist resorts and seaside communities from Thailand to East Africa, has reached 155,000 -- a number the U.N.s top emergency relief official says is not close to final.\n\nIve already said I thought it would be well above 150,000 total, said Jan Egeland. How many tens of thousands more, we don know.\n\nMost of those additional tens of thousands will likely be found in two areas hit first by the gigantic waves that followed the magnitude 9 earthquake -- the west coast of Indonesias Sumatra Island, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of the quakes epicenter, and Indias Nicobar Islands, about 400 kilometers (300 miles) north.\n\nIndonesian authorities have put the death toll there at 94,000 with thousands still missing. Hundreds of villages along the coast have vanished. All that remains are a few blocks or pieces of wood -- and in some cases a mosque, better built than other buildings.\n\nRoads and bridges, too, are gone, making reaching the survivors -- who would have been forced to flee into the hills and mountains and rain forests beyond the coast -- all but impossible.\n\nAid packages for Indonesia come first to Medan, on the east coast, then northwest by airplane to Banda Aceh, the capital of the hardest hit province, Aceh. \n\nFrom Banda Aceh, U.S. helicopters fly aid to survivors where they are found.\n\nThat process hit a snag early Tuesday when a commercial 737 cargo plane hit a water buffalo on the runway, damaging a landing gear and forcing the closure of the airport to fixed-wing aircraft for several hours.\n\nU.S. Navy Capt. Matt Klunder told CNN that enough supplies were on hand that the snag did not hinder the relief effort, and eventually, Navy crewmen from the USS Lincoln and relief workers repaired the landing gear and helped pull the plane off the runway.\n\nWhen the helicopters return to the airport, they usually bring a load of seriously injured people who have gone without medical care for 10 days.\n\nThe chopper pilots once took those victims directly to one of two functioning hospitals in the capital, but they have been ordered to stop because both facilities are overflowing with injured. \n\nNow, officials said, the injured are being treated at a makeshift medical clinic at the airport.\n\nMany of those less seriously injured are walking up the beach, subsisting on coconuts as they try to make their way to help.\n\nIts hard to say youve ever planned for anything on this magnitude, because, frankly, we haven seen anything of this size before, said Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, at a Tuesday briefing held by the Department of Defense. \n\nFargo said he could not give a cost estimate for the relief effort. \n\nA lot of these costs, of course, have taken place already, he said. I mean, a lot of these funds have already been expended for deployments to provide the presence and deterrence in the western Pacific. ...\n\nThe American taxpayers made an investment in a very solid and robust military capability that has a wide range of uses. And we\re demonstrating the value of that investment today.\n\nIndian officials report that almost 6,000 people are missing on the Andaman and Nicobar islands, which run northward from Sumatra in the Bay of Bengal. Most of those -- more than 4,600 -- are missing from a single small island, Katchal.\n\nIndia has experienced the same difficulties as Indonesia in reaching the remote islands, which are closer to Indonesia and Thailand than to their mother country. And, because they are islands, access is even more limited as few have any place to land an aircraft and the waves destroyed boat docks.\n\nU.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the world has donated or pledged more than $2 billion for the relief effort, and more will be needed. \n\nHe said he will launch a fresh appeal after Thursdays meeting of ASEAN countries.\n\nCNN Correspondents Mike Chinoy in Aceh, Satinder Bindra in Sri Lanka, and Aneesh Raman contributed to this report.\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7082,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/04/tsunami.usfleet/index.html','2005-01-05','2005-01-13 01:22:59','The U.S. military says it will double the number of helicopters operating in the tsunami-stricken regions from 46 to more than 90, in a bid to help speed aid to desperate survivors in remote areas.','1993. military did over Bosnia in 1993. William Winkenwerder, assis\n','WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military says it will double the number of helicopters operating in the tsunami-stricken regions from 46 to more than 90, in a bid to help speed aid to desperate survivors in remote areas. \n\nThe helicopters, which are proving to be the best way to get food, water and medicine to areas where many roads are cut off, will come from U.S. assets in South Korea and Guam, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific said on Tuesday.\n\nIn addition, three ships loaded with helicopters are en route to the region, including the amphibious assault ships, USS Fort McHenry from Okinawa and USS Niagara Falls from Guam, as well as the Marine Corps WestPac Express, also from Okinawa.\n\nThe WestPac Express is a high-speed catamaran that will unload its helicopters in the hard-hit regions, and then will be used to shuttle personnel and equipment the long distances between Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.\n\nI think thats going to answer the mail in terms of the capability that we need in these countries, Adm. Thomas Fargo, the chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, told reporters at a Pentagon briefing.\n\nHelicopters from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln are already in the region, being used to shuttle relief supplies to Indonesias Aceh province that was devastated by the tsunami disaster.\n\nIn addition, Japan, India and Singapore all have ships in the region with helicopters being utilized for the relief efforts.\n\nThe United States is also providing forensics teams from part of its POW-MIA accounting command team to try to help in the identification of bodies. \n\nThe Pentagon is also considering airdrops of pre-packed meals to isolated regions, like the U.S. military did over Bosnia in 1993.\n\nWilliam Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said the military is sending field hospitals to help with the medical needs. The military could set up as many as eight field hospitals, he said.\n\nAuthorities are most concerned about the possibility of an epidemic, fearing outbreaks of E.coli, cholera, hepatitis A, dengue and malaria.\n\nWe are prepared to provide a significantly enhanced effort, a major effort, if needed, Winkenwerder said.\n\nIn addition to a greater U.S. Navy presence, more Marines will begin arriving in the region. \n\nThe first Marines arrived Tuesday in Sri Lanka, bringing along with them helicopters, bulldozers and relief supplies.\n\nAll of these will contribute in a major way to preventing a second wave of disaster and grief in the way of medical and public health problems and diseases, Winkenwerder said.\n\nThe White House earlier Tuesday authorized Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to provide disaster assistance to 12 countries affected by the disaster that has killed more than 155,000. \n\nThose countries are Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Bangladesh and the Seychelles.\n\nA senior administration official said the order allocates $65 million for the operations, including airlift and sealift support, as well as material such as body bags, tents, cots, blankets, food and medical supplies.\n\nCNN Correspondents Jamie McIntyre and Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7083,'/2005/WORLD/europe/01/04/swedish.bodies/index.html','2005-01-05','2005-01-13 01:23:17','Sweden has begun paying homage to the many nationals who died in the Indian Ocean tsunami, putting on a formal and symbolic ceremony for the first bodies returning to home soil.','1994nia sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994, killing 892 people, includin\n','STOCKHOLM, Sweden (CNN) -- Sweden has begun paying homage to the many nationals who died in the Indian Ocean tsunami, putting on a formal and symbolic ceremony for the first bodies returning to home soil.\n\nSix coffins, draped in Swedish flags, arrived in Stockholm-Arlanda Airport early Wednesday morning after being loaded onto a Hercules at Phuket International Airport in Thailand.\n\nA procession of family members and Swedish leaders and dignitaries lined up to receive the coffins in the cold and early morning darkness of Stockholm.\n\nThe formal ceremony was a symbolic gesture by the government to put things right, after publicly admitting they were slow to react to the tsunami and the enormity of the nations involvement. \n\nSo far, 50 Swedes have been confirmed dead but 702 are listed as missing and about 1,201 remain unaccounted for.\n\nMore than 20,000 Swedes were in the region when the disaster struck, many on Thailands Phuket Island, far from the ice and snow of their homeland. \n\nThis is the most popular holiday resort for the Swedish people, Per Allan Olssen of the Swedish Red Cross said. \n\nIt was almost incomprehensible that something like that struck us. \n\nOnly nine million people live in Sweden, and with so many nationals dead and missing, many Swedes know someone who has not come back, reports CNNs Robyn Curnow. \n\nSpeaking from Stockholm, Curnow said there was uncertainty about when the remaining 46 Swedish bodies would be transported home.\n\nThe governments acknowledgment that it reacted slowly has failed to appease families affected. \n\nSome families I have been speaking to have constantly said they don feel like they have been getting the support trying to find missing Swedes, Curnow said.\n\nShe said it was too early to say whether officials would be forced to resign.\n\nIn Thailand, Swedish police have blamed official documentation procedures and identification processes for delays in getting bodies and injured people out, Curnow said.\n\nEfforts to track down the missing and check bodies in Thailand were continuing, but officials said it could take months to recover bodies from underbrush, analyze dental records and perform the other tests needed to fully identify the victims.\n\nSwedens Prime Minister Goeran Persson, meanwhile, has warned that his countrys death toll could exceed 1,000 -- a catastrophe the country hasn experienced since the ferry Estonia sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994, killing 892 people, including 551 Swedes, The Associated Press reported.\n\nCurnow said the country, known for remaining neutral in world conflicts, was in deep shock over the disaster.\n\nThe country hasn been at war in 200 years. Sweden has one of the longest life expectancies in the world, so the death of hundreds, maybe thousands of children, families and young adults is completely shocking to them, she said.\n\nThe Scandinavian nation held an official day of mourning on New Years Day to commemorate those killed in the disaster.\n\n','WORLDeurope'),(7084,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/04/tsunami.meteorologist.reut/index.html','2005-01-04','2005-01-13 01:23:31','Thailand has fired its chief meteorologist and opened an investigation into why his department failed to issue a tsunami warning which might have saved thousands of lives, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced.','','BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuters) -- Thailand has fired its chief meteorologist and opened an investigation into why his department failed to issue a tsunami warning which might have saved thousands of lives, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced.\n\nWhen a quake measured at 8.9-9.0 on the Richter scale struck in Sumatra, it was widely known tsunami can happen. But why weren there any alerts? I really want to know the truth, Thaksin told reporters Tuesday.\n\nA day after deadly waves devastated the countrys Andaman Sea coast, Meteorological Department chief Suparerk Tansriratanawong had told reporters Thailand had not been hit by a tsunami in more than 300 years and had no reason to expect one.\n\nBut the English-language Nation newspaper quoted an unnamed member of the department last week as saying a tsunami alert was not issued for fear of hurting the important tourist industry at the peak season if it turned out to be false.\n\nDuring the investigation, to be led by Information & Communications Technology Minister Surapong Suebwonglee, Suparerk will help set up a national early warning system for all natural disasters, a government spokesman said.\n\nNo Asian country issued a warning of the Dec. 26 tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Indonesia, which killed nearly 150,000 people as it crashed ashore around the Indian Ocean.\n\nThai expert says he tried to warn the government a deadly tsunami might be sweeping towards tourist-packed beaches, but couldn find anyone to take his calls.\n\nSamith Dhammasaroj said Monday he was sure a tsunami was coming as soon as he heard about the massive December 26 earthquake off Indonesias Sumatra island that measured magnitude 9.0 -- the worlds biggest in 40 years. (Full story)\n\nI tried to call the director-general of the meteorological office, but his phone was always busy, Samith said as he described his desperate attempts to generate an alert which might have saved thousands of lives.\n\nI tried to phone the office, but it was a Sunday and no-one was there, said the former chief of the meteorological department now charged with setting up an early warning disaster system for Thailand.\n\nI knew that one day we would have this type of tsunami. I warned that there would be a big disaster, he told reporters.\n\nEveryone laughed at me and said I was a bad guy who wanted to ruin the tourist industry, he added.\n\nThe tsunami took just 75 minutes to hit the beaches and islands of Thailands Andaman Sea coast, 600 km (375 miles) from the earthquakes epicenter.\n\nHotels on Thailands Andaman Sea coast were packed when the tsunami hit, killing at least 5,187 people, including more than 2,400 foreign tourists, many from Scandinavia, drawn to its sand, warm seas and coral reefs to escape the long northern winter.\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7085,'/2003/WORLD/meast/05/28/sprj.irq.int.blair.kuwait/index.html','2003-05-28','2005-01-13 01:23:38','Prime Minister Tony Blair has arrived in Kuwait for the start of a two-day visit to the Gulf that will see him become the first Western leader to go to post-war Iraq.','','','WORLDmeast'),(7086,'/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/05/27/italy.pavarotti/index.html','2003-05-27','2005-01-13 01:23:52','Luciano Pavarotti has a habit of inviting some friends to spend the evening in song with him. This years gang included Ricky Martin, Bono, Queen, Eric Clapton, Andrea Bocelli and Liza Minnelli with a leg in a cast, all belting out tunes to help Iraqi refu','','','SHOWBIZMusic'),(7087,'/2003/US/South/05/27/sprj.irq.iraq.gold/index.html','2003-05-27','2005-01-13 01:23:56','For the second time in a week, U.S. troops have discovered what appears to be a cache of gold bars hidden in a truck, which could be worth just less than a quarter of a billion dollars, according to a Pentagon official.','','','USSouth'),(7088,'/2003/WORLD/meast/05/27/sprj.irq.iraq.attack/index.html','2003-05-27','2005-01-13 01:24:03','Two U.S. soldiers were killed and nine wounded Tuesday when their unit came under fire in Fallujah, about 43 miles (70 kilometers) west of Baghdad, U.S. Central Command said.','','','WORLDmeast'),(7089,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/15/rice.profile/index.html','2004-11-16','2005-01-13 01:24:27','National security adviser Condoleezza Rice made history on Tuesday with her nomination as the countrys next secretary of state.','2001administration took office in 2001. She was also a staunch prop\n2000on with Bush goes back to the 2000 presidential campaign, when s\n1954Born in segregated Alabama in 1954, Rice entered college at 15 a\n1981io of secretary of state. In 1981, Rice moved to California to \n2002lly trained pianist. In April 2002, she took the stage at Washin\n2004tial running mate for Bush in 2004 in place of Dick Cheney, with\n2001rist attacks of September 11, 2001, probed what she and other ad\n2001errorism during the summer of 2001 but that there was no silver \n2003s regime was toppled in April 2003. (Full story) This was a dic\n2001-09-11errorist attacks of September 11, 2001, probed what \n','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- National security adviser Condoleezza Rice made history on Tuesday with her nomination as the countrys next secretary of state.\n\nA modern-day renaissance woman who traded the stately halls of Stanford University for the political swirl of Washington, Rice became one of President Bushs most trusted wartime advisers.\n\nRice, who turned 50 on Sunday, was be the first black woman, and only the second woman ever, tapped to be the nations top diplomat. As national security adviser for the past four years, she has become one of Bushs closest confidantes and primary counselors as the nation waged a war on terror that was unimaginable when the administration took office in 2001.\n\nShe was also a staunch proponent of Bushs decision to invade Iraq -- a policy she has robustly defended in the face of a violent insurgency that has raised questions about how well the administration prepared for the post-war period.\n\nIf confirmed by the Senate, Rice would take the diplomatic reins as the United States tries to repair international relationships strained by Bushs Iraq policy, which she helped craft inside the White House.\n\nRices association with Bush goes back to the 2000 presidential campaign, when she worked as an adviser on national security issues after stepping down from six years as Stanford Universitys provost, or chief academic and budget officer.\n\nAppointed national security adviser after Bush was elected, she moved to Washington and became the focus of much media attention, due as much to her unusual background and myriad accomplishments as to the power of her post.\n\nBorn in segregated Alabama in 1954, Rice entered college at 15 and by 26 had earned a Ph.D. in international affairs from the University of Denver. While there, one of her mentors was professor Joseph Korbel -- the father of Madeleine Albright, the only other woman to hold the portfolio of secretary of state.\n\nIn 1981, Rice moved to California to take up a political science professorship at Stanford, where she built a reputation as an expert on the Soviet Union. She later served as a National Security Council staffer during the administration of Bushs father, when communism was crumbling in Europe.\n\nRice, who speaks four languages, is also an accomplished figure skater and classically trained pianist. In April 2002, she took the stage at Washingtons Constitution Hall to perform with acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma.\n\nAs the crest of public attention grew, Rice, despite her lack of elected political experience, was even mentioned as a possible vice presidential running mate for Bush in 2004 in place of Dick Cheney, with at least one Web site devoted to the idea.\n\nHowever, in the past year, opinions of Rice have become more divided, as difficulties increased in Iraq and the commission investigating the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, probed what she and other administration officials did -- and did not do -- in the months leading up to the worst-ever terror attack on U.S. soil.\n\nThe Bush administration, citing executive privilege, initially refused to let Rice testify in public hearings before the commission. But the White House eventually relented after her former deputy, Richard Clarke, went public with charges that Rice did not take the threat of al Qaeda seriously before the attacks.\n\nIn April, Rice defended the administrations record for nearly three hours, insisting that there had been intense efforts against terrorism during the summer of 2001 but that there was no silver bullet that could have prevented the attacks. (Full story)\n\nHad we thought that there was an attack coming in Washington or New York, we would have moved heaven and earth to try to stop it, she said. And I know that there was no single thing that might have prevented that attack.\n\nBut Rice was pressed repeatedly about an intelligence memo presented to Bush one month before the attacks, a document that referred to al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and possible hijackings.\n\nAsked by Democratic commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste, a former Watergate prosecutor who has read the memo, to recall the title, Rice said: I believe the title was Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States. \n\nOn Iraq, Rice has been steadfast in her position that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein posed a threat that had to be dealt with, despite the fact that no weapons of mass destruction have been found since his regime was toppled in April 2003. (Full story)\n\nThis was a dictator who had actually used weapons of mass destruction against his neighbors, against his own people, she told CNN in September. This was a dictator who was shooting at our aircraft practically every day in the no-fly zone as we tried to enforce the Security Council resolutions. And this was a dictator who was a destabilizing force in the worlds most unstable region.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7090,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/15/powell.reax/index.html','2004-11-16','2005-01-13 01:24:35','Secretary of State Colin Powell was praised Monday as a "great statesman" and a "voice of moderation" after he announced his decision not to serve a second term.','2002 Ramallah to meet with him in 2002 while his compound was surrou\n','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell was praised Monday as a great statesman and a voice of moderation after he announced his decision not to serve a second term.\n\nTwo senior Bush administration officials told CNN that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice is the presidents choice to replace Powell. Her nomination could be announced as early as Tuesday.\n\nPowell told reporters that he would stay on until his successor was confirmed, which he predicted would take between a few weeks and two months. (Powell announces resignation)\n\nChief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat was one of the voices who praised Powell.\n\nIn our deliberations with him, he has gained our highest respect and appreciation, Erakat said. Hes a fair man and highly dignified and will indeed leave his mark on international politics.\n\nPalestinians have regarded Powell as one of the administrations moderate voices. Although Bush refused to deal with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who died last week, Powell traveled to Ramallah to meet with him in 2002 while his compound was surrounded by Israeli tanks.\n\nIsraeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he was very sorry to hear of Powells resignation.\n\nYou are a very good friend of Israel, but more than that, you are a very good friend of peace, Shalom told Powell as the two of them faced reporters after a meeting at the State Department. You have done everything you can in order to have better time, better future in our region, to have more stability, to bring hope to our peoples there.\n\nJordanian Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher described Powells imminent departure as a blow to the peace process.\n\nColin Powell was somebody who understood the words, who truly listened and who cared about the problems of the world, Muasher said. I hate to see him go precisely at the time when the prospects for a breakthrough are improving.\n\nArab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa also expressed regret.\n\nHe knew how to be with friends and allies, and he knew the intricacies of major problems in the Middle East. True, nothing really materialized, but he was a voice of moderation and did good things in a way that all of us had respect for him as secretary of state.\n\nIn London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw described Powell as a man who has been tireless in his work for the United States, tireless in his work for NATO and the trans-Atlantic alliance, tireless in his work for peace in the world ... a very, very fine man, great soldier, great statesman.\n\nAsked whether he sympathized with Powell in his dealings with the Pentagon, with which the secretary often butted heads, Straw demurred. \n\nMy discussions with Secretary Powell have the confidentiality of the confessional, he said.\n\nU.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Powell was always very good to deal with.\n\nI think hes made many friends who I hope will all stay in touch with him, Annan said. I wish him every success in his future endeavors.\n\nSen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, also praised Powell.\n\nEven after four difficult years in a bitterly divided administration, Colin Powell leaves the State Department with his head held high and an unmatched reputation for integrity and wisdom, he said.\n\nHe won some and he lost some, but he is a rare commodity in this town: a decent and classy guy who will be missed.\n\nIn a written statement, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called his resignation a great loss for the Bush administration and for the country. ','ALLPOLITICS'),(7091,'/2005/WEATHER/01/13/california.mudslide/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 01:25:14','Firefighters say they still have a chance to find survivors of the mudslide that killed at least 10 people in this coastal community earlier this week.','','LA CONCHITA, California (CNN) -- Firefighters say they still have a chance to find survivors of the mudslide that killed at least 10 people in this coastal community earlier this week.\n\nThree people were confirmed missing late Wednesday, more than two days after part of a rain-soaked mountainside collapsed, Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper said. \n\nRescuers are still finding air pockets that could allow people trapped beneath earth and debris to survive, he said.\n\nAs long as we can continue to find voids under the pile, it means that there could be somebody still trapped in there, Roper said. Weve talked to our medical doctors and they believe that there still is a chance, if all the conditions are right, for somebody to survive this.\n\nCalifornia Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured La Conchita on Wednesday, pledging to do everything possible to help residents affected by the disaster. \n\nThe governor also declared a state of emergency for Ventura County, opening the door for more state funds to the region to help with damage expenses.\n\nIn the past few days, we have seen the power of nature cause damage and despair, Schwarzenegger said. But we will match that power with our own resolve, and we will come together as Californians and neighbors.\n\nThe number of missing in the mudslide was reduced from 10 to three after authorities located several people who had been unaccounted for, Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks said. \n\nFour of them turned up at a community meeting Wednesday morning, he said.\n\nBrooks said there was a slight probability that several other people could have been in the area at the time of the mudslide, and the department placed some of their names on its Web site in an effort to narrow the list. (Ventura County Sheriffs Department) \n\nBrooks said the three people confirmed missing are believed buried.\n\nThey live in the area, were in the area and haven been seen, he said.\n\nThe slide brought down tons of mud, sand and debris onto more than a dozen homes. Roper said 15 homes were destroyed and 16 were damaged.\n\nRescue efforts will be reassessed every day until any hope of finding survivors has faded, he said.\n\nVentura County Sheriffs Sgt. Frank Underlin said rescuers made great progress Wednesday.\n\nTheres so much more to do, though, he said. In some locations, we\re still having to go by hand at a very slow pace whenever we come to a structure.\n\nIn the early morning hours Wednesday, rescue crews pulled the bodies of a mother and her three daughters from the debris piled in this town of 260 people located about 65 miles north of Los Angeles. \n\nThe father, Jimmie Wallet, had gone out to get ice cream at the time of the mudslide, an official with the Ventura County Sheriffs Department said. \n\nWallet assisted in the search overnight and was there when a search dog led rescue personnel to the location where his wife and daughters were buried in debris, according to a report by CNN affiliate KCAL. (Full story)\n\nRescuers were using listening devices to detect any signs of life beneath the rubble, although no sounds of life have been heard since 6 a.m. Tuesday (9 a.m. ET).\n\nRoper said Wednesdays search was aided by a ground-penetrating radar system contributed by the construction company Bechtel. \n\nMore than 600 rescue personnel from about 20 different agencies are searching for survivors in the 30-foot mound of mud.\n\nFirefighter Mark Pina helped pull a woman from the rubble of her home, where she was found in such a space Monday night.\n\nWhen we got to her, it was about 2-foot-by-2-foot-by-2-foot -- it was a little box, Pina told CNN. And she was just in that little void space.\n\nIn all, 10 people were pulled out alive, eight of whom were transported to hospitals, Roper said. Two of them were in critical condition. \n\nParts of Southern California recorded nearly 2 feet of rain in the past week, prompting Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn to declare a state of emergency Wednesday. \n\nThe declaration allows the city to seek state and federal disaster aid, Hahns office said. \n\nAuthorities blamed the weather for the deaths of more than 20 people, including the 10 in La Conchita.\n\nThe storm that caused the mudslide moved east, bringing flooding that has destroyed more homes and washed out roads in other Western states, The Associated Press reported. (Full story)\n\nCNNs Rusty Dornin, Ted Rowlands and Kimberly Osias contributed to this report. \n\n','WEATHER'),(7092,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/17/education.secretary/index.html','2004-11-17','2005-01-13 01:25:26','President Bush on Wednesday nominated domestic policy adviser Margaret Spellings to be the next education secretary, replacing Rod Paige.','2001ser since Bush took office in 2001, with issues such as educatio\n2002Behind Act, passed in January 2002, requires each state to demon\n','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Wednesday nominated domestic policy adviser Margaret Spellings to be the next education secretary, replacing Rod Paige.\n\nSpellings has served as a domestic policy adviser since Bush took office in 2001, with issues such as education, health and labor in her portfolio. She also was a key figure in drafting the presidents No Child Left Behind education initiative.\n\nBefore coming to the White House, Spellings worked for six years as a senior adviser to Bush when he was governor of Texas, where she also was responsible for developing education policy.\n\nBush said he had known Spellings for more than a decade and had relied on her advice throughout his political career.\n\nIm now calling on this energetic reformer to serve the children of America by continuing our vital work of improving our nations public schools, he said. \n\nHe said that she would continue to push his education reforms.\n\nWe must ensure that a high school diploma is a sign of real achievement so that our young people have the tools to go to college and to fill the jobs of the 21st century, Bush said. In all our reforms, we will continue to stand behind our nations teachers who work so hard for our children.\n\nThe No Child Left Behind Act, passed in January 2002, requires each state to demonstrate that it has developed challenging standards for students in reading and math and, in future years, science. Each state must annually test every childs progress in reading and math in third through eighth grades and at least once during 10th through 12th grades.\n\nSome critics have complained that the program is underfunded, while others say it is too ambitious.\n\nIn a speech at the Republican National Convention, Paige lauded the measure, saying All across America, test scores are rising; students are learning; the achievement gap is closing; teachers and principals are beaming with pride.\n\nThe nations largest teachers union, the National Education Association, which had a frosty relationship with Paige, called Spellings nomination a great opportunity for the administration to change the tone of its discourse with the education community.\n\nWe look forward to finding common ground with Ms. Spellings in her new role, the NEA said in a statement.\n\nEarlier this year, Paige called the NEA a terrorist organization for its opposition to No Child Left Behind. The union called on Bush to sack Paige, who later apologized.\n\nPaiges resignation from the Cabinet was announced Monday. He said he plans to return to his home state of Texas.\n\nBush praised Paige on Wednesday as a humble and decent man who inspired his department and implemented the most significant federal education reform in a generation. \n\nThe nations schools are stronger because of Rod Paiges leadership, Bush said. \n\nSpellings is the latest new face nominated to Bushs second-term Cabinet. Her nomination comes after several resignations.\n\nSix members of the Cabinet, including Paige, have announced their resignations. \n\nThey are Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. \n\nTwo administration officials said that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge also plans to leave, but a spokesman for the department said that Ridge has not made any decisions about his future.\n\nBush announced Tuesday that he had nominated national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to replace Powell. (Bush picks Rice to succeed Powell)\n\nWhite House counsel Alberto Gonzales was nominated to replace Ashcroft. (Bush attorney general pick is Alberto Gonzales)\n\nBush has chosen Harriet Miers to replace Gonzales, a senior administration official said Wednesday. \n\nCNNs Jennifer Yuille contributed to this report.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7093,'/2004/SPORT/12/08/baseball.drugs/index.html','2004-12-08','2005-01-13 01:26:48','Baseballs stars could face more tests for drugs such as steroids next season after giving their lawyers the green light to reach an agreement with owners over a tougher doping controls.','2004ach player was tested once in 2004 during a period between the s\n2003nd of the regular season. In 2003, anonymous tests were conduct\n','\n\nPHOENIX, Arizona -- Baseballs stars could face more tests for drugs such as steroids next season after giving their lawyers the green light to reach an agreement with owners over a tougher doping controls.\n\nIt would mean more tests during the season, out-of-competition random testing, harsher punishments and more substances on the banned list.\n\nMLB commissioner Bud Selig has stepped up the pressure for measures to be introduced after reports of grand jury testimony in a steroid investigation that includes Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi.\n\nMajor League Baseball Players Association chief Don Fehr said Tuesday that discussions have started with owners upon the framework for a tougher anti-doping policy that could be ready next season.\n\nWeve had these discussions for sometime with the commissioners office and I expect the conversations will continue next week, said union executive director Fehr. \n\nI think we will (have a tougher new policy), Fehr said. I don think it will take an extended period of time.\n\nPlayers could be asked to vote upon the tougher plan in January so it could be put into place before the start of spring training in February, the time frame Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig sought.\n\nI think we need to do everything we can to put everyones mind at ease about players using steroids, New York Mets pitcher Tom Glavine said.\n\nWe need to wipe away as much doubt about this as we possibly can. Anything we can do to take away peoples suspicions, we need to do that.\n\nWe\re very pleased they\re coming to the table, and we hope we can achieve a program that works, said Bob DuPuy, baseballs chief operating officer.\n\nAbout 40 players were present at the meeting, union spokesman Greg Bouris said. Players leaving the meeting declined comment or said they could not discuss what was said during the talks.\n\nIm happy to see the union come together. We really need to clear up the public perception of whats going on, Oakland outfielder Eric Byrnes said from California in a phone interview Tuesday night. \n\nIts been tough, because we haven had a voice. The biggest thing is that the public knows its not as prominent as media and some outside sources are making it out to be.\n\nDo I think its right? No, absolutely not. In every walk of life, in every profession for hundreds of years, people have been looking to get an advantage. The kids, who are the most important part of this thing, need to know that this isn OK.\n\nFehr defended the current program, saying it would work if it had been given time.\n\nFehr said he and Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has threatened to propose federal legislation that would override the drug-testing provisions in baseballs collective bargaining agreement, spoke earlier in the week. Fehr expected they would talk again before the meeting ended Thursday.\n\nEach player was tested once in 2004 during a period between the start of spring training and the end of the regular season.\n\nIn 2003, anonymous tests were conducted as a survey, and 5 to 7 percent came back positive. Fehr thought the number of positive tests declined this year but did not provide specifics.\n\nWhat you will see is a significant reduction, he said.','SPORT'),(7094,'/2004/WORLD/meast/12/15/iraq.trials/index.html','2004-12-16','2005-01-13 01:26:59','The special tribunal in Iraq set up to try deposed dictator Saddam Hussein and former members of his regime said Wednesday it would soon begin pretrial investigative hearings.','2003who was taken into custody in 2003, is a cousin of Saddam and is\n1988n thought to have ordered the 1988 chemical attack on Kurds. Mos\n','\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The special tribunal in Iraq set up to try deposed dictator Saddam Hussein and former members of his regime said Wednesday it would soon begin pretrial investigative hearings.\n\nThe proceedings will mark the first stage in bringing members of the ousted Iraqi government to justice for alleged war crimes.\n\nThe tribunal released a statement late Wednesday saying the hearings would be conducted in coordination with international observers.\n\nSaddam and 11 high-profile members of his regime face allegations of war crimes.\n\nThe Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Ali Hassan al-Majid -- also known as Chemical Ali -- would be tried first, possibly by the end of the month.\n\nAnother defendant, a former commander in the Iraqi army, also is expected to be among the first tried.\n\nAl-Majid, who was taken into custody in 2003, is a cousin of Saddam and is the man thought to have ordered the 1988 chemical attack on Kurds. Most accounts of the massacre estimate more than 5,000 Kurds died.\n\nThe full trial process will adhere strictly to both Iraqi law and international best practices, the statement said.\n\nAll those whose trial process will start imminently have seen their lawyers, and their defense lawyers will be present throughout the hearings.\n\nThe hearings will be conducted by tribunal judges headed by Raad Juhi. The statement did not name members of Saddams former regime who would face the hearings.\n\nThe tribunal said a court spokesman would hold a news conference soon to explain the next stages in more detail.\n\nAn informed source said the accused will be called before an investigative judge, who will ask questions to help determine if a trial is warranted.\n\nIt could happen as early as next week, the source said.\n\nThe hearings will be confidential and the accused will have rights similar to those in U.S. courts, such as the right to counsel and the right to remain silent.\n\nIraqs interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, surprised many on Tuesday by announcing that trials of former regime members would begin next week.\n\nThere have been conflicting reports about the starting date for the trials, with doubts about whether they can begin soon because officials need a lot of time to build their cases.\n\nLegal proceedings actually started in July against Saddam and his aides. (Full story)\n\nThe jailed aides include former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, who often defended the regime internationally, and Saddams vice president, defense minister, presidential secretary and two of his half-brothers.\n\nSaddam was captured a year ago this week after an exhaustive manhunt. (Full story)\n\nCNNs Cal Perry contributed to this report.Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.','WORLDmeast'),(7095,'/2004/WORLD/meast/07/01/iraq.saddam/index.html','2004-07-02','2005-01-13 01:27:17','Saddam Hussein stepped into an Iraqi court on Thursday and entered a new chapter in Iraqs history, hearing preliminary charges against him that included the gassing of Kurds and the invasion of Kuwait.','1974lling of religious figures in 1974; gassing of Kurds in Halabja \n1988in 1988; killing the Kurdish Barzani \n1983clan in 1983; killing members of political\n1986ies in the last 30 years; the 1986-88 \\Anfal\\ campaign of \n1991Kurds; the suppression of the 1991 uprisings by Kurds and Shiite\n1990s; and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. These ar\n1988he told the judge. In March 1988, Iraqi warplanes bombed the n\n1969c executions. For instance in 1969 there were mass public execut\n','\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein stepped into an Iraqi court on Thursday and entered a new chapter in Iraqs history, hearing preliminary charges against him that included the gassing of Kurds and the invasion of Kuwait.\n\nAppearing before a judge in a 30-minute hearing, Saddam looked thin and downcast, but became animated and at times combative as proceedings unfolded.\n\nWhen he was ushered into the court, the judge asked him his name and twice he said, I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq.\n\nThe former dictator listened to seven preliminary charges outlined in his arrest warrant -- the killing of religious figures in 1974; gassing of Kurds in Halabja in 1988; killing the Kurdish Barzani clan in 1983; killing members of political parties in the last 30 years; the 1986-88 \\Anfal\\ campaign of displacing Kurds; the suppression of the 1991 uprisings by Kurds and Shiites; and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.\n\nThese are not the formal charges against Saddam, which will be worked out and detailed in an indictment over the next few months, beginning the investigative phase of the case.\n\nThe spectacle, meanwhile, was surprising for a generation of Iraqis who came to fear the sight of him.\n\nSaddam had bags under his eyes and looked gaunt. He had a neatly trimmed beard and was thinner than he appeared in December, when he was seized in a hideout near Tikrit.\n\nWhen the judge asked whether he understood his rights and could afford counsel, Saddam pointed his finger at and asked whose jurisdiction the court was under.\n\nSaddam challenged the judge on the invasion of Kuwait, saying: How could you say that? I did that for the Iraqi people ... how could you defend these dogs, he said, referring to the Kuwaitis.\n\nThe judge reprimanded him for his language.\n\nSaddam said Kuwait had been trying to bring down the price of oil and turn Iraqis into paupers and Iraqi women into prostitutes. \n\nThis is all a theater designed by President Bush, whom he called a criminal, to win re-election, said Saddam, looking around the court with a half-smile during one outburst.\n\nBush on Thursday had no reaction to that comment, according to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. The president is pleased that justice is being served to Saddam Hussein and his band of oppressors by the Iraqi people in an Iraqi court, McClellan said.\n\nIts very well-known some of the atrocities hes committed, he said. All you have to do is go and look at what happened in Halabja, where he gassed his own people.\n\nSaddam also referred to the accusation of gassing Kurds.\n\nI heard about that on the television reports, saying it happened during the rule of President Saddam Hussein, he told the judge. \n\nIn March 1988, Iraqi warplanes bombed the northern Iraqi town of Halabja. More than 5,000 people reportedly were killed in the attack, which used multiple chemical agents, according to international scientists.\n\nIn another exchange, the former dictator said no one had the authority to strip him of his title of president if he is being accused of committing the crimes while he was in office. Im elected by the people of Iraq. The occupation cannot take that right away from me, he said. \n\nIn court, each time Saddam wanted to speak, however, he was respectful, saying please and making a hand gesture as well to indicate that.\n\nSaddam refused to sign court documents that said he understood what took place in court, noting that he wanted his attorney present.\n\nSaddam did not have legal representation at the hearing.\n\nTim Hughes, a member of Saddams legal team, told CNN in an interview from Jordan that he objected to the proceeding because Saddam was denied legal advice beforehand.\n\nHughes said the defense will be pursuing a change of venue because any trial in Baghdad will not be fair. Under Iraqi law Saddam remains president of Iraq because he was overthrown in an illegal invasion, Hughes said. Therefore, he said, Saddam still has immunity from prosecution.\n\nSaddam arrived for the hearing in an armored bus, as part of a convoy that included four Humvees and a military ambulance.\n\nHe wore a gray suit jacket, a starched white shirt, a belt, brown trousers, highly polished black shoes and brown socks.\n\nHe was helped into a chair by the guards and leaned his arm against the chair and started an interaction with the judge.\n\nAfter the proceeding, Saddam was escorted to a new place of detention, still under U.S. military guard.\n\nIn an interview with CNN, Feisal al-Istrabadi, the principal drafter of the transitional administrative law, was asked about the availability of war crime evidence if Saddam didn sign documents approving the actions he is suspected of spearheading.\n\nThe crimes of the regimes were not few and were not small in scale. You are talking about mass public executions. For instance in 1969 there were mass public executions on TV of 13 men.\n\nThese were not hidden crimes, they were in open, under the principles of command responsibility, whether you have a document signed by Saddam or not, under the principles of command, the crimes were so ubiquitous, that I think it would be virtually impossible for Saddam to argue that he did not know.\n\nThe same court procedure took place Thursday for 11 high-profile members of Saddams regime, who also face charges. They include former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, who often defended the regime internationally, and Ali Hassan al-Majid, dubbed Chemical Ali for his alleged role in the use of chemical weapons on Iraqi civilians.\n\nTwo of Saddams half-brothers are also in the group, along with his vice president, defense minister and presidential secretary.\n\nNone of the detainees had legal counsel in Thursdays proceedings.\n\nSaddam and the others were transferred to Iraqi legal custody on Wednesday, but they remain in U.S. military hands.\n\nIraqs interim president, Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, told CNN earlier in the day that the trial will be fair.\n\nAll Iraqis can listen and hear and understand that he will be tried according to the law, al-Yawar said. There will be no political aspect to his trial.\n\nHe said the trial means that a very dark era has been gone forever.\n\n-- CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour, CNN Producers Ayman Mohyeldin and Carol Cratty and a pool reporter contributed to this report.','WORLDmeast'),(7096,'/2004/WORLD/meast/12/18/iraq.main/index.html','2004-12-18','2005-01-13 01:27:36','A mortar attack Saturday on an Iraqi voter registration site north of Baghdad killed an Iraqi civilian and wounded eight others, a U.S. Army spokesman said.','1963 Arif, who was president from 1963 to 1966. Her 22-year-old son,\n1966 to 1966. Her 22-year-old son,\n','\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A mortar attack Saturday on an Iraqi voter registration site north of Baghdad killed an Iraqi civilian and wounded eight others, a U.S. Army spokesman said.\n\nFour mortar rounds slammed into the site -- which was in a youth center in Dujay, a town between the north-central cities of Tikrit and Samarra, said the spokesman with the Armys 1st Infantry Division.\n\nIraqi national guardsmen evacuated the injured to a nearby hospital.\n\nInsurgent attacks in Iraq have prompted calls from many Iraqis to delay national elections, scheduled for January 30. Iraqs interim government and the United States appear determined to leave the date unchanged.\n\nThere has been concern about the ability to hold elections in parts of the Sunni Muslim heartland, where insurgent attacks have been significant.\n\nVoters will choose a 275-member transitional national assembly. That body will put together a permanent constitution that will go before voters in a referendum. If the law is approved, there will be elections for a permanent government by the end of next year. Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has announced he will vie for an assembly seat.\n\nSaturdays attack on the voter registration site followed violence in three northern cities -- Mosul, Kirkuk and Beiji.\n\nIn Mosul, a student was killed and six others wounded when a roadside bomb exploded by a passing school bus, Task Force Olympia said in a statement. One insurgent was killed when American-led multinational troops in a patrol -- the blasts intended target -- fired on the attackers. \n\nTask Force Olympia, which includes members of the U.S. Army and Marines and Australian soldiers, is the command and control element for coalition forces in the two northern governorates of Iraq -- Ninevah and Dahuk. \n\nTwo attacks on police stations in the city were repelled, the statement said. \n\nIn eastern Mosul, Iraqi national guardsmen used a tip from a resident to find a dump truck filled with explosives, Task Force Olympia said.\n\nIn Kirkuk, a woman was killed and two other women were wounded overnight when a car attempted to run a U.S. checkpoint in the eastern part of the city, said Gen. Tourhan Yousif, Kirkuks police chief. No other details were available. Kirkuk has been under an overnight curfew for three months.\n\nAn insurgent ambush near Beiji injured four U.S. civilian contractors, a 1st Infantry Division spokesman said. The contractors -- employed by a firm named Cochise -- were on a security patrol when a car bomb detonated near their vehicle, the spokesman said.Other developments\n\nAn investigative hearing has been held for two prominent members of Saddam Husseins deposed regime: Ali Hassan al-Majid -- also known as Chemical Ali for his alleged role in the gassing of Kurds in the late 80s -- and Sultan Hashem Ahmed, Saddams former defense minister, an investigative magistrate said Saturday. Raad al-Juhyi, head of a panel of investigative judges, said the hearing was not part of upcoming trials for the former regime that were announced this week. (Full story) \n\nAttackers shot and killed the daughter of a former Iraqi president and her husband in their Baghdad home Tuesday, police said Saturday. Sana Abdul Salam Arif was the daughter of Abdul Salam Arif, who was president from 1963 to 1966. Her 22-year-old son, Rafal, was kidnapped, police said.\n\nIn a raid Saturday in western Samarra, American soldiers detained three people and confiscated bomb-making materials, binoculars and a bag of black powder, the U.S. military said. Soldiers detained four people in another raid Saturday near Ad Dwar.\n\nThe U.S. Embassy has confirmed the identity of an American contractor kidnapped November 1 in Baghdad as Roy Hallums. Hallums was abducted with others after a gunbattle in al-Mansour, the same neighborhood where Briton Kenneth Bigley and Americans Eugene Jack Armstrong and Jack Hensley were kidnapped in September. They later were killed.\n\nCNNs Cal Perry, Kianne Sadeq, Nermeen al-Mufti, Kevin Flower and Stephanie Halasz contributed to this report.Reuters contributed to this report.','WORLDmeast'),(7097,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/02/asia.quake/index.html','2005-01-03','2005-01-13 01:27:47','Hopes of finding the thousands still missing from last weeks massive earthquake and deadly tsunami glimmers weakly as desperately needed aid finally reached areas that had been cut off by the devastation.','1964strongest on the planet since 1964 -- including more than 15 wit\n2004arian emergencies combined in 2004. But it still fell short of \n','(CNN) -- Hopes of finding the thousands still missing from last weeks massive earthquake and deadly tsunami glimmers weakly as desperately needed aid finally reached areas that had been cut off by the devastation.\n\nThe death toll from Malaysia to East Africa stands at more than 155,000, after Indonesias toll was raised by 14,000 to more than 94,000 early Monday by the countrys health ministry.\n\nTens of thousands are still missing -- including many tourists whose vacations took an unexpected turn early on the morning of December 26.\n\nAnd the area keeps shaking. \n\nDozens of aftershocks have followed the 9.0 magnitude earthquake -- the strongest on the planet since 1964 -- including more than 15 with a magnitude of 5.0 or higher since Friday morning.\n\nThe largest number of deaths in Indonesia, closest to the epicenter of the initial earthquake, were in its remote Aceh province -- home to a long-standing armed separatist movement that aid workers worry might complicate providing relief to victims.\n\nBut CNNs Mike Chinoy reports that the recovery effort in Aceh, after a slow start, is becoming more organized, with more armed forces and aid workers making their way to the capital, Banda Aceh, and then into the provinces more remote areas.\n\nLocals, too, are becoming more organized, Chinoy said, particularly in recovering bodies still buried beneath tonness of rubble.\n\nOne resident told Chinoy it could take up to four months to find all those killed in Banda Aceh.\n\nIt may be worse in the rest of the province. \n\nNothing remained of the bridge connecting Banda Aceh and the west coast -- just 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the epicenter -- except the low pillars that once held the roadway.\n\nAn Indonesian army garrison at the bridge was devastated -- of the 270 soldiers and their families stationed there, only 12 people survivied.\n\nWhere there were survivors, they swarmed military helicopters -- the only transportation that could reach most of the areas -- bringing packages of food, water and medical supplies.\n\nAuthorities set up a staging ground at the Banda Aceh airport where Australian C-130s and Indonesian military planes were bringing in supplies. U.S. helicopters from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln picked up the packages from there.\n\nThe United States also sent helicopters to Sri Lanka, where more than 46,000 people are dead and more than 24,000 others are are missing.\n\nIndias navy launched its largest relief operation, part of a $25 million effort to help Sri Lanka. \n\nEleven Indian ships were dispatched to the island nation and military helicopters also ferried in relief supplies. \n\nAlready, India has delivered six tonnes of supplies to the tsunami-hit areas and plans to ship in 20 tonnes more.\n\nIn addition to relief supplies, India is sending engineers and skilled workers to help rebuild Sri Lankas devastated economy.\n\nIndia itself was hit hard by the tsunami, with at least 9,500 people dead, most on its east coast and in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, closer to Thailand and Indonesia than their mother country.\n\nMadhusree Mukerjee, an Indonesian journalist and expert on the indigenous peoples of the islands, said the Andamans -- the northernmost of the islands -- suffered property damage but little loss of life.\n\nThe real devastation is in the Nicobar Islands, she told CNN.\n\nIndian officials report more than 5,400 people missing on the islands. \n\nMukerjee said the population of the Nicobar Islands is about 45,000 and the tsunamis washed over many of the Nicobar Islands many times.\n\nIn one, Car Nicobar, which is also home to an Indian Air Force base, we have been told all 15 villages have been washed out, she said.\n\nMukerjee said the Indian government -- which declined international aid, saying it could handle the emergency itself -- was doing as good a job as could be expected. \n\nBut she said Andaman and Nicobar could have benefited from assistance from the much closer Thailand, which also declined international financial aid.\n\nThai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told CNN that his country did not need the financial aid but was appreciative of expertise and equipment.\n\nShinawatra said he was pleased to see cooperation between the private and public sectors -- and how fast the area came back to normal activity.\n\nOwners of hotels that survived the tsunami in Phuket, for example, are encouraging vacationers to return -- and some are. The owners say the return of the tourists is essential to their survival.\n\nSome 70 percent of the hotels reservations have cancelled, officials said.\n\nBut CNNs Aneesh Raman said the juxtaposition of tourists on the beach where thousands died a week ago was odd, as was watching relatively normal beach activities while knowing hundreds of thousands elsewhere were in desperate need of aid.\n\nJan Egeland, the U.N.s emergency relief coordinator, said 1.8 million people needed food assistance across the affected area, adding that the number might rise further. \n\nThe World Health Program, he said, had estimated it would take it three days to set up a food distribution program to reach all those who needed it in Sri Lanka and longer still in Indonesia.\n\nHowever, air drops are being undertaken, Egeland said Sunday.\n\nIt is the first, crude way to get food there. It is not, however, a good way to get water and medicine distributed.\n\nEgeland said U.N. efforts were focused on Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Maldives and Somalia, and that other governments had said they were able to handle the disaster themselves.\n\nThe effort is proceeding under rising fears of disease -- and the possibility of thousands more deaths.\n\nI am very worried about it, Egeland told CNNs Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. \n\nAlready the incidence of diarhea is up among children.\n\nSo far, Egeland said, more than $2 billion has been pledged toward the emergency relief effort, an amount Egeland said was larger than what was pledged for all other humanitarian emergencies combined in 2004.\n\nBut it still fell short of the $3.3 billion the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency provided Florida after four hurricanes struck the state last year.\n\nJapan is the largest contributor, pledging $500 million; the United States was second, with $350 million committed. (Contributions by country)\n\nU.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who has said that figure might not be the end number, left Sunday to visit the region, accompanied by U.S. President George W. Bushs brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and other U.S. officials. (Full story)\n\nU.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will also visit affected areas after the conference, but Egeland said his itinerary, other than Aceh on January 7, was incomplete. (Full story)\n\nAs relief supplies began reaching survivors, a World Health Organization official said the primary concern now was to provide clean water and proper sanitation. \n\nGiven the very difficult conditions in which people are now living, it seems very, very likely that we\re going to get some increases in disease and therefore death, said Dr. David Nabarro, executive director of Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments for the WHO. \n\nCNNs Mike Chinoy in Banda Aceh, Indonesia; Atika Shubert in Medan, Indonesia; Satinder Bindra in Galle, Sri Lanka and Aneesh Raman in Phuket, Thailand, contributed to this report.\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7098,'/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/31/asia.quake/index.html','2005-01-01','2005-01-13 01:27:59','Aid has begun to reach tsunami victims in remote areas of Indonesia, as the U.N.s emergency relief coordinator says the death toll is approaching 150,000.','','BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (CNN) -- Aid has begun to reach tsunami victims in remote areas of Indonesia, as the U.N.s emergency relief coordinator says the death toll is approaching 150,000.\n\nJan Engeland said he expects the number of dead in Indonesia alone to reach 100,000, based on estimates from U.N. workers in the field. \n\nA total of 138,631 people have been confirmed dead following the quake and resulting Indian Ocean tsunamis.\n\nWe will never have an exact figure because of all the nameless fishermen who are gone, Egeland said. \n\nHe predicted that 5 million people ultimately will be affected by the disaster, including 1 million homeless. \n\nAid workers were welcomed as heroes in Indonesia -- where almost 80,000 have been confirmed dead -- as they delivered supplies to residents in Aceh province.\n\nIt was the first sign that the world had not forgotten about them, said Sabine Rens of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), which made it to two coastal areas Friday.\n\nWe just touched down, got out of the helicopter, and people started running toward us, shaking our hands, saying, Oh, my God, Rens said. This woman fell into my arms and started crying.\n\nObstacles -- including a lack of coordination, fuel shortages, rough weather, airport logjams and impassable roads -- have prevented the distribution of aid to some of the most devastated areas in the 11 Asian and African nations affected by a magnitude 9 earthquake and resulting tsunamis. \n\nU.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan met Friday with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to discuss several issues, including U.S. assistance to the region. \n\nThe United States raised its contribution Friday from $35 million to $350 million, bringing total pledges from countries and the World Bank to more than $1.1 billion. (Full story)\n\nPresident Bush said in a press release the United States had created a support center in Thailand and that 20 aircraft were dispatched to assess the disaster and deliver relief supplies.\n\nPowell and Bushs brother Jeb, governor of Florida, will lead a U.S. mission to the region Sunday. (Full story)\n\nOfficials said Friday that logjams of supplies at Asian airports and a lack of fuel threaten to hinder the aid effort. (Full story)\n\nIn areas near Medan, Indonesia, soldiers distributed necessities, but dwindling fuel supplies meant they could not reach some areas.\n\nThe office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday it would begin an emergency airlift on Sunday to Indonesia that should get 400 tons of supplies to 100,000 people in Aceh province.\n\nWe will be immediately providing shelter material for about one-fifth of the estimated affected population, but this is just the start of our operation, High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers said in a press release.\n\nAs workers and news crews arrived in washed out flattened areas -- villages and towns that just a week ago were filled with people and homes -- they saw striking signs of the will to survive. \n\nPeople, some barely clothed, picked through rubble for food and supplies.\n\nElsewhere, the death toll in Sri Lanka is above 43,000. India and Thailand account for thousands more deaths.\n\nIn Sri Lanka, more than two decades of civil war have already ravaged large parts of the country. The tsunami washed up many land mines, leaving them scattered on the ground. \n\nThe Tamil Tiger rebels have established a virtual clampdown the northern and eastern regions of the country, hampering aid distribution.\n\nResidents have been warned to stick to only the few major roads that leaders are trying to secure. No one can enter without going through rebel checkpoints.\n\nIn southern parts of Sri Lanka controlled by the government, more than 50 aid flights have arrived.\n\nSri Lankan officials have said they are coordinating with Tamil Tigers to get supplies to rebel-controlled areas, but some rebel leaders have accused the government of neglect.\n\nOther nations and international aid groups want to send another 100 flights full of supplies, but the government has said it doesn have the capacity for that many planes.\n\nThousands of people in the country are living in Buddhist temples and churches. They share remarkable stories of survival.\n\nOne man said when the waves hit he took shelter in a tree, clinging to branches for days as the water remained high. He eventually fell down, fracturing a leg.\n\nHe counts himself among the lucky ones; he was reunited with his family.\n\nOthers in the shelters recounted having been in their boats in the harbor when the tsunami struck, saying they were tossed around like toys, but miraculously did not drown.\n\nChip Lyons with UNICEF said his organizations teams in the region still have to get a handle on the survival needs.\n\nThey have begun distributing tablets that mix with water and help cure diarrhea -- which he called the number one cause of preventable death among children after such disasters.\n\nAid groups will work to reconnect young people with extended family members or others who can take care of them, and will bring them together with other children.\n\nLyons said that at this time even a simple game of kickball and makeshift classrooms could help establish a semblance of normalcy.\n\nAmid the devastation, Friday brought a glimmer of hope. In some places, as the new year arrived, people broke into celebrations. In Sri Lanka, they violated a national day of mourning that banned such events.\n\nThoughts for tsunami victims tempered New Years Eve festivities. Several major cities canceled parties, and Australia held a minute of silence. (Full story)\n\nCNNs Mike Chinoy in Banda Aceh, Indonesia; Atika Shubert in Medan, Indonesia; Hugh Rimington in Dodangoda, Sri Lanka; and Satinder Bindra in Galle, Sri Lanka, contributed to this report. \n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7099,'/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/30/tsunami.powellvisit/index.html','2004-12-31','2005-01-13 01:28:10','A U.S. delegation headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of President George W. Bush, will travel to southern Asia Sunday to assess humanitarian needs, a White House spokesman said Thursday.','','\n\nCRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- A U.S. delegation headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of President George W. Bush, will travel to southern Asia Sunday to assess humanitarian needs, a White House spokesman said Thursday.\n\nTheir itinerary will be set by the State Department, deputy White House spokesman Trent Duffy told reporters. \n\nHe said President Bush had been closely monitoring the unfolding tragedy.\n\nReading from a statement by President Bush, Duffy said, All Americans are shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of life and the destruction around the Indian Ocean.\n\nIn this hour of critical need, America is joining with other nations and international organizations do everything possible to provide assistance and relief to the victims and their families.\n\nThe death toll from the tsunamis and the earthquake that triggered them on Sunday has jumped to more than 118,000, with Indonesia reporting nearly 80,000 people dead.\n\nBush said he is sending the delegation of experts to the region because a first-hand assessment will determine what additional help is needed.\n\nThe United States has pledged $35 million in cash assistance, and Duffy said the president is satisfied that international coalitions are coming together to address the tragedy.\n\nCargo aircraft, support personnel, naval units and aid shipments have been dispatched from the United States.\n\nIn explaining why Jeb Bush was chosen to make the trip, Bushs statement said, He has extensive experience in the state of Florida with relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.\n\nThis year, Jeb Bush oversaw one of the most traumatic hurricane seasons in Florida history. The state was battered by an unprecedented four hurricanes in a single season -- Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne -- which killed more than 100 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage.\n\nThe two-month barrage of storms triggered the nations largest relief effort in history.\n\nDuffy added, Hes also the presidents brother, and I think it signifies the high level of importance the president puts on this delegation. ','WORLDasiapcf'),(7100,'/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/30/srilanka.train/index.html','2004-12-31','2005-01-13 01:28:28','British tsunami survivor Shenth Ravindra said he didnt know what was happening when the Queen of the Sea passenger train jerked to a stop near the Sri Lankan town of Galle -- he just heard screams and saw people running in terror.','','\n\nLONDON, England (CNN) -- British tsunami survivor Shenth Ravindra said he didn know what was happening when the Queen of the Sea passenger train jerked to a stop near the Sri Lankan town of Galle -- he just heard screams and saw people running in terror.\n\nRavindra was one of the few people who survived when the powerful waves swept inland on Sunday, knocking the crowded train off of its tracks. More than 1,000 people were on the train. Rescuers have recovered more than 200 bodies, but hundreds of people are still missing.\n\nRavindra, 25, said that when he first heard the commotion he thought that it might have been part of a religious celebration marking Poya day, a Buddhist holiday celebrating the full moon. \n\nThen he saw the peoples faces.\n\nI didn still quite know what was going on ... I didn know what it could be, but I saw a lot of terror on peoples faces, Ravindra told CNN.\n\nThen he heard a crash and saw the water rushing in.\n\nSuddenly I felt a shunt and the train moved off the tracks. I could see it being [detached] from the other carriages, he said. And then as the water started to rush in the train carriage started to tilt ... at which point I fell against one of the doorways and water started to fill up -- up to my neck.A cliff face of water\n\nThe second wave hit about a half-hour later with an almighty crash, he said.\n\nThis wave took up, it must have been 85 percent of the horizon, and it was coming toward us, Ravindra said. It wasn a wave, as such, like a curl with surf, it was just a wall, like a cliff face of water and coming straight for us.\n\nHe said there was a lot of panic as passengers tried to brace themselves and hang on to the children on board.\n\nThe second wave hit the train as it was at this angle and it sort of pushed the train inland to the point where it got wedged against the house. And I was able to jump from the top of this train to the top of this house and climb up as high up onto the roof as possible, Ravindra said.\n\nThe train was completely submerged by this time and the water continued to rise.\n\nTiles were starting to fall from the roof, the foundation of the house was starting to shake, he said. A coconut tree by the sheer force of the water was starting to cut through the house and there were other people on the roof as well and they were screaming and shouting as well.Sea of dead bodies\n\nRavindra said he decided to swim for it because he was afraid the house would collapse, or that there would be another wave.\n\nThere was like a sea of dead bodies, children and women mainly ... and I had to clear a path through the water by pushing those people away and heading as far inland as possible, he said.\n\nWhen he got to dry land, he met an English-speaking Sri Lankan woman, who offered to let him stay with her uncle, who lived nearby. The womans mother was lost in the tsunami.\n\nRavindra was able to use the uncles telephone to reach the British embassy, which let his mother know he was OK except for a cut on his foot.\n\nHe was reunited with his mother Thursday at Londons Heathrow Airport.\n\nHis mother praised the quick action of the British government in notifying her that Ravindra was alive and well.\n\nAt about 7 oclock on the Boxing Day, my cousin rang and told me that there is something going on in Sri Lanka, sort of an earthquake. So quickly, I put the television on and they started telling that... they said at first it was an earthquake, but later only I knew that it was like a tidal wave. However, I was watching and I was thinking, how am I going to get a hold of him? \n\nYou won believe, within an hour I got a call from the High Commission saying that he had rang them and that he is all right, except for the fact that he has a big cut on his leg, she said. \n\nRavindra thinks his experience will give him a new perspective of life.\n\nI haven had time to sit down and think about what has happened but I know it has been an unbelievable sequence of events that enabled me to escape in the first place, he said, adding that I won be complaining about being unlucky in anything in life ever again. \n\n-- CNNs Becky Anderson contributed to this report.','WORLDasiapcf'),(7101,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/01/bush.radio.reut/index.html','2005-01-01','2005-01-13 01:28:33','President Bush, seeking to bolster Americas humanitarian image after the Indian Ocean tsunamis, called Saturday for flags to be flown at half-staff next week to honor victims of the disaster.','','CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) -- President Bush, seeking to bolster Americas humanitarian image after the Indian Ocean tsunamis, called Saturday for flags to be flown at half-staff next week to honor victims of the disaster.\n\nA day after he raised the U.S. aid contribution to $350 million from $35 million, Bush used his weekly radio address to emphasize the need for private relief donations for devastated areas where massive waves killed at least 124,000 people and left five million others homeless.\n\nThe carnage is of a scale that defies comprehension, Bush said, noting that $15 million of the U.S. aid has been disbursed to relief organizations in the Indian Ocean region.\n\nI have signed a proclamation calling for our nations flag to be flown at half-staff this coming week. \n\nAs the people of this devastated region struggle to recover, we offer our love and compassion, and our assurance that America will be there to help.\n\nHe acknowledged that countries face a daunting task dealing with the consequences of the tsunamis.\n\nTheir relief resources are stretched nearly to the limit, said Bush, whose administration was criticized this week for the pace and scale of its response to the disaster.\n\nThe administration initially pledged $15 million for tsunami relief but upped that to $35 million under political pressure. On Friday it announced the amount would be raised to $350 million, but critics say it is still too little.\n\nBush is sending a delegation led by Secretary of State Colin Powell and including the presidents brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, to tour devastated areas in southeast Asia and assess assistance needs.\n\nCritics have noted that the government authorized $13.6 billion in aid for hurricane-battered U.S. states, mainly Florida, before last months election.\n\nBush said Americans were making important private donations to the relief effort but urged contributions through the Web site of the federal governments volunteer program, USA Freedom Corps, at www.usafreedomcorps.gov.\n\nDonor and fund-raiser alike represent the best of our country and offer an example to the world, he said. Let us be mindful that even in this modern age, our world still requires compassion, tolerance and generosity from each of us.\n\n','ALLPOLITICS'),(7102,'/2005/WORLD/europe/01/01/quake.newyear.europe.ap/index.html','2005-01-01','2005-01-13 01:28:52','For Swedens prime minister, celebrating New Years after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Asia felt "completely wrong." Paris draped black cloth along the Champs-Elysees. Elsewhere, prayers substituted for parties in the final minutes of','2004rties in the final minutes of 2004. Even for those far from Asi\n2005ming for a carefree leap into 2005. In Europe, thousands were s\n2012cting the citys bid for the 2012 games, lit up the London Eye \n','PARIS, France (AP) -- For Swedens prime minister, celebrating New Years after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Asia felt completely wrong. Paris draped black cloth along the Champs-Elysees. Elsewhere, prayers substituted for parties in the final minutes of 2004.\n\nEven for those far from Asian and African shores where the giant waves killed more than 120,000, the disaster was too overwhelming for a carefree leap into 2005.\n\nIn Europe, thousands were struggling with the loss of loved ones and friends. The confirmed death tolls for many European countries were in the double digits, but officials warned the final tallies would be in the hundreds or even thousands.\n\nFor Sweden alone, 2,500 tourists were still missing, while Switzerland was waiting to hear from some 700 and the French reported at least 118 disappeared.\n\nNever has the step into a new year felt heavier, said Goeran Persson, Swedens premier who urged Swedes to light candles in their windows as a vigil. We should have celebrated with fireworks and festivities. Now that feels completely wrong.\n\nStores in major German cities said sales of fireworks were down, in some cases by a third, following appeals from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and others for the money usually spent on pyrotechnics to be donated.\n\nGermanys main party at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin went ahead, but the revelers were urged on big screens to donate to UNICEF. TV stations turned their New Years Eve galas into charity events for tsunami victims.\n\nChancellor Wolfgang Schuessel of Austria also urged people to forgo fireworks. The city of Innsbruck canceled its display in a silent vigil for 40 residents of the western Austrian province of Tyrol who remain missing in Asia. Mayor Hilde Zach called the move a sign of solidarity to mark the great loss of human life. The southern city of Graz was donating its fireworks fund to tsunami victims.\n\nCrowds of thousands in London fell silent for two minutes in memory of the lives lost in Asia. Then as Big Ben struck midnight, a spectacular fireworks display burst in the sky above the River Thames, casting a brilliant glow over Westminster houses of parliament.\n\nAn Olympic-themed light show, reflecting the citys bid for the 2012 games, lit up the London Eye ferris wheel.\n\nIn Russia, wearied by a year of economic scandals and terrorist attacks, caution prevailed. Revelers filed through metal detectors onto Moscows Red Square to watch the fireworks display over St. Basils Cathedral.\n\nThis year ... ended very badly, said Lena Suyedinya, 26. I hope next year will be calmer -- more peaceful.\n\nEven in the distant Caribbean, one of the regions largest New Years Eve celebrations on the British territory of Jost Van Dyke was to be punctuated by silence.\n\nIn Paris, the 480 scarf-like strips of black cloth hung along the Champs-Elysees and on light posts at the nearby Place de la Concorde -- a deliberately discreet but poignant gesture to victims.\n\nThis night cannot be ordinary because of this mourning affecting the entire planet, deputy Mayor Anne Hidalgo said.\n\nParisians still stocked up on champagne and foie gras for feasting but said the tragedy weighed on their minds.\n\nOur hearts will be in it a little less this year, when we think about all the victims, said Marie-Caroline Lagache, 34.\n\n','WORLDeurope'),(7103,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/03/tsunami.warning.reut/index.html','2005-01-04','2005-01-13 01:29:00','A Thai expert says he tried to warn the government a deadly tsunami might be sweeping towards tourist-packed beaches, but couldnt find anyone to take his calls.','1797 tsunami in this region since 1797, but I think this last tsunam\n','PHUKET, Thailand (Reuters) -- A Thai expert says he tried to warn the government a deadly tsunami might be sweeping towards tourist-packed beaches, but couldn find anyone to take his calls.\n\nSamith Dhammasaroj said Monday he was sure a tsunami was coming as soon as he heard about the massive December 26 earthquake off Indonesias Sumatra island that measured magnitude 9.0 -- the worlds biggest in 40 years.\n\nI tried to call the director-general of the meteorological office, but his phone was always busy, Samith said as he described his desperate attempts to generate an alert which might have saved thousands of lives.\n\nI tried to phone the office, but it was a Sunday and no-one was there, said the former chief of the meteorological department now charged with setting up an early warning disaster system for Thailand.\n\nI knew that one day we would have this type of tsunami. I warned that there would be a big disaster, he told reporters.\n\nEveryone laughed at me and said I was a bad guy who wanted to ruin the tourist industry, he added.\n\nThe tsunami took just 75 minutes to hit the beaches and islands of Thailands Andaman Sea coast, 600 km (375 miles) from the earthquakes epicenter.\n\nNow more than 5,100 people are dead, nearly half of them foreign tourists who abandoned Europes cold, dark winter for golden sands and turquoise seas, and left 3,800 missing, nearly 1,700 of them foreigners.\n\nDownstairs from where he spoke, dozens of foreigners were still scanning message boards, trying to match grisly photos of bloated, battered bodies to the smiling pictures of missing friends and relatives.\n\nI feel very sorry for the people who died, Samith said. I will make sure this thing does not happen again.\n\nThe early warning system for Thailand -- which has not had a natural disaster in living memory worse than floods during the annual monsoon -- would be ready in six months, Samith promised.\n\nWe will make the system very efficient, he said.\n\nPreliminary investigations by a team of six Japanese experts showed that the wall of water hit beaches along the Thai coast at different speeds and heights, with the phenomenon exacerbated by a high tide that fed the tsunami as it neared land.\n\nKhao Lak beach, lined with hotels and resorts especially popular among Scandinavians and Germans just north of Phuket, took the worst hit from waves up to 10.5 meters (34 ft) high.\n\nThey roared up Khao Laks gently sloping beach at speeds of up to 8 meters a second (29 kilometers an hour), said Professor Hideo Matsutomi, who led the Japanese team.\n\nThere have been six major tsunami in this region since 1797, but I think this last tsunami was the biggest, he said.\n\nTsunami are much more frequent in the Pacific Ocean and countries there have long established an early warning system to protect them from disaster.\n\nSamith said countries in the Indian Ocean had to follow suit and set up a network of underwater sea monitors which might cost as little as $20 million to build.\n\nWarnings of imminent inundations would be sent out automatically on television and radio and by text messages to mobile phones.\n\nThe system would help woo back tourists scared away by the mass loss of life, Samith said.\n\nNo-one can predict an earthquake, but you can predict a tsunami, he said. We will build a good system.\n\nWe will help tourists come back to Thailand.\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7104,'/2003/US/05/24/nyt.becker/index.html','2003-05-24','2005-01-13 01:29:07','Senior Republican and Democratic lawmakers asked today that a Congressional investigation into how federal contracts were awarded for the reconstruction of Iraq be expanded to include nearly every aspect of the American occupation.','','','ROOTUS'),(7105,'/2003/WORLD/meast/05/26/sprj.nitop.iraq.aldouri/index.html','2003-05-26','2005-01-13 01:29:13','Iraqs former U.N. ambassador said Monday that the war in Iraq is not yet over because the United States still must show that it came as liberator and not as invader.','','','WORLDmeast'),(7106,'/2003/WORLD/europe/05/25/spain.elections/index.html','2003-05-25','2005-01-13 01:29:24','Voters in Sundays local elections in Spain appear to have taken the opportunity to punish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar for his support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq.','','','WORLDeurope'),(7107,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/15/powell/index.html','2004-11-16','2005-01-13 01:29:55','U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell announced Monday he was resigning, and two senior administration officials told CNN that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice is President Bushs choice to replace him.','','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell announced Monday he was resigning, and two senior administration officials told CNN that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice is President Bushs choice to replace him.\n\nIn a letter dated Friday, Powell told Bush that, now that the election is over the time has come for me to step down as secretary of state and return to private life. I, therefore, resign as the 65th secretary of state, effective at your pleasure.\n\nI will always treasure the four years that I have spent with President Bush and with the wonderful men and women of the Department of State, Powell told reporters. I think weve accomplished a great deal.\n\nShould Rices nomination be approved, her top deputy, Stephen Hadley, will be promoted to national security adviser, the senior administration officials said. The nomination could be announced as early as Tuesday.\n\nThe moves drew initial negative reaction from a former secretary of state who served Bushs father.\n\nI do not believe that you should have in the secretary of state someone who has spent their last four years in the White House next to the president, Lawrence Eagleburger told CNNs Paula Zahn Now. I do believe you need tension between the State Department, the Defense Department and the National Security Council.\n\nIf the rumors prove correct and her deputy becomes national security adviser, everybody is going to speak the same language, he said. Whatever influence, for instance, Colin Powell had is going to be much less under these new circumstances.\n\nPowell said Bush accepted the resignation Friday, adding, It has always been my intention that I would serve one term.\n\nBut a senior State Department official characterized Powells departure this way: He was not asked to stay.\n\nFor months Powell said he served at the pleasure of the president, suggesting he might stay if asked.\n\nThat didn happen, the senior official said. But the official also said Powell never asked to stay and was never asked to leave.\n\nPowell said he expects to act fully as secretary of state until the day that I do leave. I expect that will be a number of weeks or a month or two as my replacement goes through the confirmation process.\n\nMeanwhile, it will be business as usual, he said. I fully intend for the department to work as hard as it has in recent years to push forward the presidents foreign policy agenda.\n\nAsked to list the biggest pieces of unfinished business facing the department, Powell cited the global war against terror, the consolidation of gains made in Afghanistan, the defeat of the insurgency in Iraq and the pursuit of new opportunities in the Middle East as a result of the death last week of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.\n\nAsked whether he will be able to wield power as a short-timer, the former general said, I think that I will be able to be quite effective for the remainder of my term.\n\nHe said he did not know what he would do after leaving the department.\n\nPowell was scheduled to travel to Egypt next week for a conference on Iraq.\n\nA senior official said Monday that the State Department was trying to arrange a meeting between Powell and the new Palestinian leadership, but added the details have not been worked out. A date and place have not been set, the official said. \n\nThe official made the comment after Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told reporters in Gaza City that Powell was expected to meet with the leadership next week in the West Bank. \n\nU.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Danforth, whose name also had been discussed as a possible successor to Powell, told reporters Monday afternoon that he had not been approached about the job. It hasn been mentioned by me or to me, he said. Other resignations\n\nPowell is the most prominent of four Cabinet officials whose resignations were announced Monday by the White House.\n\nThe others were Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.\n\nOne of Powells best known moments as secretary of state was his speech last year to the U.N. Security Council in which he made a case for invading Iraq.\n\nHe said that Saddam Hussein was still developing weapons of mass destruction despite years of U.N. disarmament demands. Those claims about Iraq weaponry were never borne out.Smooth transition\n\nState Department officials said that Bush and Powell decided mutually that it was time for him to go.\n\nThe White House said Powell had been in discussions with Bush about his resignation.\n\nSome administration officials said the secretary had talked of staying on for a month to three months into the new term, because he wanted to advance a few priorities before stepping down.\n\nBut White House officials said it was decided that the secretarys resignation should be announced now.\n\nSeveral officials said the White House bore no ill will toward Powell, but simply desired to move smoothly through the Cabinet transitions. One said that, had Powell stayed longer, it would have a ripple effect on other planned changes.\n\nIt wasn so much time for him, as it was time for the president, one senior official said, adding that Powell and Bush had been discussing his potential resignation for some time and had come to mutual agreement.\n\nCNNs John King, Andrea Koppel, Suzanne Malveaux and Elise Labotte contributed to this report.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7108,'/2004/WORLD/meast/07/01/amanpour.scene/index.html','2004-07-01','2005-01-13 01:30:23','Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein appeared in court Thursday to learn that he is accused of genocide and other crimes against humanity. The hearing was only about half an hour, but for me it was almost three weeks in the making.','','\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein appeared in court Thursday to learn that he is accused of genocide and other crimes against humanity. The hearing was only about half an hour, but for me it was almost three weeks in the making.\n\nThe room was very small. I can guess the dimensions, but it was a tiny courtroom on a U.S. military base. There were only a handful of journalists in the cramped quarters, and I was among the exclusive few -- one pool reporter, me and one other journalist. There were just a few cameras there from Arab television stations.\n\nI didn know that I would have such an exclusive position in this court, but I had been working this story very aggressively for the last three weeks. Id broken several pieces of news about the process -- when he was going to be transferred and what it was going to be like.\n\nId had good contacts on the Iraqi legal side. And I did the old-fashioned work my sources, and thats how I got in. I was invited by the Iraqi side to watch this so I was not a part of the pool. \n\nI was very pleased and proud and fortunate that I had managed to score a pretty significant journalistic coup. \n\nIt was among the top 10 stories of my career. I had never seen Saddam before. I had never interviewed him. Ive never been in his presence before. This was the first time, and I sat about 10 to 12 feet away from him.\n\nI would say he was a shadow of his former presidential self. He was thin. He had lost, we\re told, 12 pounds. He had a beard and a mustache, whereas when he was president, he just had a mustache. His skin was very dark, and he had bags under his eyes.\n\nHe was looking old and tired. He did not shuffle, but he walked very slowly after the guards brought him in. He wasn wearing prison garb. Instead, Saddam wore a gray suit jacket, brown trousers -- which were kept up with a belt -- and black polished shoes.\n\nThis was a big story because it was Saddam Hussein -- a man who has been so demonized and the target of the United States in two wars. And there he was, this very diminished figure, a shadow.\n\nThis man had been omnipotent, a dictator. In the past, hed dealt very harshly with so many people for so long. And today he was at the mercy of an Iraqi judge. It was a very interesting dynamic. ','WORLDmeast'),(7109,'/2004/WORLD/meast/07/01/saddam.transcript/index.html','2004-07-01','2005-01-13 01:30:34','Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein appeared before a judge Thursday to hear seven preliminary charges outlined in an arrest warrant.','1983f a great number of Iraqis in 1983. Three, intended killing of a\n','\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein appeared before a judge Thursday to hear seven preliminary charges outlined in an arrest warrant.\n\nAt times Saddam -- who insisted he remains president of Iraq -- acted as if he were still in command. He argued with the investigative judge, quibbling over legal points and principles and lecturing him about his responsibilities.\n\nThe two spoke in Arabic, and what follows is an English translation of the final part of Saddams appearance. (The judges name was not released for security reasons.)\n\nJUDGE: Profession? Former president of the Republic of Iraq?\n\nSADDAM: No, present. Current. Its the will of the people.\n\nJUDGE: The head of the Baath Party that is dissolved, defunct. Former commander and chief of the army. Residence is Iraq. Your mothers name?\n\nSADDAM: Sobha. ...\n\nMay I have clarification?\n\nJUDGE: Go ahead, please.\n\nSADDAM: You also have to introduce yourself to me.\n\nJUDGE: Mr. Saddam, I am the investigative judge of the central court of Iraq.\n\nSADDAM: So that I have to know, you are an investigative judge of the central court of Iraq? What resolution, what law formed this court?\n\nJUDGE: [Off-mike comment]\n\nSADDAM: Oh, the coalition forces? So you are an Iraqi that -- you are representing the occupying forces?\n\nJUDGE: No, Im an Iraqi representing Iraq.\n\nSADDAM: But you are ...\n\nJUDGE: I was appointed by a presidential decree under the former regime.\n\nSADDAM: So you are reiterating that every Iraqi should respect the Iraqi law. So the law that was instituted before represents the will of the people, right?\n\nJUDGE: Yes, God willing.\n\nSADDAM: So you should not work under the jurisdiction of the coalition forces.\n\nJUDGE: This is an important point. I am a judge. In the former regime, I respect the judges. And I am resuming and continuing my work. You, as any other citizen, you have to answer to any accusation or charge, thats true. This is an arraignment, a charge. If it can be proven, then you will be convicted. If not, then everything is fine. \n\nThe judicial due process is to bring back rights. If theres evidence, youll be convicted. If theres no evidence, you will not. Until now, you\re accused before the judicial system. So according to that. ...\n\nSADDAM: So, please let me -- Im not complicating matters.\n\nAre you a judge? You are a judge? And judges, they value the law. And they rule by the law, right? Right? Right is a relative issue. For us, right is our heritage in the Koran, sharia, right?\n\nI am not talking about Saddam Hussein, whether he was a citizen or in other capacities. Im not holding fast to my position, but to respect the will of the people that decided to choose Saddam Hussein as the leader of the revolution.\n\nTherefore, when I say president of the Republic of Iraq, its not a formality or a holding fast to a position, but rather to reiterate to the Iraqi people that I respect its will. This is one.\n\nNo. 2, you summoned me to levy charges -- no, I -- you call it crimes.\n\nJUDGE: The investigative judge -- if there is evidence, then Ill defer it to a court of jurisdiction.\n\nSADDAM: Let me understand something. Who is the defendant? Any defendant when he comes to a court, before that there should be investigation.\n\nThis is not a court. This is investigation. This is investigation now. Let me clarify this point. Then I hope that you remember you are a judge empowered by the people. It doesn really matter whether you convict me or not; thats not whats important. But what is important is that you remember that you\re a judge. Then don mention anything [about] occupying forces. This is not good. \n\nThen judge in the name of people. Then thats good. Then judge in the name of people. This is the Iraqi way.\n\nJUDGE: Mr. Saddam, this is an investigative process. ...\n\nSADDAM: From the legal standpoint, you were notified that I have lawyers, right? Am I not supposed to meet with the lawyers before I come before you?\n\nJUDGE: If you give me just 10 minutes, lets finish the formalities, and Ill come to that. Then if you wait, then you will see that you have rights that are guaranteed. OK. Go ahead.\n\nAccording to the law, Mr. Saddam, the investigative judge has to give the defendant the charges that are levied against him. And then reading the rights of all the charges according to the law, Article 123, 124 and 125. \n\nThe first step is, these cnnarticles, were they not signed by Saddam Hussein? Yes, this is the law that was in 73. So then Saddam Hussein was representing the leadership and signed that law. So now you are using the law that Saddam signed against Saddam. Saddam was the people.\n\nSADDAM: Please, the constitution mechanism -- Im not a lawyer, but I understand -- I am originally a man of law. Is it allowed to call a president elected by the people and charge him according to a law that was enacted under his will and the will of the people?\n\nThere is some contradiction. No.\n\nJUDGE: The judicial process -- let me answer this clarification -- first, Im not deliberating a case against you, Im investigating, interrogating you. \n\nSecond, the president is a profession, is a position, is a deputy of the society. Thats true. And originally, inherently, hes a citizen. And every citizen, according to the law in the constitution, if this person violates a law, has to come before the law. And that law you know more than I do. ...\n\nSo the crimes, the charges: Intended killing by using chemical weapons in Halabjah. Second, intended killing of a great number of Iraqis in 1983. Three, intended killing of a number of members of political parties without trials. Fourth, intended killing of many of the Iraqi religious people.\n\nFifth, intended killing of many Iraqis in Anfal without any evidence against it. You have the right to defend and answer. These are the guarantees. Now we come to an important matter.\n\nYou will have heard the court read the crimes that you\re charged -- or were attributed to the accused, Saddam Hussein. And you were told [about] the cnnarticles of the law that apply to those cases.\n\nAnd the court has read to you the rights and the guarantees that any accused is entitled to, which includes the rights of defense and representation and also the right not to answer any question asked, and that will never be used as an evidence against the accused. And the court also presented to the accused the right to argue the evidence.\n\nThe accused requested to meet with defense lawyers that are his private defense lawyers to be present with him in the investigative sessions. And in light of that, the minutes were concluded, and the investigation is postponed until the accused is enabled to contact his representation, his lawyers, and another appointment for the next session will be decided.\n\nYes. The charges that were levied against Saddam Hussein -- go ahead. You should sign so that I can talk to -- OK. Let me sign.\n\n(There was an audio gap.)\n\nJUDGE: Allow me. The seventh charge was against Saddam Hussein as president of the republic and the commander in chief of the army. And the army went to Kuwait.\n\nSADDAM: Even though this was not an invasion. Will the law judge Saddam Hussein because he defends Iraq?\n\nJUDGE: You are in a legal hearing, and we will not allow you to speak in any way that is disrespectful to this court. Saddam Hussein is the president of the Republic of Iraq and the commander in chief of the armed forces that invaded Kuwait. So officially this is what it was.\n\nSADDAM: Then in the formal capacity ... afforded by the constitution. This is the law that you\re using to use against me now. This is the crux of the matter, Mr. Judge. Charges are levied because actions were taken in a system whose president was Saddam Hussein but without presidential guarantees.\n\nJUDGE: I would like you to sign these documents formally, and this will go into the record. Answer to those charges. This is investigation. Answer. If you read the minutes, we say that we postpone the investigation.\n\nSADDAM: Then please allow me not to sign anything until the lawyers are present.\n\nJUDGE: That is fine. But this is your. ...\n\nSADDAM: I speak for myself.\n\nJUDGE: Yes, as a citizen you have the right. But the guarantees you have to sign because these were read to you, recited to you.\n\nSADDAM: [Off-mike]\n\nJUDGE: No, no. This is part of the process.\n\nSADDAM: No, this is not part of the process.\n\nJUDGE: No, this is part of the process.\n\nSADDAM: Anyway, why are you worried? I will come again before you with the presence of the lawyers, and you will be giving me all of these documents again. So why should we rush any action now and make mistakes because of rushed and hasty decisions or actions?\n\nJUDGE: No, this is not a hasty decision-making now. Im just investigating. And we need to conclude and seal the minutes.\n\nSADDAM: No, I will sign when the lawyers are present.\n\nJUDGE: Then you can leave.\n\nSADDAM: Finished?\n\nJUDGE: Yes.','WORLDmeast'),(7110,'/2005/US/01/02/tsunami.usaid/index.html','2005-01-03','2005-01-13 01:31:07','Before leaving Sunday on a U.S. mission to tsunami-ravaged southern Asia, Secretary of State Colin Powell sharply rebutted criticism that the initial U.S. response to the disaster was slow and inadequate.','','WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Before leaving Sunday on a U.S. mission to tsunami-ravaged southern Asia, Secretary of State Colin Powell sharply rebutted criticism that the initial U.S. response to the disaster was slow and inadequate.\n\nI think that we have responded appropriately, he told CNNs Late Edition, adding, We\re a little push-backy, I guess I can say, with respect to the claims that we didn respond well. We did.\n\nThe United States has committed $350 million in relief funds, the largest contribution behind Japans $500 million. (Full story)\n\nThe United Nations says a total of $2 billion has been promised. \n\nU.S. military aid flights have delivered about 215 tons of relief supplies to the battered region, said Capt. Rodger Welch, a Navy operations officer in Hawaii. And a contingent of 200 Marine combat engineers based in Okinawa, Japan, will join the American task force already dispatched to the region to help distribute that aid, Welch said. \n\nThe death toll from the December 26 tsunamis stood at more than 155,000 on Sunday.\n\nWorld leaders including Powell and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will meet Thursday at a donor conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Thursday in Jakarta, Indonesia.\n\nJoining Powell are Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the presidents brother who helped oversee disaster relief following deadly hurricanes in his state; Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Brown; Andrew Natsios, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development; and James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.\n\nThey planned to fly to Bangkok Sunday, then to the Thai island of Phuket and on to Jakarta, Powell told CBS Face the Nation. He said the mission would hopefully stop in the destroyed Indonesian province of Aceh.\n\nBefore returning to the United States Friday, the delegation plans to stop in Sri Lanka, he said.\n\nBush told reporters before leaving Miami that the mission was to determine immediate and long-term relief and reconstruction needs -- and also to show that our country really cares.\n\nI know the president has deep concerns about what has happened, said Bush, whose state was battered by four major hurricanes over the summer. And the fact that Im his brother, symbolically, may give some people a sense that the president really does care, as he does.\n\nHe said the hurricane damage his state sustained pales by comparison to what happened in these countries. Florida is expected to receive about $10 billion in disaster aid by the time reconstruction efforts are complete, the governor said.\n\nBush said he would return to the United States in time for a 60th anniversary celebration for his parents, former president and first lady George and Barbara Bush, at the White House on Thursday. \n\nU.N. and regional leaders have praised the planned mission and U.S. support for the region.\n\nU.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland -- who sparked international debate last week when he called wealthy nations stingy with foreign aid in general -- told Late Edition the United States has been ideal in the way it has responded to the disaster.\n\nThey have also provided military assets that we are reliant upon now, as we try to reach out to the most remote places in Sumatra and Aceh, which are the worst-hit of the areas, he said.\n\nLast week the Bush administration faced some criticism at home and abroad when it at first promised $15 million and then raised that to $35 million. Critics also complained President Bush did not personally address the matter publicly until three days after the disaster struck and did not cut short his vacation in Crawford, Texas.\n\nSen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and member of the appropriations committee, said, We should have been eagerly telling that part of the world, especially the Muslim part of that world, that we here in America are generous, are good people, and we are strongly committed to help them.\n\nPowell rejected the charge. \n\nDuring the first 24 hours, I called every single foreign minister of the most affected nations, Powell told CNN. Our ambassadors immediately began distributing emergency aid. We set up teams.\n\nHe added that Bush himself called the heads of state in the region and made clear the United States was responding.\n\nDiscussions were under way throughout the week to determine how much money to send, he said.\n\nPowell said it would not be a good idea for Bush to visit the region himself right now. \n\nThese are nations that are spending their time and attention now delivering relief to their citizens, Powell said. A visit by the president of the United States, with all that entails, would be a diversion of their attention from providing support.\n\nHe also insisted that the U.S. creation of a core group -- the United States, India, Japan and Australia -- to respond to the crisis was not an effort to undermine the United Nations. \n\nWhat we have tried to do is use the core group ... as a way of getting started, recognizing that it would ultimately be subsumed into the efforts of the United Nations, he said.\n\nEgeland praised the core group and said it was helping the United Nations.\n\nPowell has said the United States may add to its $350 million pledge, and he told CNN the figure does not cover the total U.S. contribution. \n\nOur Department of Defense is spending tens of millions of dollars more as we dispatched two carrier groups, a regular big aircraft carrier group and a Marine amphibious group to the region, he said. And private donations are significant.\n\nBut there are also questions about whether the United States will follow through with the promised contribution. A year ago, an earthquake destroyed the Iranian city of Bam, and the United States has not sent all the money it promised at the time.\n\nWhen we pledge an amount, we plan to deliver that amount, said Powell. Sometimes there are difficulties with respect to the actual delivery of resources. In a place like Iran, that might be particularly difficult.\n\nHe added, Not all of the money is spent immediately. ... The money fans out over a period of time in a sensible way, not all at once.\n\nAnnan said international pledges following disasters are regularly unfulfilled.\n\nThis is the major problem we have. Its a classic problem we have with all these humanitarian issues, he told ABCs This Week with George Stephanopoulos.\n\nAnnan said he hopes that given the fact that this is really an international crisis, with numerous countries having lost citizens, that the promised responses will come through.\n\nIts not clear precisely where the promised U.S. funds will come from, but Powell rejected a suggestion from Leahy that at least some come from funds earmarked for Iraq reconstruction.\n\n','US'),(7111,'/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/31/tsunami.aid.reut/index.html','2004-12-31','2005-01-13 01:31:13','Aid trucks loaded with food, medicines and body bags rolled into tsunami-hit areas across Asia and aircraft dropped supplies to cut-off villages as a huge relief operation finally swung into gear on Friday.','','\n\nBANGKOK, Thailand (Reuters) -- Aid trucks loaded with food, medicines and body bags rolled into tsunami-hit areas across Asia and aircraft dropped supplies to cut-off villages as a huge relief operation finally swung into gear on Friday.\n\nBut military flights disgorging tons of emergency supplies at major Asian airports were creating logjams, threatening to hinder one of the worlds biggest aid operations.\n\nA lack of fuel was also holding up relief efforts in worst-hit Aceh province on Indonesias Sumatra island, near the epicenter of Sundays 9.0 magnitude quake that triggered the killer waves.\n\nThe humanitarian catastrophe caused by the tsunami that killed more than 125,000 and left millions without the basics to survive, was stretching the worlds ability to respond, said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.\n\nU.S. military transport aircraft were landing at Indonesias northern city of Medan on Friday delivering supplies to be trucked to neighboring Aceh province, where perhaps more than 100,000 people died, Indonesias health minister said on Friday.\n\nAid deliveries to Aceh and many other areas have been hindered in recent days due to lack of fuel, impassable roads and downed bridges. The trucks will take up to 16 hours to reach Acehs battered provincial capital Banda Aceh.\n\nAustralian and New Zealand military aircraft were flying directly to Banda Aceh, delivering troops and emergency supplies and evacuating people.\n\nThe planes are going flat out, Australian army Major Grant King told Reuters at Banda Aceh airport.\n\nThe aid is getting out, he added. People at the extremities are probably getting it, but there are limitations.\n\nThe United Nations children body UNICEF said emergency supplies of medicines, tarpaulins and hygiene kits to support 200,000 people were headed for Aceh.\n\nBut Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill warned that so much aid was now pouring in that airports were straining to cope.\n\nWe are already witnessing a logjam at key airfields, Hill said, as an Australian amphibious navy ship headed for Aceh with 100 army engineers, earthmovers and helicopters.\n\nSingapore will open its air and naval bases for relief efforts to the region, Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean told reporters. The bases in Singapore will be used as additional staging and logistics points, he said.\n\nSingapore has sent a landing ship tank, four helicopters and medical and rescue teams to Indonesia.\n\nThe Thai air force said it could no longer handle the flood of donations from the public. Our three warehouses are fully occupied with more than enough canned food, bottled water and used clothes, Captain Pongsak Semachai told Reuters.\n\nU.S. President George W. Bush, criticized for a slow reaction to the disaster, said he would send a delegation led by Secretary of State Colin Powell to Asia on Sunday to assess the need for U.S. assistance. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and a flotilla of ships were steaming to Thailand.\n\nU.S. military aircraft were also flying into Sri Lanka, where the death toll stands at more than 28,000. Trucks were rolling out to relief camps scattered along the coast, but there too flooded roads strewn with debris were hindering deliveries.\n\nThe situation is grim. Many villages have not yet received aid. Many areas are inaccessible. People are desperate for food, water and shelter, said Anjali Kwatra, leader of Sri Lankas Christian Aid emergency assessment team.\n\nIn Thailand -- where thousands of rotting corpses, many of them of foreign tourists, were stacked in Buddhist temples -- trucks were not only bringing supplies for the living, but also for the dead.\n\nOne aid group alone was sending 1,000 body bags and 2,000 kg (4,400 lb) of formalin for preserving bodies at the Thai island resort of Phuket. The United Nations was providing $50,000 to buy more body bags and formalin.\n\nThailands Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti appealed for dry ice and refrigerated containers to store thousands of rotting bodies.\n\nAid workers were still struggling to deal with the dead, burying corpses scattered around towns, villages and on beaches.\n\nMany bodies are rotting and still left untouched up to this morning, said World Visions Jimmy Nadapdap in Banda Aceh.\n\nAid workers were trying to dislodge corpses and dead animals from water drainpipes and wells in a race against time to restore clean water supplies. Aid groups fear that without clean water supplies the spread of disease could double the death toll.\n\nIn India, UNICEF had begun moving more than 2,175 water storage tanks, each with a capacity of 500 liters (110 gallons), to relief camps along the south coast.\n\nBecause of the sheer devastation caused by the tsunami, the relief operation must not only cater for immediate medical and food needs, but also for everyday items.\n\nIn Sri Lanka, aid groups were providing 25,000 personal hygiene packs for women and girls and in Thailand, 600 sets of school supplies were distributed to children.\n\nUNICEF says a third of the tsunami victims may be children and thousands more have been left orphaned.\n\nWorld Vision was setting up 20 childrens centers in Indonesia, which would include special tents where traumatized children can receive physical and psychological support. Copyright 2004 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.','WORLDasiapcf'),(7112,'/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/31/quake.newyears.celebratons.reut/index.html','2005-01-01','2005-01-13 01:31:19','People held candles and white roses on the tsunami-hit island of Phuket, tearfully embracing as they grieved, in a poignant symbol of the mood which darkened New Year celebrations across the globe.','2005 flags at half staff to start 2005 as a mark of respect for thei\n1999rocked northwestern Turkey in 1999 and killed more than 18,000, \n','PATONG BEACH, Thailand (Reuters) -- People held candles and white roses on the tsunami-hit island of Phuket, tearfully embracing as they grieved, in a poignant symbol of the mood which darkened New Year celebrations across the globe.\n\nIn contrast to the usual revelry, sadness hung over this years festivities after more than 124,000 people were killed and millions left homeless by Sundays massive Indian Ocean waves.\n\nAustralia led the world in a global minute of silence, parties were cancelled and trees on Paris, Frances grand Champs Elysees were shrouded in black on Friday.\n\nOn Thailands Phuket island, bar girls and customers at the Tiger Discotheque stopped their partying for a candlelight vigil meters away from where the waves had crashed into Patong beach.\n\nAt the stroke of midnight, party-goers stopped their celebrations and lit incense sticks. The mournful Elton John song Candle in the Wind echoed through the resort.\n\nOn the debris-strewn beach, two people were lonely figures, crouching near the sea with lit candles.\n\nThen it was over and the disco roared back to life with the girls wiping away their tears and returning to the table tops.\n\nIts definitely a big difference, said British tourist Richard de Gottal at the Tiger. Its business as usual here and 100 yards away there was death and destruction. Its very, very surreal.\n\nSydney, Australia, the worlds first major city to start celebrations, went ahead with its annual New Years Eve firework displays, but the estimated 1 million revelers who flocked to the harbor foreshore were urged to remember those killed.\n\nSydneysiders were asked to observe a minutes silence in remembrance of tsunami victims. Party-goers in Australias Melbourne and in neighboring New Zealand similarly paused to remember.\n\nThis gives an opportunity for mums and dads to help to explain what happened to their children, a spokesman for Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.\n\nAt the stroke of midnight Sydneys Harbour Bridge exploded into a blaze of color, with multi-co lour flashes illuminating the city for miles around.\n\nAround the world, party plans were dropped or toned down. In Sri Lanka, where more than 28,500 people died, President Chandrika Kumaratunga cancelled all New Year celebrations and declared a national day of mourning.\n\nThailand called off outdoor celebrations in memory of its 4,500 victims and Malaysia decided against official festivities.\n\nIn Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called for muted New Year celebrations and a fireworks display over the Marina Bay area was cancelled.\n\nIn Hong Kong, where disgruntled residents are used to marking public holidays with anti-government protests, political parties across the spectrum decided to postpone a New Years Day march and instead planned to raise funds for tsunami victims.\n\nThe disaster has cast a long shadow over global celebrations, particularly in Europe. Europeans made up the majority of the more than 2,200 foreign tourists known to be dead and 7,000 missing.\n\nSweden, Norway, Finland and Germany planned to fly flags at half staff to start 2005 as a mark of respect for their many dead and missing, who had left Europes cold, dark winter for the sunshine and golden sands of Asia.\n\nSwedish Prime Minister Goran Persson called for national solidarity amid muted New Years celebrations following the devastating tsunami that may have killed more than 1,000 Swedes.\n\nWe can greet the New Year as welcome ... and at the same time think of all the missing, Persson told a crowd of several thousand in a central Stockholm park, a traditional venue for national celebrations of all kind, but now more somber.\n\nParis draped black mourning crepe on the trees lining the Champs Elysees to pay homage to the victims. Thousands of Parisians traditionally collect on the tree-lined boulevard in the center of the French capital on New Years Eve.\n\nIstanbul, with memories of a massive earthquake that rocked northwestern Turkey in 1999 and killed more than 18,000, cancelled a concert and firework display in the city center.\n\nA number of Italian cities abandoned plans for major New Years Eve parties, deciding instead to send the money saved to charities helping the victims.\n\nNear Berlins Brandenburg Gate, where a million people typically throng on New Years Eve, flags were being flown at half-staff. Around 1,000 Germans are missing after the disaster.\n\nGermany urged revelers to donate some of the 100 million euros ($136 million) they would normally spend on fireworks, a call repeated across Europe.\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7113,'/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/30/tsunami.US.ap/index.html','2004-12-30','2005-01-13 01:31:29','President Bush announced Thursday that a delegation of experts led by Secretary of State Colin Powell will travel to Asia on Sunday to assess the need for further U.S. assistance.','','\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush announced Thursday that a delegation of experts led by Secretary of State Colin Powell will travel to Asia on Sunday to assess the need for further U.S. assistance.\n\nThe Bush administration also lent its support to a European-hosted international conference designed to accelerate pledges of assistance to victims of the Asian and African tsunamis and added the United Nations to a four-nation coalition organizing humanitarian relief.\n\nAll Americans are shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of life and the destruction around the Indian Ocean, Bush said in a statement read by White House deputy press secretary Trent Duffy in Crawford, Texas, where the president is staying. To coordinate this massive relief effort, first-hand assessments are needed by individuals on the ground.\n\nTo further assess the need for U.S. support, Bush said, the delegation of experts, including his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, will travel to the region. Duffy said including the presidents brother, who has experience with extensive hurricane damage in Florida, signifies the high level of importance that the president puts on this delegation.\n\nResponding to persistent criticism that U.S. pledges have been slow to materialize and deliveries of aid not fast enough, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher ticked off a string of relief flights and declared: Any implication we are not leading the way is wrong.\n\nOur effort is strong and it is active, Boucher said at a State Department briefing in Washington that touched on the grisly efforts to find missing Americans and to identify victims.\n\nBoucher said American diplomats, for instance, were visiting morgues in Indonesia as part of their search. The U.S. death toll was officially raised from 12 to 14, with seven dead in Thailand and seven in Sri Lanka.\n\nSome 600 Americans who were listed as missing have been found, Boucher said, but several thousand had not been located four days after the disaster struck.\n\nIn Sri Lanka, Boucher said, Americans have been showing up at U.S. consular offices wearing bathing suits, with no money and no clothes.\n\nPowell conferred by video hookup with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and the United Nations was added to the core group planning relief efforts. The others are the United States, Japan, India and Australia, which raised its pledge to $27 million, just $8 million below the U.S. pledge.\n\nPowell will meet with Annan at the United Nations on Friday.\n\nNetherlands Ambassador Dirk Jan van den Berg said Thursday after meeting with Annan that he expected the European Commission to be part of the core group.\n\nWith the death toll rising above 117,000, European governments were taking soundings on holding an international donors conference Jan. 7. Boucher said, The United States will participate at a senior level in whatever donors conference is held.\n\nThe coalition or core group set up Wednesday by Bush was scheduled to hold another conference call among top officials Thursday night.\n\nAmong the coalitions aims is trying to limit duplication of efforts.\n\nPowell, visiting the Embassy of Thailand on Thursday to extend condolences, vowed that the administration would follow through on promises of substantial financial assistance.\n\nYou can be sure that the president is determined to do what is necessary to deal with this challenge, he said. We\re working very closely with the international community.\n\nOn Capitol Hill, House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde said he was drafting legislation to help victims and planned to introduce it early next year.\n\nThe infrastructure of daily life is simply gone, said Hyde, R-Ill.\n\nA congressional delegation headed by Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, a former U.S. foreign service officer, is scheduled to visit Thailand and Sri Lanka next week.\n\nPledges of U.S. assistance remained at $35 million, but parallel Pentagon spending was spiraling upward and could not be calculated quickly. The relief included the arrival of four C-130 cargo planes in Thailand loaded with food, water and sheltering material, and a large supply of rice and other food and assistance was due to arrive in Indonesia by New Years Eve, a senior U.S. official said.\n\nSeveral European countries far outdistanced the United States in pledges. They include Britain, $95 million; Sweden, $75.5 million; Spain, $68 million and France, $57 million.\n\nThe World Bank announced it would make $250 million available as an initial contribution for emergency reconstruction. The amount is for the next six months.\n\nDuring his visit to the Thai embassy, Powell spoke anew of the death and destruction spawned by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis. He told reporters that in the previous 24 hours, a half-dozen planes from the U.S. Agency for International Development had landed or were en route to nations hit by the tsunamis.\n\nPowell also alluded to the roughly $35 million in emergency aid already committed as just a beginning.\n\nIts going to take a lot more, he said. This is the time to make sure that we get a good needs assessment. The death toll from the quake and tsunamis has reached more than 114,000.\n\nAt the Embassy of Indonesia later, Powell wrote a message in a condolence book, expressing the support and sympathy of the American people. He said he had never seen such a tragedy and said that it was time for us to join together in solidarity.Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.','ALLPOLITICS'),(7114,'/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/28/apontv.newyears.eve.ap/index.html','2004-12-28','2005-01-13 01:31:35','Let the surfing begin.','','\n\nNEW YORK (AP) -- Let the surfing begin.\n\nWith an ailing king, two would-be successors and a ubiquitous substitute, New Years Eve on television has more subplots than a party with three ex-girlfriends.\n\nDick Clark and his New Years Rockin Eve on ABC has been the go-to party for 32 years, but hell be away from Times Square this Friday as he continues recovering from a stroke. Regis Philbin will fill in for him.\n\nNBC is launching its own party show from Rockefeller Center with Carson Daly. Ryan Seacrest, in his third year for Fox, is bringing his show east to New York for the first time. Even gray-haired hipster Anderson Cooper will emcee a CNN New Years show from Times Square with the rock band Green Day.\n\nBoth Daly and Seacrest were booked before Clark took ill, an indication of an approaching generational shift. Much like Clark took over from Guy Lombardo as televisions most popular New Years Eve host, Daly and Seacrest are jockeying to be the next in line.\n\nWhen its time to say, OK, heres the show and the guy that is going to be around on New Years Eve for years to come, I would definitely like to be the one that the baton gets passed to, Seacrest said.\n\nDon expect Clark, health permitting, and ABC to give it up easily. New Years Rockin Eve is annually ABCs second most popular entertainment special after the Oscars.\n\nTheres never been anything to put a dent in it, said Andrea Wong, ABCs senior vice president for alternative series and specials. There continues to be a huge appetite for the show.\n\nEven in his mid-70s, as he introduces artists young enough to be his grandchildren, Clarks perpetual teenage image has kept the fogey factor at bay. In recent years, hes brought on a younger co-host from Hollywood, a role filled this week by Ashlee Simpson.Seacrest: Without Clark, it really won feel the same\n\nThe ABC New Years Eve special will run three and a half hours, starting at 10 p.m. EDT, breaking after an hour for local news and returning from 11:35 p.m. to 2:05 a.m. Besides Simpson, performers include Big & Rich; Ciara; Earth, Wind & Fire; Fabolous; Kenny G; Billy Idol; Los Lonely Boys and Simple Plan.\n\nPhilbin, whos yet to find a TV job he can do, was Clarks choice, Wong said. Between that endorsement and Philbins own popularity, ABC doesn expect to relinquish its crown.\n\nDaly and Seacrest are both big fans of Clark. Theyve used his career as a model, and speak of him ever-so-respectfully.\n\nBut is that the sound of a door creaking open?\n\nThings could perhaps be up in the air now in light of the recent circumstances, the unfortunate circumstances with Dick, Seacrest said. They had to put Regis in at the last minute, and Im not quite sure what that show will be like or feel like without Dick Clark. He certainly will be missed by America.\n\nIt really won feel the same without him in Times Square, he said.\n\nSeacrest, now a radio host of Americas Top 40, will run his show (airing from 11 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. ET) like a countdown. Not only will the years best songs be played, hell incorporate pop culture lists like the top five bitter breakups of the year. Its his first year as executive producer, and Seacrest is looking for ways to make the show distinctive.\n\nHoobastank and Evanescence will perform, and the show will include the world premiere of a 20-minute Usher video featuring four of his hits. Tony Calvano, president of Landmark Signs, scales the flagpole that will hold the New Years Eve ball in Times Square.\n\nUsher fans may be delirious, but theres a danger others could see that time as a huge indulgence. But Seacrest points out it will happen after midnight, when many people stop paying attention to these shows or can see straight anyway.\n\nDaly spent five years as host of MTVs New Years Eve party (which, by the way, has Lindsay Lohan as host this year) before taking last year off. He has re-emerged to inaugurate NBCs pre-party, which airs from 10 to 11 p.m. Jay Leno will have a live Tonight show when the Times Square ball drops.\n\nIf Daly is disappointed at leaving the air an hour before midnight, hes not letting on.\n\nI didn really look past the fact that they said youll be on the air live from 10 to 11 and heres the money, he said. Maybe next year.\n\nHe wants the chance to establish himself as a potential New Years Eve franchise for NBC.\n\nThis is not about me trying to steal something from Dick Clark, he said.Going for cool\n\nHis show will feature performances by Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5 and Duran Duran. Ever the good corporate soldier, Daly will also include a guest shot by The Apprentice star Donald Trump via satellite from Trumps own New Years party in Florida and an appearance by Nightly News anchor Brian Williams.\n\n(CBS, by the way, is essentially punting on New Years Eve, running a prime-time lineup of reruns and a repeat Late Show with David Letterman.)\n\nThe closest Daly comes to trash talking with his rivals is calling Duran Duran a bigger act than White Wedding singer Idol, whos on ABC.\n\nThere will be something younger and, in my opinion, a little cooler to watch that night, he said.\n\nCool. Thats the territory that Fox and Seacrest is also trying to stake out.\n\nCould a New Years duel be far behind?\n\nSince Seacrest will be in Times Square and Daly a few blocks away in Rockefeller Center, perhaps they could duke it out somewhere in the middle -- say, Sixth Avenue.\n\nHes much taller and a little bit bigger than me, Seacrest said. I think hed probably be able to beat me up.Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.','SHOWBIZTV'),(7115,'/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/26/email.replies/index.html','2004-12-28','2005-01-13 01:31:44','We are asking anyone who experienced the earthquake or resulting tsunamis to e-mail us with their thoughts and experiences. The following are a selection of replies:','','\n\nLONDON, England (CNN) -- We are asking anyone who experienced the earthquake or resulting tsunamis to e-mail us with their thoughts and experiences. The following are a selection of replies:\n\nHi Im living in Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu which is in the southern Part of India. It was on 26th DEC early morning at 6.40 AM when I was sleeping on my bed I felt that some one is shaking my bed, immediately all my family members came out of the house and within half an hour people who live near the shores came running to our place and they said that we are getting big waves at the coastal region and its destroying all their boats and properties. Also children who were playing cricket near the beach were washed away. Vijayalaxmi, Chennai, India\n\nIts devastating to see 6 young girls washed away in the coastal town of Galle. They were in the town centre shopping. Suddenly town filled with water. Saw those girls hanging in to a pillar, but suddenly one girl lost the grip and washed away. Then other girls purposely did it (for sure they want to save their friend). May them attend supreme bliss of Nibbana. Thivanka, Kandy, Sri Lanka\n\nMy colleague and friend just SMSd me from Ko Phi Phi Bay View Hotel. Not injured, but no food, no water and surrounded by bodies. Can she expect help soon? David Thornewill, Prague, Czech Republic\n\nIt was like Armageddon. Zulfer, Galle, Sri Lanka\n\nIt was after around 12:30 AM of 26th December (Pacific Time) that I got the news of the earthquake on the CNN web site. My brother works in Madras India, and my parents who reside in Eastern India (around Calcutta) had come down to Madras to visit him. The first thing I did was run to work and tried calling up my brother on his cell phone (as I do not have the facility to make international calls from home or my cell phone). I was not able to reach him. I tried many times between 7 AM to 10 AM to reach him, all in vain. By now I was already becoming very nervous. I tried again at around 6:30 PM and I was finally able to reach him and he told me that him and my parents are safe. He also told me that almost everyone who were walking on the beach that morning were wiped off. My parents would walk to Marina beach every morning in Madras to enjoy the fresh air, but that Sunday they did not go the beach as they had an invitation to visit some one else. I also talked to my parents who were about to board a train to return back to Calcutta. Luckily the train services still has not been affected. I heaved a sigh of relief. What was interesting was that I got this piece of news (about the earthquake) yesterday just after I had finished watching the program Biblical disasters on the history channel. Without even realizing it, I prayed to God after a long time (even though for many years I have been considering myself an atheist). There were some people who are not as lucky as me, I prayed for them too. Piyush Kumar, Bellevue, Washington, United States\n\nMy sister and her husband are in honeymoon since end November in Indonesia. Her name is Carla Salazar and his name is Michel Van der Ven. We don have any information about them since the earthquake. If somebody knows anything about them please contact me at vsalazar@invita.com.pe. Vanesa Salazar, Lima, Peru\n\nWe were attending church when I felt the chair I was on swaying. I thought someone behind was kicking my chair but it turned out everyone was experiencing the same. Our service was interrupted maybe a few minutes while we gathered outside the building. My car (a 2 ton MPV) parked nearby was actually bopping up and down ever so gently. Thoughts of the Lords 2nd coming did cross my mind. I rang home to check on my handicapped mum in-law and the maid told us everything was OK. We kind of knew it was an earthquake in neighboring Indonesia and we all quickly said a quick prayer for all those affected. It was only later in the day we heard about the aftermath due to the tsunamis. Let us continue to pray for all those affected wherever there may be. We leave everything in the hands of God. Amen! Ting Keong Mah, Penang, Malaysia\n\nToday, 12/26/04, my father, Ray de Silva, witnessed a tsunami in Sri Lanka. He and his brother, were going to buy fish from the fisherman near the sea. On his way, he noticed that the sea had become still, and was starting to go inwards. He knew something was wrong, but never expected this disaster. It was a warm day, with brilliant sunshine. He said that people were curious, and most of the children had wandered into the sea, to see what was happening. Then suddenly people were screaming, and running towards land. My father braked, as people were screaming at him to stop. He looked up, and saw that the sea was coming towards him. it was a huge tidal wave. He yanked the door open, followed by his brother. He saw a man being knocked down, by the wave in front of him. He started running. The wave hit them, but he kept on running. He lost his sandals, and was barefoot. All he could see was his new Hyundai Sonata being lifted 50 feet and being hurled into a wall, smashing it! He ran about 14km until he reached dry land. His car still remains near the sea. He was terribly shaken, but safe. Shiran de Silva, Racine, Wisconsin, United States\n\nMy house had waves crashing in -- my lotus/koi pond has now been replaced by seawater. My car was enveloped by the waves... luckily when the water receded, I managed to start it up and revved it to a hill slope about 100m from my house. I am still stuck here. Another tidal/tsunami is coming any moment -- and it is feared to be more devastating than the earlier one. I hope this hill slope can weather myself and my dogs... I feel at a point to lose everything I have. The beach is 20m from my house. And with what I have experienced this morning is anything to go by, I dare not envision this next one... I am soooooo hoping it will not happen -- just like the one anticipated 2 hours ago (3 oclock) -- its 5 now. The initial one hit at about 10am. The local village government has announced to pack valuables, evacuate and move to the mountain. I remember my beloved grandfather once saying -- Fire & Water have no mercy. I tasted it this morning when I went to the beach to take pictures of the strange phenomenon -- the water came up soooooooo fast -- It curled, waved, and hit the bank.... And curled back and various circles with awesome power... I could not walk up, instead was pushed back into the sea... fortunately, a dark Thai man stretched out his hand and pulled me back in. I am now using my laptop/Bluetooth/GPRS for accessing updates. Vivian Ng, Naithon Beach, Phuket, Thailand\n\nI just received this email from my fathers Blackberry. They are traveling in Thailand right now. Dear CT and CSF, Today, at about 11:00am our time or 8:00pm on Christmas night in Portland, a lot of Southeast Asia was hit with an 8.9 earthquake and resulting tsunami. We were on a small island off the coast and we were lucky to survive. We had no warning and this had never happened here. Our island fortunately had cliffs toward the sea where the 20-25 foot wave hit and it did come up on the island. There were about 200 plus people there, families with small children. We all ran like hell to the center of the island and later took shelter in the cliffs as we kept hearing that we would be getting another, bigger wave, which, fortunately didn ever come but we did run for the cliffs several times. Virtually all of the boats that take people to the various islands and beaches were destroyed - instant firewood. Several of our fellow tourists on Po Poda (the island we were on) were seriously injured, when either boats fell on them or flotsam in the water hit them. The most serious that I am aware of were two women with bad head injuries - one was certainly life threatening. Chris Farrington, Portland, Oregon, United States\n\nWe felt the quake this morning at 6:25 am (Maldives time). I was in Male at the time, the building that I live in shook mildly and the windows were rattling.I then then went to work at the airport. I think it was around 9:30 am that the wave hit the airport. It washed right through the hanger that I was working in and continued on over the runway, it was about 4 to 5 ft of water. As far as I know there was no loss of life where I was. We spent the next few hour evacuating people from that side of the airport. Rod McLeod, Male, Maldives\n\nI have witness the effect due to the wave that hit in early morning , Some of the speed boats and the local fishing boats are swept over the sea boundary wall, into main road. Due to impact of the wave some of the walls in the boundary of the harbor was destroyed and it is feared that some of high building are in risk which may fall, including the Bank of Maldives. M.Mumthaz, Male, Maldives\n\nI was walking along the Galle Face green at about 11 a.m. today and many people had started to flock there as they were seeing something new. The tide had completely gone out for about 100 meters or more and most parts of the sea-bed near the coast were visible. Not long after, in just a matter of minutes, the tide came roaring back and hit the barriers along the Galle Face Green with such a force that there were walls of water over 15 feet high shooting over the barriers and slamming on the areas where the people were standing not two minutes ago. Fortunately as far as I could see, no one was washed away then, but later on it was quite apparent in the aftermath that there were so many others washed away to a watery grave in the deep blue sea. Mecci, Colombo State, Sri Lanka','WORLDasiapcf'),(7116,'/2003/WORLD/europe/05/07/goodman.aznar.otsc/index.html','2003-05-07','2005-01-13 01:31:57','Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and his top foreign policy aides have made no secret that they would like to see a bigger role for Spain on the world stage.','','','WORLDeurope'),(7117,'/2003/WORLD/europe/05/08/aznar.bush/index.html','2003-05-08','2005-01-13 01:32:09','U.S. President George W. Bush has saluted Spain, a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, for its support in the Iraq conflict, which he called a momentous chapter in the history of freedom.','','','WORLDeurope'),(7118,'/2004/WORLD/meast/07/01/amanpour/index.html','2004-07-01','2005-01-13 01:32:27','Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein appeared Thursday in a Baghdad court to hear preliminary charges against him for crimes during his rule.','1974 of religious figures back in 1974, gassing of the Kurds in the \n19801980s, killing a big Kurdish family\n1983 in 1983, killing of political party m\n1991ign, the suppression in March 1991 of both the Kurdish and Shiit\n','\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein appeared Thursday in a Baghdad court to hear preliminary charges against him for crimes during his rule. \n\nCNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour, who was in the courtroom, talked with CNN anchor Soledad OBrien after the hearing.\n\nAMANPOUR: Well, Ive just raced back from the courtroom to this convention center, where we\re going to get the video distributed. So let me tell you about what we just saw. We saw first of all Saddam Hussein coming from an armored bus -- explosive-proof, we were told -- a tan-colored bus, very heavily armored. \n\nHe was handcuffed; he had a chain around his waist. He was flanked by two Iraqi guards, and there were other guards standing on the stairs as he was coming down from the bus into the courthouse area. He walked in; he was not shackled by the feet. \n\nAnd then from inside the court, I could hear the chains were being taken off from around his waist. And the handcuffs were being taken off. Everybody was electrified, such a state of anticipation, especially the Iraqis who were in the court.\n\nHe came in, quite dignified, quite quietly, with two burly guards, one on each side, and he was quite thin. His face was dark. He had big bags under his eyes. He still has a beard, although its been cut and trimmed. Its black with white on the chin. He has his mustache still, but its much more neat and tidy than you can imagine when he was pulled out of that hole December 13.\n\nHe sat down in the chair, where he faced a judge who was sitting at a table across from him. On the judges table was a Koran wrapped in green. And then the judge started by asking him whether he understood what was going on. First he asked him, What is your name?\n\nTwice Saddam Hussein said, I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq.\n\nHe was asked his age, whether he understood what was going on. A little bit later he was read the actual charges. But that came after quite a bit of to-and-fro between Saddam and the judge. \n\nSaddam started by asking, What is this court? Who are you? Under whose jurisdiction do you fall? I am the president of Iraq. We\re still waiting for the full translation of this because this all was in Arabic.\n\nThere was some concern that Saddam might use this as a political platform. That didn really happen. He was downcast; he looked defeated at other times. He kept raising his hand and asking the judge, Please, stop. Let me ask you a few questions. He said please a lot, which Im sure is a change for him. He kept asking, What are the charges? Why am I here?\n\nEventually he was read a series of charges, seven in all. These charges are simply the preliminary charges under the arrest warrant that he was presented with. These are not the formal indictment. This is not what he will eventually be tried for under the jurisdiction of this Iraqi Special Tribunal.\n\nThese charges involved the intentional killing of religious figures back in 1974, gassing of the Kurds in the 1980s, killing a big Kurdish family in 1983, killing of political party members over the last 30 years, the Anfal campaign, the suppression in March 1991 of both the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings right after the first Gulf War, and of course, the invasion of Kuwait.\n\nIt was the notion of Kuwait that got him the most agitated. He was jabbing his finger and asking the judge, How can you as an Iraqi accuse me of Kuwait? You know that this was not an invasion. How can it be an occupation? I was doing something for the good of Iraqis. Those dogs were trying to put the price of oil down and turn Iraqi women into prostitutes.\n\nIt was a bizarre rant, and the judge actually told him to stop. He said, I remind you that kind of language is not permissible. So he stopped.\n\nAbout the gassing of the Kurds, Saddam said, Yes, you said I was president at that time. Yes, I heard about this in the media as well.\n\nAnd then toward the end, he was asked whether he could afford counsel, whether he had any legal counsel, at which point, he looked around and with a sort of half smile said, But everybody says, the Americans say I have millions of dollars stashed in Geneva. Why shouldn I be able to afford a lawyer?','WORLDmeast'),(7119,'/2004/WORLD/meast/07/01/iraq.main/index.html','2004-07-01','2005-01-13 01:32:37','Insurgent bombs, rockets and mortars killed eight people Thursday in Iraq and damaged a power plant that supplies electricity to Baghdad.','20035,300 wounded since the March 2003 invasion that overthrew forme\n','\n\nWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Insurgent bombs, rockets and mortars killed eight people Thursday in Iraq and damaged a power plant that supplies electricity to Baghdad.\n\nAmong the dead were six Iraqis, including an interim government official, and two members of the U.S.-led coalition forces.\n\nOne of the troops killed was a U.S. Marine in Iraqs expansive Al Anbar province, which includes the restive cities of Ramadi and Fallujah and runs to the Syrian and Jordanian borders. \n\nThe other was killed by a roadside bomb south of Mosul, in northern Iraq, a spokesman for the multinational force said; the dead soldiers nationality was not disclosed.\n\nIn the incident that killed an Iraqi official, a bomb outside Baghdads Yarmuk Hospital killed Ihsan Kareem, a high-ranking official with Iraqs National Audit Office, and his driver early Thursday morning, Iraqi police Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman said. \n\nAn hour later, Rahman said, another bomb killed three civilians, and in Mosul, a rocket explosion near the Mosul Chamber of Commerce killed another man.\n\nThe attacks are the latest in a yearlong guerrilla campaign against U.S.-led troops and the Iraqi interim government, which took power Monday. \n\nInsurgents have also targeted contractors working with coalition and Iraqi authorities to rebuild Iraqs infrastructure. \n\nThursday morning, insurgents used mortars to shell a power station south of Baghdad that supplies electricity to the Iraqi capital, setting back plans to increase the hours that Baghdad residents have power, Electricity Ministry spokesman Hamid Khudair said. \n\nAbout 140,000 U.S. troops and nearly 20,000 from allied countries remain under a U.N. mandate to provide security for the interim government. \n\nThursday, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez handed over command of the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq to Gen. George Casey in a Baghdad ceremony. \n\nMore than 850 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq and more than 5,300 wounded since the March 2003 invasion that overthrew former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Saddam faces Iraqi judge\n\nOn Thursday, ousted dictator Saddam -- handcuffed and heavily guarded -- appeared in public for the first time as a prisoner of the interim Iraqi government, shortly before he entered an Iraqi courtroom to hear charges for crimes during his rule. (Full story)\n\nThe effort to eliminate the threat posed by accused terrorist mastermind Abu Musal al-Zarqawi got a boost as the bounty on him was raised to $25 million.\n\nU.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had authorized the increase, from the previous reward of $10 million, a State Department spokesman said. (Full story) \n\nAl-Zarqawi is blamed for dozens of deadly attacks on coalition forces and Iraqi civilians, and he also is suspected in the beheadings of at least two foreign hostages in Iraq. Other developments:\n\nFormer Sen. John Danforth was sworn in Thursday as the United States new ambassador to the United Nations, replacing John Negroponte, who is now the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Im confident that his good judgment and wisdom will serve America well at the United Nations, President Bush said during the brief ceremony. Danforth then told Bush, It will be my job to state what you have made clear: The United Nations is important. Indeed, it is essential to winning the war against terrorism.\n\nKing Abdullah of Jordan said Thursday he would be willing to send troops to Iraq if asked to do so by the countrys new interim government. If the Iraqis ask us for help directly, it will be very difficult for us to say no, he told BBCs Newsnight. If the king were to send troops to Iraq, Jordan would become the first Arab country to do so. (Full story)','WORLDmeast'),(7120,'/2004/US/12/31/times.square/index.html','2004-12-31','2005-01-13 01:32:53','Law enforcement officials are using chemical sensors to test air quality at Times Square in advance of Friday nights New Years Eve celebration.','2005he calendar flips to the year 2005, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said\n','\n\nNEW YORK (CNN) -- Law enforcement officials are using chemical sensors to test air quality at Times Square in advance of Friday nights New Years Eve celebration.\n\nStarting late Thursday, the sensors, already in place at locations throughout the Times Square district, were being monitored hourly. Before Thursday, the sensors were checked every 24 hours.\n\nThe New York Police Departments fleet of seven helicopters will patrol the Manhattan skies Friday.\n\nOne new police helicopter is equipped with gamma radioactive sensors and infrared heat imaging technology.\n\nThe helicopter is outfitted with cameras that can identify people clearly in the dark from as far away as 1,000 feet in the air.\n\nWe can monitor images in real time with high-powered cameras, transmitting pictures right down to the ground, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.\n\nAuthorities have welded manhole covers, and locked or removed mailboxes in preparation for celebration.\n\nOfficials are not aware of any specific threats related to New Years Eve; however, they are not taking any chances.\n\nWe have a fusion center, an intelligence fusion center, where we partner up with federal agencies and we monitor information throughout the world that may affect this event, Kelly said. Powell to drop ball\n\nU.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, a New York native, will be dropping the crystal ball in Times Square seconds before midnight Friday as the calendar flips to the year 2005, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.\n\nI am proud of this city, a city that gave me such a good start in life, Powell told reporters. \n\nWhen the countdown begins tonight, I will be thinking of fellow Americans, including those serving in the military in Iraq and other countries. On New Years Day and every day, these people fight in the front lines of freedom.','US'),(7121,'/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/26/quake.thailand/index.html','2004-12-27','2005-01-13 01:33:07','Thai authorities say more than 300 people have been killed as a result of tsunamis that devastated southern Thailand after an enormous earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.','','\n\nBANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Thai authorities say more than 300 people have been killed as a result of tsunamis that devastated southern Thailand after an enormous earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.\n\nOfficials in Bangkok said 117 people are reported dead on the resort island of Phuket, and another 60 people on the island of Phi Phi. \n\nTwenty-eight were killed in the coastal city of Krabi.\n\nEast of Phuket, 86 people were killed in Phangnga, and north of the resort island, in Ranong, 23 people were killed. \n\nOfficials have also said that 300 to 400 people were still missing at sea and more than 5,000 have been injured.\n\nThe economic toll is expected to be huge. \n\nPhi Phi, smaller and less-well known than Phuket, suffered a clean sweep of its hotels, officials said, which will have to be rebuilt.\n\nThe Phuket area brings in 40 percent of Thailands $10 billion annual tourist business.\n\nPhukets airport closed when its runways flooded, but later reopened. Officials, however, kept most roads closed, fearing structural damage to buildings, roads and bridges.\n\nTourist Ernst Mollemans, on the last day of his vacation and taking a boat trip from one island to another south of Phuket, narrowly escaped death or serious injury when he heard the driver scream and abruptly turn the boat toward a small beach to their left.\n\nWe wondered why he was doing that, so we turned around and saw this wave, about three meters, Mollemans said. \n\nWhen the boat hit the beach, we jumped out and ran up the beach. We were lucky it went up hill, it was rather steep. And we turned around and we saw the boat crushed.\n\nMollemans said his party waited six hours for a boat to bring them back, and they have spent their time since trying to help.\n\nThere are people who are just doing their normal lives because they weren affected, and then there are people who are devastated, he said. \n\nThere are people in a restaurant, eating their meals, and then there are people walking by crying.\n\nThe strangest thing to me was when we were coming back on the boat, there was a really beautiful sunset.\n\nSecurity expert Will Geddes, vacationing in Phuket, told CNN the devastation was quite substantial.\n\nThe whole beach area and most of the town were under water, he said. \n\nBeach villas were completely taken out. It was quite amazing to see.\n\nThose on the beach had to run very quickly, he said, and the water came in again and again on waves.\n\nWhen the water was about up to my ankles, about two seconds later it was up to my chest, he said. \n\nThe entire process took about 20 minutes, but the first few waves -- taking about five to 10 minutes -- caused the worst damage, he said.\n\nGeddes said it was low tide when the waves struck -- which may have helped prevent even worse damage.\n\nGeddes also said he felt the initial quake, which struck just off northern Sumatra and registered 8.9 magnitude -- the strongest earthquake on the planet in 40 years -- and it shook his villa quite substantially.','WORLDasiapcf'),(7122,'/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/26/quake.india.toll.ap/index.html','2004-12-26','2005-01-13 01:33:25','At least 63 people were killed and more than 250 fishermen were missing at sea Sunday after high tidal waves caused by a massive earthquake in Indonesia hit parts of southern India on Sunday, officials said.','1400 of Bengal, 2,250 kilometers (1400 miles) southeast of New Delhi\n','\n\nHYDERABAD, India (AP) -- At least 63 people were killed and more than 250 fishermen were missing at sea Sunday after high tidal waves caused by a massive earthquake in Indonesia hit parts of southern India on Sunday, officials said.\n\nAt least 36 people were killed in three districts of Andhra Pradesh state and 27 in neighboring Tamil Nadu, they said. \n\nAt least 200 fishermen from Andhra Pradesh were missing at sea while another 50 from Tamil Nadu were unaccounted for.\n\nAndhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. Rajashekhar Reddy told reporters that 22 people were killed in Krishna district, 12 in Prakasam district and two in West Godavari.\n\nThis is the impact of the earthquake in Indonesia this morning. There were tidal waves in the sea and the entire coastal belt from Vishakhapatnam to Nellore (districts) has been effected, he said. The tidal waves rose as high as 2 meters (6.56 feet) in some places.\n\nHe said water entered the Vishakhapatnam harbor but no casualties were reported there because it was closed for the weekend. Water was receding in some areas but rising in others, and the navy was evacuating people in many low-lying areas, he said.\n\nEarlier, state Chief Secretary Mohan Kanda said 200 Andhra Pradesh fishermen were missing at sea.\n\nIn Madras, the capital of neighboring Tamil Nadu state, 27 bodies, presumably of fishermen, were found washed ashore on the popular Marina beach, said the citys fire services chief, S.K. Dogra. He said 50 fishermen were missing in Cuddalore, 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of Madras.\n\nThe tidal waves were caused by the 8.5 magnitude earthquake that hit Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, said B.Y. Swamy, an official of the Indian Meteorological Department in the Indian capital, New Delhi. The department also advised people not to venture out to sea for another two days.\n\nSeparately, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that an earthquake of 7.3 magnitude was reported in the Nicobar Islands, a remote sparsely populated Indian territory in the Bay of Bengal, 2,250 kilometers (1400 miles) southeast of New Delhi.\n\nPanic-stricken residents, especially those living in multistory buildings, rushed out of their homes after they were jolted awake in the eastern states of Orissa and West Bengal and the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.\n\nTremors lasting a few seconds were felt around 6.30 a.m. (0100 GMT), PTI said. That was shortly after the quake hit near the Indonesian island of Sumatra.\n\nRising sea water flooded the huts of nearly 2,500 fishermen living in low lying areas of Madras, also known as Chennai, on Indias southeast coast, police said.\n\nIn New Delhi, the federal government ordered the navy to help state authorities in rescue operations, and was closely monitoring the situation, NDTV reported.Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.','WORLDasiapcf'),(7123,'/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/26/quake.maldives.reut/index.html','2004-12-27','2005-01-13 01:33:35','The Maldives declared a state of emergency on Sunday after a tsunami wave deluged the remote Indian Ocean island cluster and flooded two thirds of the capital. More than 40 people were feared dead.','','\n\nCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) -- The Maldives declared a state of emergency on Sunday after a tsunami wave deluged the remote Indian Ocean island cluster and flooded two thirds of the capital. More than 40 people were feared dead.\n\nSeawater poured into the heavily built-up streets of Male, forcing residents to wade thigh-high to try and save their vehicles. Many cars were swamped and unsalvagable.\n\nThe international airport was unusable.\n\nTelevision footage showed Maldivians wading through Male, picking up debris and garbage. The government was unable to reach many of the archipelagos more remote islands because phone lines were down.\n\nThe scale of the damage is such that we have decided to declare a state of emergency, chief government spokesman Ahmed Shaheed told Reuters by mobile telephone from Male.\n\nWe are still unable to get through to some of the people stranded in the islands.\n\nNone of the thousands of foreign visitors holidaying in the country, a magnet for honeymooners and well-heeled tourists from around the globe, were believed to have been killed although some had suffered minor injuries, he added.\n\nMaldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has spent much of his 26 years in power warning of the dangers that global warming, erosion and shifting weather patterns pose to low-lying island nations like his own.\n\nThe chain of 1,200 tiny palm-fringed coral islands dotted across 500 miles (800 km) off the toe of India lies just a few feet above sea level.\n\nThe damage is considerable, Shaheed said. (Male) is only about three feet (one meter) above sea level and a wave of water four feet (1.3 metres) high swept over us.\n\nThe government was still trying to establish communication with smaller islands where many buildings, including houses, had been flattened.\n\nThere is damage on a very wide scale. We are awaiting a full report but certainly thousands are displaced, Shaheed said.\n\nMale, which is 2 km (1.25 miles) long and 800 metres (half a mile) wide and home to 75,000 people, is bursting at the seams.\n\nThe island capitals streets of white-washed houses are very cramped and areas of communal open space sparse for residents -- so much so that the government is building a brand new island from scratch as an overflow.\n\nMost of the Maldives 300,000 mostly Sunni Muslim population are involved in the tourist industry, the nations economic backbone.\n\nThe Maldives 200 inhabited islands are home on average to just a few hundred people or house luxury tourist resorts which offer some of South Asias most expensive holiday accommodation.\n\nTelecommunications were cut to many islands, and Maldives radio broadcast prayers.\n\nIt is a very bad situation. It is terrible, Shaheed said after a tour of Male.\n\nAs you know it is the peak tourist season... The whole of the Maldives is a tourist area so we are just hoping and praying, he added.\n\nHe said the international airport, which itself lies just a few feet above sea level on an island of its own, was unusable.\n\nThe tsunami comes just days ahead of December 31 parliamentary elections. It was not immediately clear if the elections would be delayed.Copyright 2004 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.','WORLDasiapcf'),(7124,'/2003/WORLD/europe/05/06/sprj.nitop.spain.iraq/index.html','2003-05-06','2005-01-13 01:33:51','Spanish troops in Iraq will soon become involved in security and policing tasks, broadening their role which has been limited until now to humanitarian efforts, the countrys defense minister has said.','','','WORLDeurope'),(7125,'/2003/WORLD/europe/05/07/aznar.terrorism.us/index.html','2003-05-07','2005-01-13 01:34:12','The United States, Britain and Spain will jointly sponsor a new U.N. Security Council resolution to end international economic sanctions imposed on Iraq to hasten the war-torn countrys reconstruction, President Bush said Wednesday.','','','WORLDeurope'),(7126,'/2003/WORLD/europe/04/09/sprj.irq.spain.aznar/index.html','2003-04-09','2005-01-13 01:34:17','Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar congratulated coalition forces and the Iraqi people Wednesday for achieving liberation but he urged prudence because theres lots of work still to do.','','','WORLDeurope'),(7127,'/2003/WORLD/meast/04/09/sprj.irq.journalists.protest/index.html','2003-04-09','2005-01-13 01:34:30','Spanish journalists turned their backs on their prime minister and walked out of an appearance by the countrys foreign minister and his British counterpart Wednesday in protest at the deaths of two colleagues in Baghdad.','','','WORLDmeast'),(7128,'/2003/WORLD/europe/03/29/sprj.irq.spain/index.html','2003-03-29','2005-01-13 01:34:42','With opinion polls showing more than 90 percent of Spaniards are against the war, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar vowed his support of the war in Iraq would not lead to his ruling Popular Party being cornered by leftists and antiwar protesters.','','','WORLDeurope'),(7129,'/2003/WORLD/meast/04/09/sprj.irq.journalists/index.html','2003-04-09','2005-01-13 01:34:58','An international press freedoms group has accused the U.S. military of deliberately firing at journalists, killing three of them, when U.S. tanks rolled through Baghdad.','','','WORLDmeast'),(7130,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/13/asia.tsunami/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:38:19','The Indonesian military has ordered troops to escort aid workers into the countrys tsunami-stricken Aceh province because of alleged rebel activity, according to The Associated Press.','2005eze payments until the end of 2005, depending on assessments fro\n','BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (CNN) -- The Indonesian military has ordered troops to escort aid workers into the countrys tsunami-stricken Aceh province because of alleged rebel activity, according to The Associated Press. \n\nBut the army has said it may not have enough soldiers for such an exercise. \n\nThe statement is the latest in a series of security demands by Jakarta, which is attempting to exert more control over aid operations in Aceh. \n\nHundreds of aid workers from around the world have flocked to the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, which has become a relief hub for the devastated northern part of Indonesia.\n\nJakarta has also told aid workers and reporters to keep the military informed about their locations and travel plans in the region, especially if venturing outside Banda Aceh or Meulobah. \n\nThe warnings come despite both the rebels and Jakarta declaring a cease-fire after the tsunami. \n\nIndonesian vice president Yusuf Kalla also suggested all foreign troops providing aid in Aceh should plan to be out of the area by March 31.\n\nIts not clear whether this is simply a coordination mechanism, or whether it represents an attempt by the Indonesian military -- which has been involved in a guerilla war with the separatists -- to impose tighter control over relief operations, CNNs Mike Chinoy said from Banda Aceh.\n\nTheres no question the Indonesian authorities have been made very anxious by the huge influx of foreigners into Aceh, an area that was essentially closed to both aid workers and journalists before the tsunamis hit, he said.\n\nJakartas wish to impose travel restrictions to aid workers is a worrying factor for the World Health Organization, which says that many victims of the tsunamis in remote areas of Aceh have not yet been given outside assistance. \n\nAnecdotal reports from groups which have made contact with people in these (outlying) areas indicate that in some places the death toll from the tsunami was as high as 50 percent of the local population, a WHO report said Wednesday.\n\nMany are also still living without regular access to their basic needs, of clean water, food and shelter, it said.\n\nSporadic relief has reached some of these people, but their basic needs have not been taken care of in a systematic way. \n\nMeanwhile, the worlds wealthiest nations have agreed to a moratorium on debt repayment by Indonesia and Sri Lanka, the two countries hardest hit by last months tsunamis.\n\nThe Paris Club of 19 creditor nations, said it was willing to freeze payments until the end of 2005, depending on assessments from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which would monitor the countries to make sure that the money was being used for tsunami relief. (Full story)\n\nThe chairman of the club, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, said that only Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Seychelles had declared an interest in the moratorium, and none had actually applied for the suspension.\n\nA small group of protesters demonstrated outside the meeting, demanding that the Paris Club cancel the debt of tsunami-affected countries rather than just suspend repayments.\n\nThe worldwide death toll, compiled from CNN sources, from the December 26 disaster is at least 149,540 and is expected to go much higher. (Country by country)\n\nIn Indonesia alone, which has reported 104,550 deaths, the Health Ministry says 77,000 people remain missing. \n\nThe overall death toll for Sri Lanka stands at 29,814. There are 5,671 people missing and another 200,000 families have been displaced. \n\nThe Paris Club comprises Austria, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. \n\nFinance ministers from the wealthy G7 nations have already agreed to a debt freeze for all tsunami nations. (Full story)\n\nAs for more immediate needs, the United Nations says it has $717 million -- more than 70 percent of the $977 million it requested -- to use immediately for tsunami relief. (Full story)\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7131,'/2005/WORLD/europe/01/13/harry.react/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:38:29','Britains Prince Harry "deserves a break" after his apology for wearing a Nazi uniform to a costume party, his aunt, the Duchess of York, has told CNN.','','(CNN) -- Britains Prince Harry deserves a break after his apology for wearing a Nazi uniform to a costume party, his aunt, the Duchess of York, has told CNN.\n\nHarry, third in line for the British throne, was pictured on the front page of Thursday editions of Britains The Sun newspaper wearing a swastika on his sleeve at the party. The 20-year-old was also holding a drink and smoking a cigarette.\n\nThe thing is that sometimes we all do things where the ramifications of our actions are perhaps afterthoughts, the duchess -- Sarah Ferguson -- said on American Morning.\n\nIts all very well to come down hard on him, but hes been through a lot, and I fully support him 100 percent.\n\nI hope the world accepts his apology, she said. He deserves a break, really.\n\nThe Sun released its front page Wednesday night to media outlets, and the Clarence House press office released Harrys apology shortly afterwards. In it, the prince said he was very sorry if I caused any offense or embarrassment to anyone.\n\nIt was a poor choice of costume and I apologize, the statement said. (Full story)\n\nFerguson, who is divorced from Prince Andrew -- brother of Harrys father, Prince Charles -- said her nephew is a great, great boy and first rate.\n\nHis mum (the late Princess Diana) would be so proud of him, she said. I know what its like to have bad press. I had it for quite a long time. ... The thing is: Hes apologized.\n\nNot everyone was as forgiving. Former Buckingham Palace press officer Dickie Arbiter told CNN Harrys choice of costume would be very much an embarrassment to his father.\n\nHe should have realized that wearing Nazi uniform as member of royal family is just not a starter, said Arbiter, who also said a written apology was not enough and Harry should come up front.\n\nHe needs a good dose of army discipline given by people he doesn know ... and perhaps then grow up.\n\nRabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles said it was inexcusable for a member of the royal family to do that and called Harrys action a disgrace to England.\n\nI think he should join the British delegation that is going to 60th anniversary of the liberation of (the concentration camp) Auschwitz, he told CNN.\n\nHe should be part of delegation and stand in silence. And that would transmit to world that he gets it.\n\nRobert Rozett, director of the library at Jerusalems Holocaust Museum, appeared more disappointed than angry about the royal flap and said he was happy Harry had quickly apologized.\n\nOf course, the Holocaust is representative of mans greatest evil and collapse of morality in human civilization, Rozett told CNN, so when Prince Harry wears it ... it indicates the lessons of the Holocaust have not entered into his understanding or consciousness.\n\nWe would hope that figures like Prince Harry would be more sensitive and not trivialize it. ... We would suggest that Harry and others would do well to learn more about the subject, be more careful about how they use the subject in public.\n\nSome on the streets of London, though, agreed with Harrys aunt.\n\nI like the lad, and I think people tend to batten down on to him. Its not fair really, one woman said.\n\nI think if I was Jewish, I might feel a bit upset about the fact, but all the same, people need to take in the context its in, and he obviously didn mean anything by it.\n\nThe Nazis murdered 6 million Jews and millions of others including Poles, homosexuals, Soviet prisoners and Gypsies. Millions more were imprisoned or forced to work as slaves. \n\nHarrys grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, is commemorating the 60th anniversary that day by inviting Nazi death camp survivors and British veterans who freed them to a reception at St. Jamess Palace.\n\nShe also will attend a Holocaust Memorial Day national commemoration at Londons Westminster Hall with her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.\n\nThe Sun said Harry wore the desert uniform of Gen. Erwin Rommels German Afrika Korps to a party in Wiltshire, west of London, on Saturday.\n\nThe photo shows him wearing a swastika armband and a badge of the German Wehrmacht, or defense force, on his collar.\n\nIts not the first time Harry has been in the public eye with a not-so-royal sheen. \n\nThree years ago, his father Charles sent the 17-year-old Eton student to a rehabilitation clinic to warn him of the dangers of drugs after discovering he had smoked marijuana and allegedly drank alcohol.\n\nHarry is in line to the British throne after his father and his older brother, Prince William. \n\n','WORLDeurope'),(7132,'/2005/WORLD/africa/01/13/safrica.thatcher/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:38:36','Mark Thatcher has pleaded guilty to unwittingly bankrolling an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea in a plea bargain deal that allows him to avoid jail.','1995s lived in South Africa since 1995, pleaded guilty in the Cape H\n1987d States, where he married in 1987, Thatcher settled a civil rac\n1994d by Britains Parliament in 1994 over reports that he was invo\n','CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Mark Thatcher has pleaded guilty to unwittingly bankrolling an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea in a plea bargain deal that allows him to avoid jail.\n\nThe son of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appeared in court in South Africa on Thursday and agreed to pay a $500,000 (3 million rand) fine in return for his freedom.\n\nMark Thatcher admitted he paid for a military helicopter used by mercenaries in the alleged coup plot but claims he believed it was to be used as an air ambulance for humanitarian purposes, according to a source close to his family.\n\nOnly later did he begin to suspect the helicopter would be used for military purposes, according to a statement issued by George van Niekerk, a member of his legal team.\n\nAlthough the helicopter was never used in any such mercenary activity, and in fact did not leave southern Africa, Sir Mark had by then committed an attempt to contravene the provisions of South Africas anti-mercenary laws, The Associated Press quoted van Niekerk as saying.\n\nAt the Cape High Court, Judge Abe Motala said that if Thatcher failed to pay the fine, he would face a five-year prison sentence with a further four years suspended for five years.\n\nDetails of the plea bargain deal, which means Thatcher can join his family in the United States, first emerged Wednesday night.\n\nAfter entering his plea, Thatcher said: There is no price too high for me to be reunited with my family and I am sure all of you who are husbands and fathers would agree with that.\n\nThatchers wife, Diane, the daughter of a wealthy Texas auto dealer, flew to Dallas with their two children shortly after his August arrest.\n\nA spokesman for Thatchers mother said last night: She is very relieved that matters have now been settled and that the worry of these last few months is now over.\n\nAs Thatcher and his lawyers arrived at the Cape Town courthouse, a poster reading Save me mummy hung from a window across the street.\n\nThatcher, who has lived in South Africa since 1995, pleaded guilty in the Cape High Court to breaching Section 2 of South Africas anti-mercenary Foreign Military Assistance Act.\n\nAccording to a statement issued by his legal team, It should be noted that Sir Mark was not charged with any involvement in the attempted coup detat in Equatorial Guinea.\n\nThe plea bargain was entered into solely as a result of his financing of the charter of a helicopter in circumstances where he should have exercised more caution.\n\nThatcher was arrested at his suburban Cape Town home on August 25 and charged with breaking the countrys Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act.\n\nHe also faces charges in Equatorial Guinea, where 19 other defendants are already on trial in connection with an alleged plot last year to overthrow the 25-year regime of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.\n\nOfficials there had said they would seek Thatchers extradition from South Africa.\n\nEquatorial Guinea alleges Thatcher and other mainly British financiers worked with the tiny countrys opposition figures, scores of African mercenaries and six Armenian pilots in a takeover attempt foiled in March.\n\nSimon Mann, Thatchers friend and a former British special forces commander accused of masterminding the plot, was arrested and convicted with 67 alleged accomplices in Zimbabwe on weapons and other minor charges.\n\nLawyers said a Zimbabwe judge agreed Thursday to reduce Manns seven-year prison sentence by three years, AP reported.\n\nThree others later pleaded guilty to violating South Africas Foreign Military Assistance Act as part of a plea bargain under which they agreed to give evidence against other alleged coup participants. \n\nSipho Ngwema, spokesman for South Africas Directorate of Special Investigations, also known as Scorpions, said Thatcher had pledged to cooperate fully with continuing investigations into South African involvement in the coup bid.\n\nHe is cooperating fully with our investigation, so we are happy, PA quoted Ngwema as saying.\n\nAsked if Thatcher was now able to leave South Africa, Ngwema said: There is nothing in the agreement that limits him, but he is going to co-operate with our investigation and thats what we are happy with.\n\nThatcher, a former race car driver who has been accused of trading on his name and proximity to power, has faced legal difficulties before, AP reported. \n\nIn the United States, where he married in 1987, Thatcher settled a civil racketeering lawsuit for an undisclosed sum and faced charges from the Internal Revenue Service stemming from a role with a home security company that went bankrupt. \n\nHe was scrutinized by Britains Parliament in 1994 over reports that he was involved in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Iraq while his mother was prime minister -- allegations he denied, AP reported.\n\nMargaret Thatcher also was forced to answer questions in Parliament about her sons involvement in a British companys successful bid for a $600 million contract with a university in Oman just after she made an official visit there. \n\n','WORLDafrica'),(7133,'/2005/WORLD/meast/01/13/iraq/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:38:44',' An organization claiming some 3 million Iraqi tribesmen as members says it expects many of them to follow its lead and boycott the scheduled January 30 elections, the groups spokesman said Thursday.','2004e elections. Formed in April 2004, the group is named on the el\n2005uled to be held at the end of 2005. Some observers worry that t\n','BAGHDAD (CNN) -- An organization claiming some 3 million Iraqi tribesmen as members says it expects many of them to follow its lead and boycott the scheduled January 30 elections, the groups spokesman said Thursday.\n\nThe Patriotic Front of Iraqi Tribes comprises Sunni and Shiite Muslims as well as Turkomen and Kurds, according to the groups spokesman, Ibrahim Al-Nahar. The majority are Sunni, he said. The group Wednesday announced it will withdraw from the elections.\n\nFormed in April 2004, the group is named on the election list as the Patriotic Front of the Unity of Iraq, as the countrys election commission refused to allow them to register with the word tribes in their name, Al-Nahar said Thursday. It could not be confirmed how many candidates representing the group are on the ballot.\n\nThe organization initially submitted 275 names for the ballot, Al-Nahar said. \n\nThe group claims some 200 offices around the country and says it represents political parties and about 50 tribes with an estimated 3 million members. \n\nThe Front claims heavy representation in northern and western Iraq, in and around Mosul and the Sunni Triangle, but says it also has representation in the south, in places like Nasirya, Basra and Kut.\n\nThe organization said it was withdrawing from Iraqs elections because of security and fairness concerns.\n\nThe groups main goal is to have a united, democratic Iraq, Al-Nahar said. While it is opposed to the presence of occupying troops, it believes in legal, not armed, resistance, he said.\n\nThe tribal system and allegiances remain important to Iraqis, Al-Nahar said, and many tribesmen are expected to follow them as far as political and social decisions.\n\nMeanwhile, the Bush White House is conceding the election will have problems. We recognize that the election is not going to be perfect, said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.\n\nThroughout Wednesday, in phone conversations and in briefings with reporters on the Iraqi elections, Bush administration officials showed support for the elections despite the obvious flaws.\n\nOfficials said they believe the insurgent campaign aimed at keeping Iraqis from the polls, particularly in Sunni areas, will work, to a degree. In some provinces, practically no voting will take place, they said.\n\nBut they insisted any delay would be a interpreted by insurgents as a political victory.\n\nState Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the election would be a major step forward in the timeline set for Iraqis to assume more authority over their country.\n\nBoucher said there will be many opportunities along the way for the Sunni community to express itself, either through voting or through other participation in the political process, including assisting with the writing of the Iraqi constitution and the election of an Iraqi government scheduled to be held at the end of 2005.\n\nSome observers worry that the election could lead to civil war if the Sunnis -- who represent about 20 percent of the population and whose leaders have called for a boycott of the vote -- are not seen as participants.\n\nThe White House said that results from the planned January 30 elections are not likely to be announced until February 15.\n\nDavid Gergen, former adviser to Republican and Democratic presidents, said it is hard to understate the impact the Iraqi elections will have on Bushs credibility.\n\nCan these Iraqi elections bring a more stable Iraq? If they fail to do that, I think the president is going to pay an increasing political price for the this war over the next couple of years, Gergen said.\n\nIraqis who want to vote could face intimidation; polls could be threatened and Iraqis could be followed and attacked as they return home from voting, officials fear.\n\nBush aides also expressed concern over the safety of Iraqi candidates.\n\nFor the second time in two weeks, insurgents this week attempted to kill Iraqi presidential candidate Mithal al-Alousi, who supports normal relations between Iraq and Israel and once served as a deputy to Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi.\n\nAccording to a statement issued Thursday by the Democratic Islamic Party, the house of its chairman, al-Alousi, was attacked Tuesday night at midnight in western Baghdad. Insurgents threw grenades and engaged his security personnel in a firefight.\n\nNo injuries were reported.\n\nThe United States might be able to withdraw some troops from Iraq this year if Iraqi forces can take a greater role in security, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday. But I cannot give you a timeline as to when theyll all be home. (Full story)\n\nA representative for prominent Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani was shot Wednesday night in Salman Pak, east of Baghdad. Others shot in the attack were the representatives son and four bodyguards, police said. Sheikh Mahmoud al-Madaeeni was al-Sistanis representative in Salman Pak, according to the towns police chief. Al-Sistani is Iraqs most influential Shiite leader. \n\nThe United States is taking steps to determine how it received faulty intelligence regarding deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his alleged weapons of mass destruction program, White House spokesman McClellan said Wednesday. His comments followed reports that the search for WMDs has ended without any such weapons being found. (Full story)\n\nGunmen on Thursday morning opened fire on a minibus in central Baghdad -- killing all six Iraqis on board -- before abducting a Turkish businessman waiting for the bus outside a hotel, according to police. The Turkish Embassy in Baghdad said it is investigating the incident.\n\nInsurgents on Wednesday attacked and destroyed the Abdullah Bin Ali shrine in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, according to a Baghdad police spokesman. No one was injured in the attack.\n\nCNNs Dana Bash, Elise Labott, Nermeen al-Mufti, Barbara Starr, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jennifer Yuille contributed to this report.\n\n','WORLDmeast'),(7134,'/2005/WORLD/europe/01/13/spain.explosion.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:38:52','An explosion killed seven workers at a warehouse Thursday in the northern Spanish city of Burgos, officials said.','','MADRID, Spain (AP) -- An explosion killed seven workers at a warehouse Thursday in the northern Spanish city of Burgos, officials said.\n\nThe blast rocked a warehouse containing equipment and fuel owned by a company building a bicycle lane in Burgos, the Interior Ministry office said.\n\nFour other people were seriously injured, town council member Eduardo Frances told the television station CNN+.\n\nFrances said the explosion may have been triggered by a worker handling a container of inflammable liquid.\n\nSeparately, police and firefighters in Madrid were investigating a powerful explosion Wednesday night at a suburban apartment building that killed two people and injured more than 20, including an infant.\n\nThe Interior Ministry said Thursday morning that the most likely cause was a gas leak. The president of the Madrid regional government, Esperanza Aguirre, ruled out a terrorist attack.\n\nThe blast in the Getafe suburb wrecked the facade of the building and forced the evacuation of 44 families.\n\n','WORLDeurope'),(7135,'/2005/WORLD/africa/01/13/west.africa.aid.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:39:06','Three war-battered West African nations could face renewed conflict if they dont get a badly needed injection of international aid, a U.N. spokesman said Thursday.','2003 people. In Liberia, where a 2003 peace deal ended nearly 14 ye\n2002bel-held north since a failed 2002 coup attempt. \n','DAKAR, Senegal (AP) -- Three war-battered West African nations could face renewed conflict if they don get a badly needed injection of international aid, a U.N. spokesman said Thursday.\n\nThe three countries -- Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea -- are all struggling to recover from years of devastating conflict. Their wars are over, but hundreds of thousands of displaced, including ex-fighters, are still returning to destroyed homes.\n\nTodays stability is fragile, and progress is impossible if people lack basics like food, shelter, and the means to keep their families healthy, the U.N. World Food Program said in a statement.\n\nThe U.N. agency urged donors to help fund its two-year $155 million (euro119 million) appeal to support some 1.5 million people in the region. The program has only received about 10 percent of needed funds so far, said Ramin Rafirasme, the WFPs spokesman in West Africa.\n\nThe appeal comes when much of the worlds attention is focused on pouring massive aid into Asia, where more than 150,000 people in 11 countries were killed by a devastating December 26 tsunami.\n\nSome aid groups have called on donors to guarantee their tsunami aid is new money thats not being diverted from crises elsewhere in the world, particularly Africa.\n\nWith U.N. peacekeepers deployed in both Liberia and Sierra Leone to pacify rebels, and armed fighters laying down arms in all three countries, daily needs have shifted from emergency food distributions to food aid and development.\n\nThe needs are different, but just as urgent, said Mustapha Darboe, WFPs regional director for West Africa. Because we\re talking about the difference between stability and chaos in a region that cannot afford more turmoil.\n\nRafirasme said that even before the tsunami, the agencys programs in West Africa were hard-pressed for funding. Last year in Liberia, a 30 percent funding shortfall forced a cut in food rations for hundreds of thousands of people.\n\nIn Liberia, where a 2003 peace deal ended nearly 14 years of continuous war, more than 800,000 displaced are beginning to return home, often finding their houses were leveled in the fighting.\n\nWith the end of war comes the beginning of a long and difficult recovery; humanitarian support should be there, Darboe said. The humanitarian investment in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone has been enormous. To let up now, just when peace is beginning to take hold, would be to throw out that investment and give up on the people.\n\nWFP also warned that disgruntled ex-combatants in Liberia could head to neighboring Ivory Coast as guns for hire -- as they have in past years -- unless they receive adequate assistance to reintegrate them into civilian life.\n\nIvory Coast has been split between a government-held south and a rebel-held north since a failed 2002 coup attempt.\n\n','WORLDafrica'),(7136,'/2005/US/01/07/train.wreck/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:39:21','A week after chlorine gas leaked from a train wreck and killed nine people in this mill town, officials will let about half the 5,400 residents displaced by the accident return home Thursday morning.','','COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- A week after chlorine gas leaked from a train wreck and killed nine people in this mill town, officials will let about half the 5,400 residents displaced by the accident return home Thursday morning.\n\nAir quality tests show chlorine has returned to normal levels on the edges of the evacuation area, which extended a mile from the crash site, according to the Aiken County Sheriffs Office.\n\nConditions remain too dangerous to allow people back into homes and businesses closer to the crash site, near the Georgia line and about 60 miles southwest of Columbia.\n\nCommon sense and briefings tell us at ground zero it will take folks longer to get back home, but not because of contamination -- its because of the process, Sheriff Michael Hunt said.\n\nNearby residents have not been allowed to return home since hours after a Norfolk Southern train slammed into a parked train on a side track early Jan. 6. The crash punched a fist-sized hole in a tanker carrying chlorine gas.\n\nThe deadliest train wreck involving hazardous material in nearly three decades, it also injured more than 250 people. Six of the dead worked at a nearby textile mill; some of their co-workers survived by climbing up to the roof.\n\nAny residents worried about returning home can arrange to have environmental officials inspect their homes, deputies said.\n\nWorkers unloaded the last of the chlorine Wednesday from two undamaged tankers and placed a steel patch over the hole in the damaged car. Next, crews will clean the tankers so they can be removed from the crash site, officials said.\n\nGov. Mark Sanford asked President Bush and the U.S. Small Business Administration to make Aiken County eligible for federal financial assistance and low-interest loans.\n\nState environmental officials, meanwhile, were assessing reported fish kills in a nearby pond.\n\nThe railroad company was continuing to operate an assistance center in Aiken to help residents who were displaced. The company said Wednesday that more than 2,500 people had received payments.\n\n','US'),(7137,'/2005/US/01/13/alaska.village.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:39:30','Electricity was restored to most homes in an Arctic village Wednesday, four days after the community lost power in a fierce blizzard and was thrown into a deep freeze.','','ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Electricity was restored to most homes in an Arctic village Wednesday, four days after the community lost power in a fierce blizzard and was thrown into a deep freeze.\n\nAn Alaska Air National Guard helicopter reached Kaktovik on Tuesday, bringing two technicians who were able to restore power to about three-quarters of the village of 300 people more than 200 miles above the Arctic Circle.\n\nOn Wednesday, two National Guard planes dropped off generators, heaters, food, water and other supplies, such as diapers and infant formula. The planes also brought plumbers, mechanics, medical workers and more electrical linemen.\n\nThe planes had previously been prevented from landing by snow drifts on the runway. A third flight carrying propane and other hazardous materials was due in Wednesday night.\n\nA blizzard with near hurricane-force winds knocked out power to the village Sunday and plunged temperatures to 20 degrees below zero. \n\nOfficials believe the outage may have been caused by power lines slapping together and arcing during the storm.\n\nSchoolteacher Adam Hausman was staying with five other people in a house that still had no power Wednesday. It was about 30 degrees inside the home, which was being warmed a little with a gas stove, he said.\n\nWe just have been kind of cuddled up in two rooms, he said. It has been too cold. Your hands, you can even turn the pages.\n\nMany residents sought shelter at the village school until it lost power. About 100 people moved to the villages equipment maintenance building, which had a generator.\n\n','US'),(7138,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/13/federal.deficit.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:39:44','The federal budget deficit shrank to $3.44 billion in December, and the shortfall for the first three months of the budget year is running 8.9 percent below the red ink of a year ago.','2004 the same three months in the 2004 budget year. The government \n2004rms of $412.3 billion for the 2004 budget year which ended last \n2005t the deficit for the current 2005 budget year will decline to $\n2004mprovement of 20 percent over 2004, and fall to $260.6 billion i\n2006n 2006. The Congressional Budget Of\n2005eptember that the deficit for 2005 would shrink to $348 billion \n2014ally easing to $65 billion by 2014. That would give a 10-year de\n2014ion to the shortfalls through 2014, including the governments \n2006residents submission of his 2006 budget plan to Congress on Fe\n','WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal budget deficit shrank to $3.44 billion in December, and the shortfall for the first three months of the budget year is running 8.9 percent below the red ink of a year ago.\n\nThe Treasury Department said Wednesday in its monthly budget statement that the deficit from October through December totaled $118.61 billion, down from $130.16 billion during the same three months in the 2004 budget year.\n\nThe government ran up a record deficit in dollar terms of $412.3 billion for the 2004 budget year which ended last September 30. President Bush has pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of his second term.\n\nIn its mid-session review last July, the administration projected that the deficit for the current 2005 budget year will decline to $331.3 billion, which would represent an improvement of 20 percent over 2004, and fall to $260.6 billion in 2006.\n\nThe Congressional Budget Office estimated in early September that the deficit for 2005 would shrink to $348 billion with the shortfalls gradually easing to $65 billion by 2014. That would give a 10-year deficit total of nearly $2.3 trillion.\n\nThat CBO forecast assumes no changes in taxes or spending policies for the next decade. Democrats contend the shortfalls will be much worse if the Republican-led Congress goes along with Bushs ambitious proposals for a second term including overhaul of Social Security and the tax code and making permanent the tax cuts of Bushs first term.\n\nThe CBO estimates making Bushs tax cuts permanent would add $2.2 trillion to the shortfalls through 2014, including the governments added borrowing costs. Easing the alternative minimum taxs impact on middle-income earners would cost another $435 billion.\n\nBoth the CBO and the administration will update their forecasts in coming weeks. The administration revisions will be part of the presidents submission of his 2006 budget plan to Congress on February 8.\n\nIn the first three months of this budget year, the government had total receipts of $487.2 billion, up 10.5 percent from the same period a year ago, while outlays totaled $605.8 billion, an increase of 6.1 percent over the previous period.\n\n','ALLPOLITICS'),(7139,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/13/inauguration.costs.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:39:59','It will take President Bush less than a minute to take the oath of office next Thursday, but before the inaugural events are over some $40 million may be spent on parades, parties and pyrotechnics.','2001Bushs first inauguration in 2001, and will exceed the $33 mill\n1993spent by President Clinton in 1993 when Democrats returned to th\n2001have been even better than in 2001, he said. The big donors are\n2001-09-11y at the first post-September 11 inauguration, which\n','WASHINGTON (AP) -- It will take President Bush less than a minute to take the oath of office next Thursday, but before the inaugural events are over some $40 million may be spent on parades, parties and pyrotechnics.\n\nThat doesn include the costs of the most intense security operation in inaugural history.\n\nThe amount spent on this years festivities will rival the $40 million raised to celebrate Bushs first inauguration in 2001, and will exceed the $33 million spent by President Clinton in 1993 when Democrats returned to the White House for the first time in 12 years.\n\nWhile the partying is being paid for privately, there have been some mutterings about the scale of the celebrations at a time of war and natural disaster.\n\nMoney for the celebratory activities is being raised by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which as of the end of last week had received $18 million, much in six-figure donations from wealthy supporters and corporate sponsors.\n\nAmong the dozens of $250,000 donors are Home Depot, Bank of America Corp., Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ford Motor Co. Kevin Sheridan, a spokesman for the committee, said the fund-raisers were confident they would reach their goals. Sales of inaugural memorabilia, another source of revenue, have been even better than in 2001, he said.\n\nThe big donors are rewarded with a variety of inaugural packages, including meetings with political VIPs, tickets to the swearing-in ceremony and parade, and hard-to-get entry into the official inaugural balls and dinners.\n\nThe events begin Tuesday with a salute to the troops and a youth concert. On Wednesday there will be a celebration on the Ellipse, including a fireworks show, and three candlelight dinners.\n\nOn Thursday afternoon, after Bush takes the oath of office at the Capitol, some 11,000 people will take part in a parade from the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue, to the White House. That night there will be nine official balls.\n\nBleacher seats for the parade cost $15, $60 and $125 apiece, while a ticket to a ball -- with the exception of one ball for military personnel, which is free -- runs $150.\n\nThe office of the first lady said Laura Bush will personally pay for her outfits to inaugural events, which include gowns designed by Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera and Peggy Jennings.\n\nPrecedent suggests that inaugural festivities should be muted if not canceled -- in wartime, Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-New York wrote Bush on Tuesday.\n\nEight congressional Democrats from the Washington area on Wednesday wrote another letter to the president complaining of what they said was the unfair financial burden being imposed on the District of Columbia.\n\nD.C. Mayor Anthony Williams has estimated it will cost the district $17.3 million to help pay for security at the first post-September 11 inauguration, which includes 6,000 law officers and 2,500 military personnel to guard the 250,000 people at the swearing-in and the half-million expected to line the parade route.\n\nWilliams, in a letter last month to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, said he can use $5.4 million from a fund for special events in the capital, but the other $11.9 million will have to come from the citys federal homeland security budget.\n\nThe expenses, Williams said, include $5.3 million in overtime costs for police officers and $2.9 million to cover logistics costs, such as transportation, lodging, box lunches, water and granola bars.\n\nThe Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which is responsible for the swearing-in ceremony, has $1.25 million to handle various production costs, such as staffing and printing, as well as catering and flowers for the luncheon in the Capitol following the oath of office.\n\nThe Architect of the Capitol also has a budget of $2.8 million as part of a construction project to spruce up the West Front of the Capitol, where the ceremonies will take place.\n\nInauguration day, with its street closings and heightened security, will also be a holiday for federal workers in the Washington area. That, according to the Office of Personnel Management, costs taxpayers an estimated $66 million.\n\n','ALLPOLITICS'),(7140,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/13/voting.longlines.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:40:16','Two senior Democratic lawmakers asked Wednesday for a congressional investigation into Election Day lines, including some that took hours to get through and continued even past midnight.','','WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two senior Democratic lawmakers asked Wednesday for a congressional investigation into Election Day lines, including some that took hours to get through and continued even past midnight.\n\nIn a letter to the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, the lawmakers said one nonpartisan voter hot line received nearly 1,400 reports of excessively long lines from 32 states, including the battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.\n\nReps. Henry Waxman of California, the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, and John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked the GAO to investigate how much the lines affected minority, young or first-time voters; find out what caused the lines; and recommend solutions.\n\nWhile it seems most Americans endured this wait where possible, it is clear that in some cases citizens left the polling places without having voted when personal responsibilities or health concerns made waiting exceedingly difficult, the letter said.\n\nThe GAO already has started an investigation into the November 2 election, including the handling of provisional ballots, voter registration and voting machine problems. A spokeswoman from the GAO didn immediately return a phone call seeking comment.\n\n','ALLPOLITICS'),(7141,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/11/cabinet.portrait.ap/index.html','2005-01-11','2005-01-13 08:40:32','President Bush is fond of saying "all wisdom does not reside in Washington, D.C.," yet he has drawn heavily from the capitals corridors in building his second-term Cabinet. Seven of his nine new picks already serve in the federal government.','','WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is fond of saying all wisdom does not reside in Washington, D.C., yet he has drawn heavily from the capitals corridors in building his second-term Cabinet. Seven of his nine new picks already serve in the federal government.\n\nOf the two outsiders, one was plucked from state government -- Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns, Bushs nominee for agriculture secretary.\n\nThe demographic complexion of Bushs second-term Cabinet will look roughly like that of the first term, if all of his nominees are approved by the Senate. They are overwhelmingly male and mostly white, though Hispanics double their representation, to two. There would also be two blacks and two Asian-Americans, but no Arab-American replacing Energy Secretary Spence Abraham.\n\nNine of Bushs 15 Cabinet members resigned after he won re-election. His choices for replacements offer a glimpse of what he values in the men and women who sit with him periodically in the Cabinet Room.\n\nThe most conspicuous common thread is government experience. Just one of the nine newcomers Bush has nominated comes from corporate America -- Kellogg Co. chief executive Carlos Gutierrez, Bushs choice to run the Commerce Department.\n\nBush is following in the footsteps of his predecessors.\n\nHis father promised new faces would fill his Cabinet; President Clinton pledged a Cabinet that looks like America.\n\nBoth ended up drawing heavily from Washingtons political establishment, while making sure minorities were represented.\n\nNo matter what presidents say about a desire to have a Cabinet that looks like America, the best they can do is get a Cabinet that looks like Washington, said Paul Light, a professor at New York University who runs the Presidential Appointee Initiative at the Brookings Institution.\n\nLight has analyzed the backgrounds of the hundreds of personnel appointments each president must make. For Bush, about 60 percent have come from the Washington metropolitan area -- a figure comparable to his two predecessors.\n\nThe trend has been accelerating over the past half-century, Light said. In Bushs Cabinet, it is even more pronounced because he promoted three White House aides to top agency posts.\n\nThe founding fathers envisioned administrations populated by citizen-appointees who were primarily not of Washington, but would come here for a little bit and just go home. And we ain got that, Light said.\n\nSome potential nominees are put off by the high cost of living and by other Washington problems such as traffic, Light said. Also, presidents are attracted to people who have already been through the appointment process -- and most of them live in Washington.\n\nBushs aborted nomination of Bernard Kerik as secretary of homeland security pointed up the dangers of tapping outsiders, Light said. Keriks withdrawal -- amid questions about immigration problems with a family housekeeper -- reinforces the natural tendency of presidents who have already been through that unique hell called the presidential appointment process, he said.\n\nThe tendency to pick Washington insiders comes at a cost, in Lights view.\n\nIt creates an inbreeding not healthy for fresh thinking on the policy issues we confront, he said.\n\nWhite House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush nominates the best person for the job while also striving for a diversity of backgrounds.\n\nThe new Cabinet reflects the presidents governing style: The president surrounds himself with strong, results-oriented individuals, McClellan said.\n\nDemographically, the Cabinet shows diversity although members who mirror Bushs own background are overrepresented.\n\nEleven are male. Seven are white and male.\n\nBush is 58. His Cabinets average age is just over 57, weighted by five members at or beyond retirement age.\n\nPresident Clinton had more blacks -- four -- in his first- and second-term Cabinets than does Bush. The presidents father picked one black for his Cabinet.\n\nClinton and the first President Bush each had two Hispanics in their Cabinets. By raising Hispanic representation to two, the current president matched them.\n\nHis choice of Gutierrez ensured a Cuban-American in the Cabinet, following the departure last year of Housing Secretary Mel Martinez. Cuban-Americans were a vital electoral bloc courted by Bush in this years campaign for Florida.\n\n','ALLPOLITICS'),(7142,'/2005/TECH/ptech/01/13/creation.box.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:40:48','Sony Corp.s Creation Box makes images from any TV clearer, flicker-free and more vivid. Users can zoom in on high-definition video without distortion.','','TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Sony Corp.s Creation Box makes images from any TV clearer, flicker-free and more vivid. Users can zoom in on high-definition video without distortion.\n\nBut at $4,800, its not for everyone.\n\nThe Creation Box, going on sale in Japan this month with no plans to offer it overseas, looks like a black box with a handheld remote control. It uses technology that adjusts TV signals so that images outlines and textures look sharper and clearer, even on larger screens.\n\nYou still need a separate TV display and tuner.\n\nIn a recent demonstration using the Creation Box with two 32-inch traditional TV monitors, flickering was negligible. The outlines of distant trees sharpened, glass looked shinier and the sense of landscape perspective was enhanced.\n\nThe zoom-in feature is intended to help users edit home videos by letting them adjust images framing and zoom in on a subject, such as ones child. But viewers can also use close ups on high-definition TV broadcast images without distortion.\n\nSony officials said the technology is being added to Sonys new TVs.\n\nSo why buy the Creation Box? Sony says it can be used with older TVs, as well as far cheaper models from rival brands.\n\n','TECHptech'),(7143,'/2005/WEATHER/01/13/western.storms.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:41:00','Unwilling to wait any longer and ignoring warnings that more water might be on the way, residents across the Southwest returned to homes damaged by storm-swollen creeks and rivers.','','OVERTON, Nevada (AP) -- Unwilling to wait any longer and ignoring warnings that more water might be on the way, residents across the Southwest returned to homes damaged by storm-swollen creeks and rivers.\n\nWeve just got a big mess to clean up, said Overton resident James Watkins, 50, who spent a sun-splashed day watching a 300-foot expanse of churning brown water recede around his home.\n\nThe heaviest flooding was concentrated in the area where Nevada, Arizona and Utah meet. None was as catastrophic as the situation at La Conchita in Californias Ventura County, where a bluff collapse crushed 15 homes and killed 10 residents.\n\nGov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday surveyed the devastation caused by the huge mudslide, saying We have seen the power of nature cause damage and despair, but we will match that power with our own resolve. (Full story)\n\nA hillside began eroding away from beneath a private road in the tony Mount Olympus area of the Hollywood Hills, and 13 people were evacuated as five homes were red-tagged as unsafe. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn said Wednesday the city had sustained damage totaling about $10 million.\n\nPeople in Ventura Countys Piru remained isolated Wednesday, with Highway 126 shut down due to mudslides on both sides of town. Several campers and residents were stranded.\n\nIt brings everyone together, said Richard Aries, 42. We\re relatively lucky -- fortunate compared to other people.\n\nThe same stormy system that caused havoc in California later dumped rain over Nevada, Arizona and Utah, combing with sudden snowmelt to transform rivers into a raging torrent.\n\nAt least 18 homes have been lost or condemned due to record flood waters along the Santa Clara River in Utah. Some 100 families are reportedly displaced.\n\nThe Muddy River fanned out over ranches and farms, collapsed riverbanks near downtown Overton and forced an estimated 200 people to flee. Officials warned that flooding remained possible overnight.\n\nWe\re expecting a surge, police Sgt. Michael Dailey said after night fell on a second day of on-again, off-again flood advisories. But we believe the widened channel will be able to handle it.\n\nAuthorities said flooding affected at least 100 homes, apartments and motor homes in Overton, a desert hamlet of some 2,000 families about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas. A police helicopter rescued five people Wednesday in the Overton area, including two children, when they became trapped by rising water.\n\nNortheast of Overton, in the resort town of Mesquite, a feeling of relief set in Wednesday after predictions of surging water along the Virgin River failed to develop.\n\nWe dodged the bullet, said Mayor Bill Nicholes. We prepared for the worst, and prayed for the best. And the good Lord blessed us.\n\nIn nearby Moapa Valley, state officials planned to deliver feed by helicopter to about 700 head of cattle stranded without food for three days.\n\nA few miles north in Beaver Dam, Arizona, residents began returning to some 1,400 homes cut off Tuesday when raging waters washed out a road at the Beaver Dam Wash bridge. Authorities estimated 22 homes in Beaver Dam and nearby Littlefield, Arizona, were damaged or destroyed by flooding.\n\nBack in Nevada, officials in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, declared an emergency in response to flooding and the threat that avalanches posed to 66 homes on Mount Charleston.\n\nKim Evans, of the Nevada state Department of Public Safety, said the National Guard was mobilized to provide help in Lincoln County, where 600 people evacuated due to flooding.\n\nAbout 60 homes in the Caliente area reported flood damage. The Air Force helped airlift about 140 children and counselors from a state youth corrections facility in Caliente to Panaca.\n\n','WEATHER'),(7144,'/2005/US/01/13/soldiers.killed.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:41:11','In civilian life, Bradley Bergeron was an air conditioning technician. Kurt Comeaux was a probation officer and Warren Murphy a tugboat deckhand.','','HOUMA, Louisiana (AP) -- In civilian life, Bradley Bergeron was an air conditioning technician. Kurt Comeaux was a probation officer and Warren Murphy a tugboat deckhand.\n\nYou could find Christopher Babin behind the wheel of his truck. Armand Frickey and Huey Fassbender III worked in restaurants. Each of the six also had another job: Members of the Louisiana National Guard.\n\nAll were killed last week in a single bomb blast in Iraq. They came from the same company and grew up in towns along the bayous of southeast Louisiana.\n\nTheir bodies were returned home Wednesday. Dozens of family members sobbed and hugged each other as the flag-draped caskets were unloaded from a cargo plane and carried into hearses.\n\nThey trained together, they fought together, they went to war together, they died together. The families wanted them to come home together, said Hunt Downer, assistant adjutant general in the National Guard.\n\nFull media coverage was allowed, including photographers and television news crews -- an exception to a Pentagon edict generally banning media coverage of Americas war dead as their remains arrive.\n\nMore bodies are on the way: Two more Louisiana guardsmen were killed Monday. Ten from the Louisiana guard have died in Iraq in less than a month, from a total of 4,000 members in Iraq.\n\nThe deaths have given the rest of Louisiana a stark reminder that its National Guard members -- men and women once considered weekend warriors -- are now soldiers on the front lines.\n\nWhen you sign up with the Guard, you\re in the Guard with family and friends and people you grew up with, people you went to school with, said Anthony Manuel, a former Louisiana guardsman whose brother, Bill, was killed in Mondays explosion.\n\nWhen one soldier is killed, he said, Its a big family that gets hurt. Its all of us.\n\nIn honor of the hometown heroes, flags have been at half staff in all parts of the state, from the capital city of Baton Rouge to Houma, a fishing and oil city near the Gulf of Mexico, to Bossier City, near the Arkansas state line.\n\nThis is a sad time for Louisiana, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Wednesday. The families have a lot of grieving to do and we grieve with them. We appreciate them, we love them and we remember them in our prayers.\n\nIn all, Louisiana has lost 29 soldiers in Iraq: the 10 guardsmen, plus 15 U.S. Army soldiers and four Marines.\n\nBut the sudden killings of six soldiers at once -- all from the same part of the state -- was particularly stunning. That news, with banner headlines in newspapers around the state, was followed four days later by another explosion that killed two more.\n\nIn interviews, relatives of the killed soldiers have maintained a common theme: Their sons loved their work in the guard, thought of their fellow guardsmen as family and believed strongly in their mission.\n\nHe loved his country and never gave a second thought to what he was doing in Iraq, Angela Bergeron, of Houma, said of her son Bradley, a specialist killed in the Jan. 6 explosion. He talked about the National Guard as if it were his extended family. Those men were like his brothers.\n\nBill Manuel, a staff sergeant who was killed Monday, was one of three brothers who spent time in the guard. The Manuel brothers grew up fishing for bass in the Calcasieu River, and hunting rabbit and squirrel in woods around Oberlin, their tiny hometown about 175 miles west of New Orleans.\n\nThen one by one, they enlisted. Part of the guards appeal was the money, to pay for college. But the military also offered a chance to spend some time away from their small hometown.\n\nYou got away from the farming community, you were able to experience something a little different, experience a piece of the military, Anthony Manuel said. At the same time it was good because we were able to go off and do our training, then we were back at home in Oberlin.\n\nKermit and Anthony later left the military. Bill stayed in.\n\nMy brother stayed in for the love of it, knowing hes fighting for our country, said Kermit, 33, Bills youngest brother. Thats why most of the young men sign up, and thats why most of the young men stay in.\n\n','US'),(7145,'/2005/US/01/13/objecting.soldier.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:41:17','A mechanic with nine years in the Army, including a role in the assault on Baghdad, has refused to return to Iraq, claiming "you just dont know how bad it is."','2004tus. It was rejected in March 2004. Benderman served in Iraq fr\n2003om March to September 2003 with the 4th Infantry Divisio\n','SAVANNAH, Georgia (AP) -- A mechanic with nine years in the Army, including a role in the assault on Baghdad, has refused to return to Iraq, claiming you just don know how bad it is.\n\nSgt. Kevin Benderman, 40, said he became morally opposed to war after seeing it firsthand during his first Iraq tour. Now he faces a possible court-martial after failing to deploy Friday with his unit.\n\nI told them that I refused deployment because I just couldn go back over there, Benderman said Wednesday. If Im going to sit up there and tell everyone that I do not believe in war, why would I go back to a war zone?\n\nLt. Col. Cliff Kent, a Fort Stewart spokesman, said Benderman was being considered absent without leave because he had orders to deploy to Iraq while the Army processed his conscientious objector claim.\n\nHe was AWOL from the units movement, Kent said. Beginning the application process for conscientious objection does not preclude you from deploying.\n\nBenderman has been reassigned to a rear detachment unit at Fort Stewart while his case is processed, Kent said. Kent said the Army has not decided whether to bring charges against him.\n\nGaining objector status is a time-consuming process for soldiers, requiring meetings with counselors and a chaplain with lengthy paperwork reviewed far up the chain of command. Under military law, a person must be opposed to war in all forms to be considered a conscientious objector.\n\nIf a person said, `Im not opposed to war, but Im opposed to the Iraq war, they would not qualify, said Louis Hiken, an attorney with the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild.\n\nFiling an objector claim does not prevent the Army from prosecuting soldiers for disobeying orders.\n\nIn May, a Fort Stewart court-martial sentenced Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia of the Florida National Guard to a year in prison for desertion despite his pending objector application. Mejia filed his claim after refusing to return to his unit in Iraq while home on leave.\n\nIn December, a soldier who re-enlisted with the Marines after becoming a Seventh-Day Adventist was jailed for refusing to pick up a gun. Cpl. Joel D. Klimkewicz, 24, of Birch Run, Michigan, told his superiors he was a conscientious objector and cited his new religious status. It was rejected in March 2004.\n\nBenderman served in Iraq from March to September 2003 with the 4th Infantry Division based at Fort Hood, Texas. When he later transferred to the 3rd Infantry at Fort Stewart, Benderman said, he was already questioning the morality of the destruction he had witnessed.\n\nYou can sit around your house and discuss this thing in abstract terms, but until you see and experience it for yourself, you just don know how bad it is, he said. How is it an honorable thing to teach a kid how to look through the sights of a rifle and kill another human being? War is the ultimate in violence and it is indiscriminate.\n\nAsked why he waited until a week before his unit deployed to file notice of his objector claim, Benderman said, It takes time for you to make sure that you 100 percent want to do things. This is not something you make a snap judgment on.\n\n','US'),(7146,'/2005/WORLD/africa/01/13/thatcher.profile.reut/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:41:25','Mark Thatchers brushes with fame have rarely been comforting for his mother Margaret.','1982 desert during a car rally in 1982, the Iron Lady famously broke\n1990oness Thatcher left office in 1990, her family was dogged by ins\n1980. He left Britain in the mid-1980s for the United States to esca\n1982, when he went missing on the 1982 Paris to Dakar rally only to \n1984s arrival or departure. In 1984, the so-called Cementation af\n1996 and moved to South Africa in 1996. He and his wife, Diane, have\n','CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Reuters) -- Mark Thatchers brushes with fame have rarely been comforting for his mother Margaret.\n\nWhen he got lost in the Sahara desert during a car rally in 1982, the Iron Lady famously broke down and wept in public for the only time during her 11 years as British Prime Minister.\n\nOften chillingly pragmatic and unforgiving of others, Margaret Thatcher believed the sun shone on Mark who biographers agree she spoiled from birth and who basked in the success of his mother on the world stage.\n\nEven after Baroness Thatcher left office in 1990, her family was dogged by insinuations that her power had helped Mark, 51, amass a substantial fortune. Mark Thatcher always denied he ever sought to generate income from her position. He once said he was responsible to just three people -- his mother, himself and God.\n\nOn Thursday he pleaded guilty to trying to fund a mercenary plot in west Africa following his arrest last August during a probe into a foiled coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. (Full story)\n\nHe admitted paying $275,000 to hire a helicopter even though he suspected his long-term friend Simon Mann, a former British special services soldier, wanted it for mercenary activity.\n\nA plea bargain spares Thatcher jail while the Eton-educated Mann is serving a jail sentence in neighboring Zimbabwe for his role in the Equatorial Guinea coup plot.\n\nAfter his arrest last August, Thatcher put his mansion in the plush Cape Town suburb of Constantia up for sale.\n\nHe inherited the baronetcy conferred on his father Denis, making him Sir Mark.\n\nOnce dubbed The Boy Mark in the British media, Thatcher failed his accountancy exams three times but was worshipped by his mother who welcomed his presence on her trips overseas.\n\nHe left Britain in the mid-1980s for the United States to escape media attention.\n\nPrivately educated at Britains elite Harrow school but with little academic success, Thatcher tried a number of jobs.\n\nBritain tittered, despite his mothers tears, when he went missing on the 1982 Paris to Dakar rally only to be rescued days later from the desert.\n\nAround the time of this misadventure he began doing business in the Middle East and Asia, often appearing in countries within hours of his mothers arrival or departure.\n\nIn 1984, the so-called Cementation affair changed the public perception of Mark as a child of privilege who could not hold down a job.\n\nMark Thatcher acted for the UK construction firm Cementation International Ltd when it was awarded a huge contract in Oman.\n\nHe also happened to arrive in Oman at the same time as his mother, who was on an official visit. Subsequently, Thatcher told parliament that she had only been batting for Britain in securing the contract.\n\nHe later dismissed allegations he made millions in commission by helping to secure a huge arms deal with Saudi Arabia, signed by his mother. He said he had never sold a penknife let alone warplanes.\n\nMark set up home in Texas soon afterwards, working as a representative for Lotus Cars, and moved to South Africa in 1996. He and his wife, Diane, have two children.\n\nHis twin sister, Carol, is a journalist and author.\n\n','WORLDafrica'),(7147,'/2005/US/01/13/chicago.explosion/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:41:31','An apparent natural gas explosion ripped a 150-foot-long trench through the parking lot of a shopping mall on Chicagos Southside Wednesday night, injuring nine people who were transported to area hospitals, according to the citys fire department.','','CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- An apparent natural gas explosion ripped a 150-foot-long trench through the parking lot of a shopping mall on Chicagos Southside Wednesday night, injuring nine people who were transported to area hospitals, according to the citys fire department.\n\nAll the injuries were moderate to minor, many of them caused by flying debris, fire commissioner Cortez Trotter said. Others were taken to the hospital as a precaution because they inhaled gas fumes.\n\nThe blast which happened outside a restaurant at the Ford City Mall around 8 p.m. (9 p.m. ET) sent pieces of a gas main flying through the air, shattered windows and overturned about a dozen cars. No vehicles appeared to have fallen into the wide trench, Trotter said. The few shoppers left in the mall were evacuated, and Trotter said those were the only evacuations.\n\nThe investigation into what caused the blast is still underway.\n\nThe police departments on the scene, also investigating to ensure that this wasn some malicious act but at this point theyve determined that it was not, that it was merely a gas main explosion, Trotter said.\n\nIt is still unclear what could have caused the gas main to rupture; there was no construction or digging in the area, police and gas company officials said.\n\nSometimes right after the winter, because of freezes and expansions and contractions of pipes, something can happen, Peoples Gas spokesman Rod Sierra said. There may have been small crack for a long period of time that just built up. We don know any of that until we get in that hole and take a close look.\n\nThe 20-inch medium pressure gas main, about six feet underground, was shut off after the blast, Sierra said. No residents were affected by the shutdown, he said.\n\nTrench rescue workers and investigators waited late Wednesday for the gas to clear the lines so they can enter the hole and determine if anyone is trapped and begin investigating what caused the explosion.\n\nWe don see this very often, Sierra said. Usually when a gas main leaks or blows its because someone hits it.\n\nOne witness, who lives near the mall, said the loud blast felt like a small earthquake.\n\n','US'),(7148,'/2005/TECH/space/01/13/martini.galaxy.reut/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:41:46','The Martini Galaxy has the best bar in the universe.','1300xy known more formally as NGC 1300. A giant, poster-sized Hubbl\n','SAN DIEGO, California (Reuters) -- The Martini Galaxy has the best bar in the universe.\n\nThis is no earthly tavern, though, but a huge bar-shaped band of aging stars that stretches from one swirling galactic arm to the other, right across the center of the galaxy known more formally as NGC 1300.\n\nA giant, poster-sized Hubble Space Telescope portrait of the Martini, released this week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, gives scientists a new chance to study the galactic bar formation.\n\nThis is important because the Milky Way is also a barred galaxy, and studying bars could help determine how our own galaxy formed, said Patricia Knezek, an astronomer who works with the Kitt-Peak Observatories in Tucson, Arizona.\n\nShe said astronomers dubbed it the Martini galaxy because of the bar.\n\nIn the new image, the bars stars can be seen as a red-orange stripe that extends some 46,000 light-years across the galaxy.\n\nThere is not much cosmic gas and dust in the bar, which means there is little on which young stars can feed, Knezek said in an interview on Wednesday.\n\nMost of the (stellar) bar-flies are old, Knezek said. By contrast, the stars at the outer edges of the galaxy are young.\n\nThe galaxy is about 69 million light-years from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Eridanus (the River). A light-year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km), the distance light travels in a year.\n\n','TECHspace'),(7149,'/2005/TECH/space/01/13/huygens.titan/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:41:53','The Huygens probe will plunge through the orange clouds of Saturns moon Titan Friday, offering scientists their first glimpse of the mysterious moon.','1997ched together from Florida in 1997. The mission is to explore t\n2008nd Saturn until at least July 2008. [The Cassini-Huygens missio\n2004 rings without mishap in June 2004 and produced the most reveali\n','By Michael Coren\n\n(CNN) -- The Huygens probe will plunge through the orange clouds of Saturns moon Titan Friday, offering scientists their first glimpse of the mysterious moon.\n\nIts going to be the most exotic place weve ever seen, said Candice Hansen, a scientist for the Cassini-Huygens mission. Weve never landed on the surface of an icy satellite. We know from our pictures that there are very different kinds of geological processes.\n\nIf all goes well, the saucer-shaped Huygens will enter the thick atmosphere of Titan Friday at about 5:13 a.m. (ET). The data should start trickling in about five hours later.\n\nThe Cassini-Huygens mission is an unprecedented $3.3-billion effort between NASA, the European Space Agency and Italys space program to study Saturn and its 33 known moons. The two vehicles were launched together from Florida in 1997.\n\nThe mission is to explore the entire Saturnian system in considerably greater detail than we have ever been able to do before: the atmosphere, the internal structure, the satellites, the rings, the magnetosphere, said Cassini program manager Bob Mitchell at NASA.\n\nThe Huygens probe, about the size of a Volkswagen-Beetle, has been spinning silently toward Titan since it detached from the Cassini spacecraft on December 24. Cassini will remain in orbit around Saturn until at least July 2008.\n\n[The Cassini-Huygens mission] will probably help answer some of the big questions that NASA has in general about origins and where we came from and where life came from, said Mitchell.\n\nTitans atmosphere, a murky mix of nitrogen, methane and argon, resembles Earths before life began more than 3.8 billion years ago. Scientists think the moon may shed light on how life evolved on Earth. \n\nFinding living organisms, however, is a remote possibility. It is not out of the question, but it is certainly not the first place I would look, said Hansen. Its really very cold. A lack of sunlight has put Titan into a deep-freeze. Temperatures hover around -292 F (-180 C) making liquid water scarce and hindering chemical reactions needed for organic life.\n\nThe mysteries of Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun, have always enticed researchers. Scientists are perplexed why Saturn, a gas-giant composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, releases more energy than it absorbs from faint sunlight. Titan is also the only moon in the solar system to retain a substantial atmosphere, one even thicker than Earths. \n\nThe 703-pound, battery-powered probe will parachute through Titans clouds of methane and nitrogen for two and a half hours sampling gases and capturing panoramic pictures. Soon afterward, Huygens will reach the surface. However, its landing site is still a matter of conjecture. Scientists say it could be solid, slushy or even a liquid sea of ethane and hydrocarbons.\n\nThose are the kinds of things that we have theories about, but we really don have data, said Hansen.\n\nHuygens is expected to hit the upper atmosphere 789 miles (1,270 km) above the moon at a speed of about 13,700 mph (22,000 km/h). A series of three parachutes will slow the craft to just 15 mph (24 km/h). The chutes and special insulation will protect Huygens from temperature swings and violent air currents. Strong winds -- in excess of 311 mph (500 km/h) --will buffet the craft, at times dragging Huygens sideways after its parachute is deployed.\n\nSensors will deduce wind speed, atmospheric pressure and the conductivity of Titans air. Methane clouds and possibly hydrocarbon rain can be analyzed by an onboard gas chromatograph. A microphone will listen for thunder.\n\nThree rotating cameras will snap panoramic views of the moon capturing up to 1,100 images. A radar altimeter will map Titans topography and a special lamp will illuminate the probes landing spot to help determine the surface composition.\n\nEngineers say they are confident that Huygens and its suite of six sensitive instruments will survive the descent.\n\nFrom an engineering standpoint, Im very confident in a positive outcome, said Shaun Standley, an ESA systems engineer for Huygens at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Weve been over this again and again for the last three years fine-tuning this.\n\nAs the largest and most sophisticated interplanetary vehicle ever launched, according to NASA, Cassini-Huygens has performed well on its 2.2-billion mile (3.5 billion km) journey.\n\nCassini crossed Saturns rings without mishap in June 2004 and produced the most revealing photos yet of the rings and massive gas-giant. A problem with the design of an antennae on Cassini almost scrapped Huygens mission, but engineers altered the spacecrafts flight plans to resolve the transmission problem.\n\nNow, Huygens is on its own.\n\nControllers can only that hope years of preparation will pay off. [Huygens] is on its way, we can contact it, said Standley. We can make any changes of anything that is on board. [Its] just waiting for the right moment.\n\n','TECHspace'),(7150,'/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/13/tv.thewill.canceled.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:41:59','CBS lost "The Will" after just one night.','1993ey, which debuted October 27, 1993, then was never seen again. W\n','NEW YORK (AP) -- CBS lost The Will after just one night.\n\nThis reality series, which logged a minuscule 4.2 million viewers on its premiere airing Saturday, has been axed by CBS, the network confirmed Wednesday. Despite heavy promotion, The Will ranked 79th place in viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it CBS lowest-ranked show of the week. (The weeks most-watched show, CBS CSI, drew almost 29 million viewers.)\n\nA rerun of CBS Sunday crime drama Cold Case will plug the hole this Saturday, the network said.\n\nA reality show whose 10 participants vied to be sole heir to the fortune of a 73-year-old rancher, The Will thus joins a handful of other one-shot blunders in TV history.\n\nThe most recent was South of Sunset, a CBS detective drama with former Eagles rocker Glenn Frey, which debuted October 27, 1993, then was never seen again. With a 6.1 rating, that show attracted what was deemed the smallest audience ever for a series premiere on any major network.\n\nFor the sake of comparison, The Will got a 2.9 rating.\n\n','SHOWBIZTV'),(7151,'/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/13/television.halmi.reut/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:42:19','ABC is teaming with veteran TV movie producer Robert Halmi Sr. for "The Ten Commandments," a four-hour miniseries that will retell the classic biblical tale of Moses.','1956remake of Cecil B. DeMilles 1956 movie starring Charlton Hesto\n','LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- ABC is teaming with veteran TV movie producer Robert Halmi Sr. for The Ten Commandments, a four-hour miniseries that will retell the classic biblical tale of Moses.\n\nHalmi was quick to point out that the miniseries will not be a remake of Cecil B. DeMilles 1956 movie starring Charlton Heston, but will rely on extensive biblical and historical research for a realistic, truthful presentation of Moses and the Jewish peoples exodus from Egypt and their travel to Mt. Sinai, where, according to the Old Testament, God descended to deliver the Ten Commandments.\n\nI felt that (the Ten Commandments) is the first written document of law, morality and order for the human race, and we completely ignore it, said Halmi, whose myriad credits include Legend of Earthsea, Dinotopia and The 10th Kingdom.\n\nI think its time for the younger generation to revisit this biblical tale as they must realize the importance and consequences of the Ten Commandments.\n\nThe Hallmark Entertainment special-effects extravaganza, whose budget is estimated at more than $20 million, will be written by Ron Hutchinson (USA Networks Traffic), with Robert Dornhelm (USAs Spartacus) on board to direct.\n\nTo attract younger viewers, Halmi will use his trademark showmanship, loading the miniseries with elaborate special effects.\n\nIm not a preacher, so hopefully combining entertainment with certain morality, which I always do, and using great special effects will make people pay attention and read the Ten Commandments.\n\nIn his effort to tell the story as authentically as possible, Halmi, who is executive producing the project, hopes to be able to film it in Jordan, by the Red Sea.\n\nAnother Ten Commandments miniseries is in the works at the FX cable channel, but the 10-hour project, executive produced by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney, is a contemporary take on the ancient rules and is set in modern America.\n\n','SHOWBIZTV'),(7152,'/2005/HEALTH/01/13/sleep.doctors.reut/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:42:27','Overworked, sleepy doctors-in-training who hit the road after work are as much a hazard as drunk drivers, a finding that could unleash a wave of lawsuits against U.S. hospitals, a researcher warned on Wednesday.','','PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (Reuters) -- Overworked, sleepy doctors-in-training who hit the road after work are as much a hazard as drunk drivers, a finding that could unleash a wave of lawsuits against U.S. hospitals, a researcher warned on Wednesday.\n\nAccording to a study in this weeks New England Journal of Medicine, medical interns who worked shifts lasting 24 hours or more were twice as likely to be involved in serious crashes after work than doctors who put in fewer hours.\n\nJust as bartenders are now being held liable for accidents caused by drunk customers, hospitals, which routinely schedule interns to work double, triple or quadruple shifts, may soon find themselves sued for motor vehicle accidents caused by exhausted staff, one of the researchers said.\n\nThe medical profession should be a leader in accident prevention, yet its requiring its medical trainees to work marathon shifts and lets them drive home in this impaired condition in which they\re unfit to drive, said Harvard Medical Schools Charles Czeisler, a sleep expert. Thats akin to letting someone get behind the wheel when you know they\re drunk.\n\nDespite years of research showing sleep-deprived workers are more prone to errors, the U.S. medical community has been slow to cut back on trainees hours.\n\nThe European Union has imposed a 13-hour limit on daily shifts for physicians, with some exceptions.\n\nThe study by Czeisler and his colleagues was based on a Web-based survey in which nearly 2,800 interns provided monthly reports of their work hours and documented any road crashes or near-miss incidents in which they were involved.\n\nThe researchers concluded a substantial number of accidents could be prevented if hospitals implement less rigorous work schedules for interns.\n\nThe new findings came two months after the Czeisler team found that sleep-deprived interns make 5.6 times more serious mistakes in the hospital than their rested colleagues.\n\nAn editorial in the journal said driving simulations have shown that people forced to stay awake for 19 to 21 hours are as impaired as people with blood alcohol concentrations of 0.05 to 0.08. Truck drivers aren allowed behind the wheel with a level of 0.04 or above. The legal limit in most U.S. states is 0.08.\n\nU.S. guidelines allow interns to work 30 consecutive hours every other shift.\n\nThe interns in the latest study averaged 32 hours per shift four times a month. In some training programs, the doctors had shifts lasting 48 to 84 hours.\n\nEvery extended work shift in a month increased the likelihood of an accident on the way home by 16 percentage points.\n\nAmong doctors who were required to be in the hospital for extended periods, the chance of falling asleep while driving more than doubled, and the chance of falling asleep while stopped in traffic nearly quadrupled.\n\nThe Czeisler team also warned that sleep-deprived doctors may face criminal prosecution for their accidents.\n\nDrivers in both the U.S. and Great Britain have been convicted of vehicular homicide for driving when impaired by sleepiness, they said.\n\nNew Jersey law says a person is guilty of reckless driving if he has gone without sleep for more than 24 hours. New York, Massachusetts and Michigan are considering similar legislation.\n\n','HEALTH'),(7153,'/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/01/13/books.nadine.gordimer.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:43:10','She is a woman who is used to being in control and is not afraid of expressing her opinions. She has a dignity about her, certainly a worldly sophistication: the aura of the grand dame who has seen a lot of history and has helped make some of it.','1991 Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, is noted for her novels and \n1981virus was first diagnosed, in 1981. The risk of a pandemic whic\n1979frica when it was released in 1979, which details the struggles \n','NEW YORK (AP) -- She is a woman who is used to being in control and is not afraid of expressing her opinions. She has a dignity about her, certainly a worldly sophistication: the aura of the grand dame who has seen a lot of history and has helped make some of it.\n\nSouth African writer Nadine Gordimer, 81, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, is noted for her novels and short stories about the inhumanity of apartheid. Several were once banned in her own country. \n\nGordimer was in New York recently to talk about her latest project, Telling Tales. It is a compilation of 21 short stories that capture the range of emotions and situations of our human universe, she writes in the books introduction. \n\nThe stories are by world renowned authors -- five Nobel prize winners including Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Gunter Grass, and writers who likely will be on the shortlist for future Nobel literature prizes.\n\nAnglo-Indian writer Salman Rushdie, for example, tells a quietly horrifying tale in The Firebirds Nest about the men in India who marry for dowries, burn their young brides, and remarry to acquire yet another dowry.\n\nJohn Updike writes in Journey to the Dead about a middle-age mans preoccupation with, and terror of, an acquaintances impending death from cancer.\n\nNigerian writer Chinua Achebe, in the humorous story Sugar Baby, portrays a group of friends looking back at their years surviving the Biafran war and how one of them managed to make it bearable.\n\nThere are other memorable reports on the human condition from Margaret Atwood, Woody Allen, South African writer Njabulo S. Ndebele and Gordimer herself.\n\nThe story collection, published by Picador Press, was put together to raise money to battle AIDS. Published in paperback in December, the book costs $14, has 40,000 copies in print and is selling very well, according to the publisher.\n\nOnly a year ago, Gordimer wrote to writer friends and others whom she didn know but whose stories she admired with the idea of putting together an anthology of short fiction.\n\nI thought if they (musicians) could get up and sing, to raise money to battle AIDS, we (writers) could sit down and write.\n\nAlong with the anthologys writers, 13 publishers releasing the book in other countries have also agreed to contribute their proceeds to fighting AIDS. Literary agents and at least one translator say they will waive their fees, and the bookstore chain Borders has agreed to make a donation.\n\nAlmost 40 million people throughout the world now have the HIV virus. Over 20 million have died since the virus was first diagnosed, in 1981.\n\nThe risk of a pandemic which makes those numbers modest is real, said Rushdie, author of Midnights Children and The Satanic Verses.\n\nThe sad thing is we actually now have in our power the tools to arrest the spread of the disease, Rushdie said.\n\nThe worst thing we can do is pretend its not there, said Updike, winner of two Pulitzer prizes for his fiction. Its very easy to be a well-off American and feel very aloof from it. In the 50s, we didn think about atomic warfare being possible. In this century, we try not to think about AIDS.\n\nA petite woman with an erect carriage, her silver hair combed back meticulously into bun at the nape of her neck, Gordimer has a businesslike demeanor on this overcast December morning. She has no time to comment on the stunning view from her 37th floor Manhattan hotel room as she talks about AIDS.\n\nGordimers books include The Sport of Nature, a richly documented chronicle of post-colonialism; My Sons Story, about a married black man who falls in love with a white activist; and Burgers Daughter, banned for three months in South Africa when it was released in 1979, which details the struggles of the daughter of the late South African Communist party leader.\n\nSouth Africa leads the world with the number of HIV/AIDS victims -- over 5 million, according to the United Nations Development Program.\n\nGordimer is particularly aware of the babies. The Salvation Army runs a hospice in Johannesburg for about 30 infants born with HIV and abandoned by their mothers. They live there and they die there, Gordimer says. They are found by the police in public toilets, in the streets in bins.\n\nShe has designated that all the money raised by Telling Tales be given to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa, an anti-HIV/AIDS activist organization.\n\nShe is especially impressed with Zackie Achmat, 41, TAC chairman and one of its founders, who has AIDS.\n\nAchmat applauded Gordimer and the other writers included in Telling Tales for their inspiring effort.\n\nTheres a holocaust happening to poor people particularly in our country, based on a combination of drug company profiteering, bureaucratic neglect and also locally and globally, personal and social complacency, Achmat said in an interview from his office in Capetown, South Africa.\n\nAre there plans to promote the book further?\n\nGordimer is a bully, Rushdie said, half-joking. We all do what she says. We\re waiting for her to give us her orders.\n\n','SHOWBIZbooks'),(7154,'/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/13/mexico.simpsons.voices.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:43:27','Marge Simpson is near tears, and the normally menacing Mr. Burns is full of warmth and gratitude.','1934sociation, a union founded in 1934 that now includes about 15,00\n','MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- Marge Simpson is near tears, and the normally menacing Mr. Burns is full of warmth and gratitude.\n\nThe union actors who dub The Simpsons into Spanish are asking their Mexican audience for help as they fight for their livelihoods in a labor dispute that could silence the original Spanish voices from the 15-year-old animated comedy.\n\nMarge is very sad, said Nancy Mackenzie, the voice of the Simpsons matriarch. I don believe theyll replace us. Something deep inside says no.\n\nThe disagreement between the actors union and a Mexican contracting company is in the hands of government labor arbitrators at a time when the actors say they normally would be sitting down to tape the upcoming season of The Simpsons.\n\nIf an agreement isn reached, the actors fear the company will hire new voices, changing the cartoons Spanish alter egos -- voices known throughout Latin America.\n\nAt a news conference this week, Gabriel Chavez, the voice of dastardly power plant owner Senor Burns, thanked fans who have objected to casting changes as the union negotiates its demands.\n\nThe only thing I can say is, Heck, don stop coming around to the nuclear plant in Springfield, Chavez said in his Mr. Burns voice, referring to the imaginary home town of the Simpsons family. And Im inviting you, Im taking everybody out to drink at Moes tavern. And its free.\n\nThe Mexicos National Actors Association, a union founded in 1934 that now includes about 15,000 members, has accused a Mexican contractor of attempting to hire too many nonunion voices and breaking provisions of a collective bargaining agreement that dictates exclusive use of union labor.\n\nThe contractor, Grabaciones y Doblajes Internationales, maintains it has invited National Actors Association members and other actors to continue dubbing the cartoon series, but that the union is using strong-arm tactics to hold onto most parts.\n\nThe company argues it needs the new voices in order to compete.\n\nWith attitudes like these, our country has lost ground for dubbing in Latin America, the company said in a news release. Much of this work today is done in Venezuela, Colombia and, more recently, in Argentina and Chile.\n\nBut Humberto Velez, the Spanish voice of Homer Simpson, said he makes only about $55 per episode and feels compelled to stand up for the union that pays his benefits.\n\nWe\re not people who like to fight, Velez said. The only thing we know how to do is act. ... But we will never let people that aren interested in agreements take away our rights for their own benefit. How am I supposed to take care of my kids?\n\nWhile the dubbing contractor for The Simpsons condemned comments by the actors as pressure tactics, Mexican labor expert Nestor de Buen noted that the National Actors Association has not led a strike during the past three decades and is not known for being confrontational.\n\nMackenzie, the voice of Marge, has been with the union for about 40 years, dubbing television shows that include Dallas and The Dukes of Hazard.\n\nLosing the part in The Simpsons would be hard to take, she said.\n\nYou get to the point where you care deeply for your cartoon character, Mackenzie said. You love them. You go to bed with them at night. Its a sad state, and not because of the money. Its for love.\n\n','SHOWBIZTV'),(7155,'/2005/LAW/01/13/evolution.textbooks.ruling/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:43:42','A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that a school district in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, must remove an evolution disclaimer inside textbooks.','','ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that a school district in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, must remove an evolution disclaimer inside textbooks.\n\nThe stickers inside the Cobb County School Districts science books said Evolution is a theory not a fact.\n\nThe ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper said the stickers violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.\n\nParents in Cobb County, a politically conservative area northwest of Atlanta, and the American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the stickers in court, arguing they violated the constitutional separation of church and state.\n\n','LAW'),(7156,'/2005/HEALTH/01/13/no.more.needles.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:43:51','Hypodermic needles -- a childs worst nightmare, a necessity for diabetics and an everyday tool of medicine for 150 years -- could be history within several years if researchers from the University of Toronto have their way.','','TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- Hypodermic needles -- a childs worst nightmare, a necessity for diabetics and an everyday tool of medicine for 150 years -- could be history within several years if researchers from the University of Toronto have their way.\n\nTwo chemists, Geoffrey Ozin and Kai Landskron, say they have created an unusual material using man-made molecules called dendrimers. \n\nThey believe the material can store drugs, and, when spread on the skin as a film, allow them to dissipate into a patients bloodstream like a new type of patch.\n\nUnlike patches currently sold in drug stores, the scientists believe that their material can deliver smaller amounts of drugs over a longer period of time.\n\nThe researchers won say when the new patch might hit the market. Before getting to testing, which itself could take a few years, they must produce enough of it for experimenting and overcome the price tag of the key ingredient, dendrimers, which are complex and difficult to produce.\n\nThey\re difficult to obtain and last time we (purchased them) they cost us $128,000 per kilogram! said Dr. James Baker, head of the Center for Biologic Nanotechnology at the University of Michigan.\n\nLandskron and Ozin aren alone in their type of research, but they\re ahead of the pack. Baker said their innovation is something a lot of us would like to work with.\n\n','HEALTH'),(7157,'/2005/WEATHER/01/13/snow.weather.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:44:07','An unrelenting series of winter snowstorms has even the famously snow-friendly residents and merchants in the Reno-Tahoe area screaming uncle.','1916 in the Reno-Tahoe area since 1916, deposited 19 feet of snow at\n','RENO, Nevada (AP) -- An unrelenting series of winter snowstorms has even the famously snow-friendly residents and merchants in the Reno-Tahoe area screaming uncle.\n\nWeve got a ton of snow -- ridiculous amounts of snow, said Sarah Toomey, general manager of the Tahoma Lodge on Lake Tahoes west shore. Weve been shoveling, snowplowing and snowblowing for a week and a half. It seems never-ending.\n\nA snowfall that began just after Christmas and continued into Tuesday left fresh powder piled as high as a two-story home -- making for breathtaking conditions on the slopes and backbreaking conditions for anyone with a buried driveway.\n\nThe storm, which National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Cylke called the largest in the Reno-Tahoe area since 1916, deposited 19 feet of snow at the highest elevations around the lake and 6 feet in the foothills above Reno, which is in a valley.\n\nThe weight of the snow collapsed carports, barns and the roof of a Salvation Army warehouse in Reno. Schools were closed, Sunday services were called off and nonessential government workers got an unexpected holiday. It stopped cars, planes and trains in northern Nevada over the weekend.\n\nAbout 220 Amtrak passengers bound for Sacramento, California, spent Sunday night stuck in their train in deep snow west of Donner Summit. Reno-Tahoe International Airport was closed for 12 hours for the second time in a week -- and only the third time in 40 years -- because plows clearing the runways could not keep up.\n\nInterstate 80, which funnels skiers from Northern California to the resorts north of Lake Tahoe, and U.S. 50 to the south, have been clogged with record amounts of snow.\n\nSki enthusiasts have been forced to put chains on their wheels or just give up altogether. For many, the trip across slickened roads ends in a ditch or a snowdrift.\n\nIts been absolutely nuts, said Cal-Nevada Towing owner John King, who decided, starting Monday, to take only calls from established customers. This town just wasn prepared for this in any shape, way or form.\n\nUp the mountain at Incline Village, four snowplow drivers with Empire Snow Removal worked their routes for up to eight hours for contract customers, slept for six hours, then went back out.\n\nI don ever recall so much snow built up along I-80, said Jody Churich, spokeswoman for the Boreal ski resort atop Donner Summit. The snow stakes are barely popping out of the snow.\n\nSnow stakes are 6- to 8-feet high and show motorists where the edge of the road is after snow obscures it.\n\nAt the ski areas, Tuesdays respite was the good news following too many days of bad.\n\nAt the heart of the storm, there are some issues, but once it all works out, its smooth traveling, Heavenly Mountain Resort spokeswoman Molly Cuffe said from Lake Tahoes south shore as heavy snow faded to a few flakes.\n\nHeavenly recorded 19 feet of new snow since December 28 at the top of its 10,000-foot peak. At the 6,200-foot base in South Lake Tahoe, California, it was more in the 6-foot range.\n\nWeve gotten 130 inches since the 28th, which is just over 11 feet and the skiing and snowboarding has been just fantastic, said Squaw Valley spokeswoman Katja Dahl of Tahoes north shore. Its a little bit of a Catch 22. You can have it both ways. The weather does create traffic problems with roads, but this snow is great. If you\re a skier or a snowboarder, this is heaven.\n\n','WEATHER'),(7158,'/2005/TECH/space/01/12/huygens.titan/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:44:14','The Huygens probe will plunge through the orange clouds of Saturns moon Titan Friday, offering scientists their first glimpse of the mysterious moon.','1997ched together from Florida in 1997. The mission is to explore t\n2008nd Saturn until at least July 2008. [The Cassini-Huygens missio\n2004 rings without mishap in June 2004 and produced the most reveali\n','By Michael Coren\n\n(CNN) -- The Huygens probe will plunge through the orange clouds of Saturns moon Titan Friday, offering scientists their first glimpse of the mysterious moon.\n\nIts going to be the most exotic place weve ever seen, said Candice Hansen, a scientist for the Cassini-Huygens mission. Weve never landed on the surface of an icy satellite. We know from our pictures that there are very different kinds of geological processes.\n\nIf all goes well, the saucer-shaped Huygens will enter the thick atmosphere of Titan Friday at about 5:13 a.m. (ET). The data should start trickling in about five hours later.\n\nThe Cassini-Huygens mission is an unprecedented $3.3-billion effort between NASA, the European Space Agency and Italys space program to study Saturn and its 33 known moons. The two vehicles were launched together from Florida in 1997.\n\nThe mission is to explore the entire Saturnian system in considerably greater detail than we have ever been able to do before: the atmosphere, the internal structure, the satellites, the rings, the magnetosphere, said Cassini program manager Bob Mitchell at NASA.\n\nThe Huygens probe, about the size of a Volkswagen-Beetle, has been spinning silently toward Titan since it detached from the Cassini spacecraft on December 24. Cassini will remain in orbit around Saturn until at least July 2008.\n\n[The Cassini-Huygens mission] will probably help answer some of the big questions that NASA has in general about origins and where we came from and where life came from, said Mitchell.\n\nTitans atmosphere, a murky mix of nitrogen, methane and argon, resembles Earths before life began more than 3.8 billion years ago. Scientists think the moon may shed light on how life evolved on Earth. \n\nFinding living organisms, however, is a remote possibility. It is not out of the question, but it is certainly not the first place I would look, said Hansen. Its really very cold. A lack of sunlight has put Titan into a deep-freeze. Temperatures hover around -292 F (-180 C) making liquid water scarce and hindering chemical reactions needed for organic life.\n\nThe mysteries of Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun, have always enticed researchers. Scientists are perplexed why Saturn, a gas-giant composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, releases more energy than it absorbs from faint sunlight. Titan is also the only moon in the solar system to retain a substantial atmosphere, one even thicker than Earths. \n\nThe 703-pound, battery-powered probe will parachute through Titans clouds of methane and nitrogen for two and a half hours sampling gases and capturing panoramic pictures. Soon afterward, Huygens will reach the surface. However, its landing site is still a matter of conjecture. Scientists say it could be solid, slushy or even a liquid sea of ethane and hydrocarbons.\n\nThose are the kinds of things that we have theories about, but we really don have data, said Hansen.\n\nHuygens is expected to hit the upper atmosphere 789 miles (1,270 km) above the moon at a speed of about 13,700 mph (22,000 km/h). A series of three parachutes will slow the craft to just 15 mph (24 km/h). The chutes and special insulation will protect Huygens from temperature swings and violent air currents. Strong winds -- in excess of 311 mph (500 km/h) --will buffet the craft, at times dragging Huygens sideways after its parachute is deployed.\n\nSensors will deduce wind speed, atmospheric pressure and the conductivity of Titans air. Methane clouds and possibly hydrocarbon rain can be analyzed by an onboard gas chromatograph. A microphone will listen for thunder.\n\nThree rotating cameras will snap panoramic views of the moon capturing up to 1,100 images. A radar altimeter will map Titans topography and a special lamp will illuminate the probes landing spot to help determine the surface composition.\n\nEngineers say they are confident that Huygens and its suite of six sensitive instruments will survive the descent.\n\nFrom an engineering standpoint, Im very confident in a positive outcome, said Shaun Standley, an ESA systems engineer for Huygens at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Weve been over this again and again for the last three years fine-tuning this.\n\nAs the largest and most sophisticated interplanetary vehicle ever launched, according to NASA, Cassini-Huygens has performed well on its 2.2-billion mile (3.5 billion km) journey.\n\nCassini crossed Saturns rings without mishap in June 2004 and produced the most revealing photos yet of the rings and massive gas-giant. A problem with the design of an antennae on Cassini almost scrapped Huygens mission, but engineers altered the spacecrafts flight plans to resolve the transmission problem.\n\nNow, Huygens is on its own.\n\nControllers can only that hope years of preparation will pay off. [Huygens] is on its way, we can contact it, said Standley. We can make any changes of anything that is on board. [Its] just waiting for the right moment.\n\n','TECHspace'),(7159,'/2005/WORLD/europe/01/13/britain.royals.reut/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 08:44:25','Prince Harry, 20-year-old grandson of the queen, apologized on Thursday after a photo of him wearing Nazi symbols at a party provoked outrage.','1937d American Wallace Simpson in 1937, the couple visited Germany a\n1980y. On a trip to China in the 1980s, he warned British students: \n1999yes if you stay too long. In 1999, while on a tour of a company\n2002. While touring Australia in 2002, the prince asked an Aborigin\n2001rew spears at each other. In 2001, Philip told a 13-year-old bo\n1995 visit to Oban in Scotland in 1995 he asked a driving instructor\n1993 pass the (driving) test? In 1993, Philip told a Briton he met \n2003ly. Amid a tabloid frenzy in 2003, the prince denies innuendo o\n1993over Camilla Parker Bowles in 1993 in which the prince said he w\n2002minal offence in 350 years in 2002 when she pleaded guilty for f\n2000de church on Christmas Day in 2000 to give her a gift: What a ri\n2001illiam while at university in 2001. The same year his wife Soph\n1992rime Minister Tony Blair. In 1992, photos of a topless Sarah Fe\n2004s in a New York restaurant in 2004 to go back to the colonies. \n2004 after leaving a nightclub in 2004. In 2002 he admitted dabblin\n2002. In 2002 he admitted dabblin\n','LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Prince Harry, 20-year-old grandson of the queen, apologized on Thursday after a photo of him wearing Nazi symbols at a party provoked outrage.\n\nHere are some other embarrassing moments involving Britains royal family:\n\nEdward VIII, Harrys great-great uncle, is accused of being a Nazi sympathizer. After giving up the throne to marry divorced American Wallace Simpson in 1937, the couple visited Germany and met Hitler, voicing admiration for his policies.\n\nThere are also claims Simpson passed on information to the Nazis because she was having an affair with Joachim von Ribbentrop, Germanys foreign minister.\n\nThe father of Princess Michael of Kent, who is married to the queens cousin, was Austrian Baron Gunther Von Reibnitz who had connections to the Nazi party.\n\nOn a trip to China in the 1980s, he warned British students: Youll get slitty eyes if you stay too long.\n\nIn 1999, while on a tour of a company near Edinburgh, Scotland, he saw a poorly wired fuse box. It looks as though it was put in by an Indian, he remarked.\n\nWhile touring Australia in 2002, the prince asked an Aborigine whether they still threw spears at each other.\n\nIn 2001, Philip told a 13-year-old boy whose ambition was to go into space that he was too fat to be an astronaut.\n\nDuring a visit to Oban in Scotland in 1995 he asked a driving instructor: How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the (driving) test?\n\nIn 1993, Philip told a Briton he met in Hungary: You can have been here that long -- you haven got a pot belly.\n\nAmid a tabloid frenzy in 2003, the prince denies innuendo of an alleged sexual incident with a servant -- without either the papers or the prince saying what it was he was denying.\n\nA newspaper intercepted a phone call between Charles and and his lover Camilla Parker Bowles in 1993 in which the prince said he wanted to be reincarnated as her tampon.\n\nBecame the first British royal to be convicted of a criminal offence in 350 years in 2002 when she pleaded guilty for failing to stop one of her dogs biting two children.\n\nA grumpy Anne told a pensioner who waited outside church on Christmas Day in 2000 to give her a gift: What a ridiculous thing to do.\n\nEdward was ridiculed by the media for organizing a royal version of slapstick gameshow Its a Knockout.\n\nHe angered his own family and broke media guidelines when his TV company filmed his own nephew Prince William while at university in 2001.\n\nThe same year his wife Sophie was caught out in a newspaper sting making disparaging remarks about the queen, the late queen mother and Prime Minister Tony Blair.\n\nIn 1992, photos of a topless Sarah Ferguson, ex-wife of the queens second son Andrew, showed her kissing and apparently having her toes sucked by her financial adviser, Texan John Bryan, in front of her two small daughters.\n\nDubbed Princess Pushy by the British press, she allegedly told a group of black diners in a New York restaurant in 2004 to go back to the colonies.\n\nHarry gets involved in a scuffle with a photographer after leaving a nightclub in 2004.\n\nIn 2002 he admitted dabbling in marijuana and under-age drinking.\n\n','WORLDeurope'),(7160,'/2005/WORLD/europe/01/07/uk.princes/index.html','2005-01-07','2005-01-13 08:44:41','Britains Princes William and Harry have pitched in to help survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.','','LONDON, England -- Britains Princes William and Harry have pitched in to help survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.\n\nThe sons of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana on Friday helped pack boxes of emergency supplies for the British Red Cross at a warehouse near Bristol, western England. \n\nWilliam, 22, and Harry, 20, joined other volunteers packing toilet paper and shampoo that were being sent with other toiletries to the Maldives area.\n\nThe pair said they were moved to tears by the plight of the thousands of children orphaned by the tsunamis.\n\nWe were both seriously shocked. We didn quite know what to expect. Reports were sketchy. We didn know what the casualty destruction was, William said.\n\nAs it got further on it got worse and worse and we couldn believe it.\n\nWilliam said he hoped interest would not fade on the plight of the survivors.\n\nThe (Red Cross) are worried that the media will move on and find something else to talk about. We hope its going to stay in peoples minds. People in India and Sri Lanka and places aren going to be forgetting.\n\nHarry said the scenes of devastation shown on television were far the worst thing I have ever seen. The size is abnormal.\n\nHe said they both had wanted to take part in the aid effort.\n\nWe\re not exempt from what everybody else does. We just wanted to be hands on. We didn want to sit back and just give donations.\n\nOther members of Britains royal family have taken an interest in the relief effort.\n\nCharles, who is a patron of the Red Cross, visited the groups London headquarters last week to support the relief operation.\n\nEarlier this week, his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, visited a telephone call center that is helping families locate missing loved ones. Buckingham Palace has said she has contributed a substantial sum to charity relief appeals.\n\n','WORLDeurope'),(7161,'/2005/WEATHER/01/11/alaska.power.out/index.html','2005-01-12','2005-01-13 08:45:00','Officials in Alaskas North Slope late Monday were waiting for a break in a brutal blizzard to ferry power crews and generators into the remote village of Kaktovik, without power since Sunday.','','(CNN) -- Officials in Alaskas North Slope late Monday were waiting for a break in a brutal blizzard to ferry power crews and generators into the remote village of Kaktovik, without power since Sunday.\n\nWe\re just concerned about one of our villages thats got no power, said George N. Ahmaogak, the mayor of the expansive North Slope Borough, which includes Kaktovik.\n\nAttempts to fly linemen from Barrow into the village to help restore power failed Monday because of high winds, poor visibility and drifting snow. Barrow is about 300 miles northwest of Kaktovik.\n\nThe blizzard was so bad we couldn get in there for now, Ahmaogak said, noting winds of 80 mph (70 knots) and a wind chill index reaching 70 below zero. According to the mayor, the power-generation system is still working, but the winds have knocked out the distribution lines to the 300 residents of Kaktovik.\n\nWith the assistance of Alaskas Division of Emergency Services, the borough was to fly power crews from Barrow to Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage in the south, where they would board a military helicopter that officials hope will have a better shot at landing on the snow-drifted runway of the village. The trip from Barrow to Elmendorf to Kaktovik covers roughly 1,500 miles and could have assistance to the community by Tuesday, including additional power generators until distribution lines can be reconnected.\n\nAhmaogak said the snow has been whipped into drifts up to two stories high by the winds. The power outage complicated matters by knocking out runway lights at the airport.\n\nKaktovik is on Alaskas northeastern coastline, roughly 90 miles west of the Canadian border.\n\nDespite the severe conditions, Ahmaogak said he had no reports of fatalities and just one person who was being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.\n\nEverybodys in good shape for now, he said. The village clinic has temporary generators.\n\nWhile its citizens were weathering the storm, the village infrastructure was taking a beating, the five-term mayor said. A two-year-old, $28 million sewer and water system has frozen solid, bursting pipes.\n\nAhmaogak said he may have to declare a state of emergency if the damage is severe enough.\n\nThis is a very unusual storm for the middle of the winter, the mayor said. Seventy knot winds are rare.\n\n','WEATHER'),(7162,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/11/inauguration.security.ap/index.html','2005-01-12','2005-01-13 08:45:09','Security for President Bushs inauguration -- the first swearing-in since the September 11, 2001, attacks -- will be unprecedented with some 6,000 law enforcement personnel, canine bomb teams and close monitoring of transportation.','2001ng-in since the September 11, 2001, attacks -- will be unprecede\n2001-09-11earing-in since the September 11, 2001, attacks -- w\n','WASHINGTON (AP) -- Security for President Bushs inauguration -- the first swearing-in since the September 11, 2001, attacks -- will be unprecedented with some 6,000 law enforcement personnel, canine bomb teams and close monitoring of transportation.\n\nIn describing the plans for the January 20 event, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said that while the decibel level was down on terrorism chatter, the 55th quadrennial presidential inauguration was such a high-profile event that security would be at its highest level.\n\nThis is the most visible manifestation of our democracy, Ridge said at a news conference near the Capitol, where Bush will take the oath on the West Front.\n\nRidge detailed some of the security plans, including patrols of harbors, mobile command vehicles, round-the-clock surveillance of the key facilities, a record number of canine bomb teams and thousands of security personnel. He likened the resources to those used during the political conventions last year.\n\nSecurity will be at the highest levels of any inauguration, Ridge said.\n\nThe Federal Aviation Administration has announced that it will expand the no-fly zone, now a 15-3/4-mile radius around the Washington Monument, to a 23-mile radius around Reagan National, Dulles and Baltimore-Washington International airports. The temporary flight restrictions will be in effect from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on January 20.\n\nRoughly 2,500 military personnel will also be on hand to bolster security, with another 4,700 involved in ceremonial duties, said Maj. Gen. Galen Jackman, who commands the Armys military district of Washington.\n\nJackman said he did not think all the security would detract from the experience of the 250,000 people expected to watch the swearing-in and the estimated 500,000 expected along the parade route from the Capitol to the White House.\n\nI don think people will notice kind of an encampment mentality here, Jackman said. I think theyll feel very comfortable with what weve arranged.\n\nRidge noted that intelligence picked up in March and April suggested terrorists may be interested in attacking during the election year. He and other counterterrorism officials have said that threat could extend through the inauguration.\n\nOn Tuesday, he sought to play down the warnings issued last year. There is no specific threat directed toward the inaugural or inaugural activities, he said.\n\nCity officials in Washington are still working with the Homeland Security Department to sort out who will pay some of the bills. The districts total cost for the event is expected to be $17.3 million, which includes overtime for members of the more than 60 law enforcement agencies that will be brought in to help.\n\nAmong other charges: almost $3 million to build viewing stands and $43,260 to develop special license tags, according to a letter Washington Mayor Anthony Williams sent to federal officials late last month.\n\nCity officials are seeking permission to dip into the districts $240 million allotment from the federal government to pay for other costs it will incur during the inauguration.\n\nWhen asked if he thought it was appropriate to use city dollars for basics such as bleachers, Ridge said he was not aware of city money going toward infrastructure improvements, but said the district is eligible for federal reimbursement for overtime expenses.\n\nWe believe there are significant resources available to help the district with costs associated with increased security, Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.\n\n','ALLPOLITICS'),(7163,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/10/california.budget.ap/index.html','2005-01-11','2005-01-13 08:45:28','Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a $111.7 billion no-new-taxes budget Monday and proposed to close a $9 billion deficit by borrowing money and holding the line on spending growth throughout state government.','2003second since taking office in 2003 after a recall election, call\n2006oposed doing it again for the 2006-07 fiscal year. The states\n1988nteed under Proposition 98, a 1988 measure that says schools wil\n','SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a $111.7 billion no-new-taxes budget Monday and proposed to close a $9 billion deficit by borrowing money and holding the line on spending growth throughout state government.\n\nThe governors budget plan, his second since taking office in 2003 after a recall election, calls for borrowing nearly $4 billion and relies heavily on an expected improvement in Californias economy.\n\nSchwarzenegger said he was taking aim at the lunacy of our current budget system.\n\nIf we don get control of our autopilot spending, there will be deficits as far as the eye can see, the governor said. Cruise-control spending is out-of-control spending. We will never catch up.\n\nThe budget is $6.4 billion more than last years plan, or about 6 percent higher.\n\nSchwarzenegger, who is required to submit a balanced budget, promised his budget would not feature the accounting tricks that were used to paper over deficits in the past.\n\nAlso included were proposed constitutional amendments to impose a new spending cap, take authority for redistricting away from the Legislature and base teacher pay on merit.\n\nThe austere spending plan was the latest in a series of proposed reforms the Republican governor has presented to the Legislature this month.\n\nHe has promised to go to the voters in a special election this summer if lawmakers do not act.\n\nLeaders of the Legislatures Democratic majority were cautious.\n\nHopefully this is a worst-case scenario, said Democratic Assemblyman John Laird, chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee.\n\nLast year, Schwarzenegger borrowed nearly $10 billion on the bond market to help close a deficit. He also initially proposed deep cuts in public health and welfare programs but backed away amid strong opposition.\n\nHe later yielded to more modest plans to trim funding for state universities, salaries for home health care workers and cost-of-living increases for welfare recipients.\n\nThis budget is not everything that I want, but the fact is, its a budget forced on us by a broken system, Schwarzenegger said. Last year, we stopped the bleeding. This year, we must heal the patient.\n\nSchwarzenegger is expected to propose closing most of the gap by curbing the rate of growth in key areas.\n\nThat involves curbing the rise in education spending, which represents nearly half of the states general tax fund, by about $2 billion, and slowing spending on health and human services, which spends close to $26 billion a year.\n\nThe budget also calls for some cuts involving welfare-assistance programs and Supplemental Security Income recipients that Schwarzenegger proposed and then backed away from last year.\n\nThe governor largely protected from cuts the states public universities and its mammoth medical plan for the poor and disabled.\n\nDemocratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez said many of the proposed cuts unfairly hit the middle class, people with school children and commuters.\n\nThe budget also relies on borrowing from various special funds set up to pay for transportation and other projects.\n\nThe governor earlier proposed an end to such borrowing, though he tapped that money for this budget and proposed doing it again for the 2006-07 fiscal year.\n\nThe states deficit had been estimated at $8.1 billion, but officials raised that figure Monday by about $900 million to reflect a $450 million settlement the state owes on a lawsuit and a $500 million reserve the governor wants to establish.\n\nAdvocates were already lining up in opposition.\n\nA coalition of education interests has accused Schwarzenegger of breaking his promise last year to provide all of the money guaranteed under Proposition 98, a 1988 measure that says schools will receive 40 percent of all general fund money.\n\nAdvocates for the poor are worried the states $25 billion public health and welfare system will also suffer cutbacks.\n\nAll we know is that it will be ugly, said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a coalition of health care organizations. Theres nowhere else to cut to get the savings that they need.\n\n','ALLPOLITICS'),(7164,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/10/poll/index.html','2005-01-11','2005-01-13 08:45:36','President Bush got high marks for his handling of the tsunami disaster, and his job approval rating went up in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday, but most of those surveyed had doubts about his call to overhaul Social Security.','2002 of those polled in September 2002 said they considered Social S\n1998t of those polled in December 1998 held that opinion. In a sepa\n','WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush got high marks for his handling of the tsunami disaster, and his job approval rating went up in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday, but most of those surveyed had doubts about his call to overhaul Social Security.\n\nBushs job approval rating went up to 52 percent in the poll, which was conducted Friday through Sunday in phone calls to 1,008 adult Americans. Thats an improvement of 3 percentage points from the last CNN poll, taken in mid-December.\n\nAnother 44 percent said they disapproved of his job performance, down 2 percentage points from the December 17-19 survey. The latest poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.\n\nBush got his highest marks in a year on his handling of the economy, with 50 percent of those polled saying they approved of his performance. \n\nHe also got high marks for his handling of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, with 75 percent of respondents saying they approved of the way he handling it. (Full story)\n\nBut only 42 percent of those surveyed said they approved of his handling of the war in Iraq, and 56 percent disapproved. (Full story)\n\nAnd 52 percent said they disapproved of his handling of Social Security -- an issue Bush has called on Congress to tackle in his second term. (Full story)\n\nOnly 41 percent said they approved of Bushs desire to revamp Social Security, on which he has promised to spend the political capital he earned from his November election victory. \n\nBush has endorsed the concept of allowing younger workers to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in private accounts in exchange for receiving less in guaranteed Social Security benefits.\n\nHe has yet to offer details of his proposal, but critics have argued that the transition to such a program could cost $1 trillion to $2 trillion. \n\nMondays poll suggests the president will have a hard sell for any partial privatization effort.\n\nMore than half of those polled -- 55 percent -- said they considered it a bad idea, and 45 percent said they considered it a good idea. \n\nMondays poll found that 18 percent of those responded agree with the presidents characterization of Social Security as a system in crisis, with another 53 percent arguing that it faces major problems.\n\nOnly 24 percent described the systems problems as minor, while 3 percent said Social Security faces no problems.\n\nBy comparison, only 13 percent of those polled in September 2002 said they considered Social Security to be facing a crisis, and 15 percent of those polled in December 1998 held that opinion.\n\nIn a separate question, nearly half of those polled -- 49 percent -- said they believe the federal government should make major changes to Social Security within the next year or two.\n\nAnother 39 percent backed changes within the next 10 years, and 9 percent said change was not necessary.\n\nWhen asked about the disaster in the Indian Ocean that has killed more than 140,000 people, three-quarters of those polled said they approved of Bushs reaction to the disaster, and one-fifth disapproved.\n\nThe Bush administrations initial response to the tsunamis was criticized as insufficient and tentative, but nearly all Americans surveyed said they believed the United States was contributing its fair share or more to the relief effort.\n\nOnly 8 percent said they believed the United States should contribute more to the relief effort.\n\nFully half of those polled said Arab countries were pitching in less than their fair share, compared to 21 percent who thought European countries should contribute more and 24 percent who said the United Nations should do more.\n\nAsked whether they believed the United States had made a mistake by sending troops to Iraq, 50 percent of those surveyed said yes and 48 percent said no.\n\nOnly 40 percent of those surveyed said they believed the war is going well for American forces.\n\nJust 28 percent said they considered it very likely or somewhat likely that peace and security would be established within Iraq in the next year.\n\n','ALLPOLITICS'),(7165,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/10/asia.tsunami/index.html','2005-01-12','2005-01-13 08:45:55','As many as 800 bodies are being exhumed from mass graves in Thailand in a bid to help identify thousands of people still listed as missing following the December 26 tsunamis.','','(CNN) -- As many as 800 bodies are being exhumed from mass graves in Thailand in a bid to help identify thousands of people still listed as missing following the December 26 tsunamis.\n\nThe bodies were buried in shallow, sandy pits at Bang Muang on the southwest coast in the days immediately following the disaster because the Thai authorities lacked sufficient refrigeration units to stop the corpses rotting.\n\nAbout 5,300 people were killed in the tsunami tragedy in Thailand and a further 3,700 are listed as missing, including more than 1,000 foreign tourists.\n\nThai authorities are still pumping lakes in the region on the countrys southwest coast, hoping to find some of the missing bodies.\n\nThe Thai government has announced DNA tests will now be carried out on all the confirmed dead in a bid to clear up any misidentifications that may have occurred.\n\nLocal officials had earlier insisted that only Thais were buried at Bang Muang, but there are now concerns that Westerners may have been wrongly identified as Asians in the chaos following the tsunamis.\n\nThailands Interior Ministry now says the nationality of nearly 2,000 of the bodies is unreliable and will need to undergo further testing.\n\nSome Western-looking corpses have been placed in refrigeration units at Yan Yao temple, the main temporary morgue in the area, the Associated Press reports.\n\nForensics teams from Germany, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, as well as a joint Scandinavian team, are now working at Yan Yao to identify the bodies.\n\nThai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Monday he was confident that all the corpses would be properly identified through DNA samples taken from teeth, but he warned the process could take some time.\n\nThai authorities are planning to move the bodies of still unidentified tsunami victims to a single location on the outskirts of the hard-hit tourist resort area of Phuket.\n\nThe move would make identifying the dead more efficient, the deputy permanent secretary of the Public Health Ministry, Dr Supachai Kunarattanapreuk, said according to Thailands The Nation newspaper.\n\nMeanwhile, a United Nations aid conference will get underway on Tuesday, aiming to turn pledges of $8 billion into cash.\n\nA working group of 250 representatives from governments, aid organizations and countries in need of assistance will gather in Geneva. \n\nThe devastating tsunamis killed more than 140,000 people in south Asia and east Africa.\n\nIn some places, the relief effort is harder than in others -- places like Indonesias Aceh province, where the western coast was just 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the earthquakes epicenter. \n\nThe tsunamis hit the shore within 15 minutes of the earthquake, taking with them whole villages and the roads between them.\n\nAdding to the difficulties in reaching parts of Aceh is the three-decade conflict between the Indonesian government and separatist rebels. The government initially delayed allowing the U.S. military into the province and even now watches closely who goes where.\n\nThere is a need to build trust to a certain extent, to offer a helping hand, to say, We are here to support your efforts, at your direction, where you need it, said Brig. Gen. Christian Cowdrey.\n\nAid groups, too, sometimes have to wait. One French medical team has been waiting four days for permission and a lift into the area west of Banda Aceh.\n\nAnd the Indonesian military presence in Banda Aceh, a staple before the tsunami but lower after so much of the infrastructure -- including the military infrastructure -- was destroyed, has now returned. Soldiers are again common sights on the streets.\n\nBut the relief agencies talk more of hiccups than crises.\n\nWhen issues arise, where there is a difference of opinion, we can negotiate and discuss ways it ought to be done, said Michael Bak, a coordinator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.\n\nAceh operated under martial law until the Indonesian government relaxed its restrictions after the tsunami. \n\nHuman rights agencies such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accuse the Indonesian military and rebels of human rights abuses, but have not been allowed into the area for either relief work or a closer look at the situation.\n\nOther groups -- including the United Nations and the European Union -- have repeatedly asked Indonesia to allow relief agencies in to Aceh. \n\nNow, some relief workers quietly discuss moving beyond refugee camps and trying to document alleged human rights abuses -- and they talk of establishing long-term missions here.\n\nThe military, however, makes clear its promised accommodation is by no means open-ended.\n\nOf course, the level of importance will be assessed, said military spokesman Col. Ahmed Yani. The government would make an assessment decision from these assessments, just how important it is for these groups to stay.\n\nThe worldwide death toll has topped 140,000 and is expected to go much higher. In Indonesia alone, which has reported 95,000 deaths, the Health Ministry says 77,000 people remain missing.\n\nSchools in Sri Lanka and Banda Aceh have reopened as the communities there try to recover some sense of normality.\n\nAftershocks from the quake continued to rattle Banda Aceh on Monday, sending people scrambling from their homes.\n\nA new video has brought a fresh perspective to the horror of the disaster. The tape -- shot by a wedding photographer perched on a rooftop in Banda Aceh -- shows a torrent of dark brown water flowing fast and furious down the street below. (Watch the video)\n\nCNNs Correspondents Kasra Naji in Costogoda, Sri Lanka and John King in Banda Aceh, Indonesia contributed to this report.\n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7166,'/2005/WORLD/meast/01/10/iraq.main/index.html','2005-01-11','2005-01-13 08:46:08','Two nearly simultaneous car bombs exploded late Monday near Iraqi police stations in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, police said.','2005Iraq during the first half of 2005, his office said. The country\n','BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two nearly simultaneous car bombs exploded late Monday near Iraqi police stations in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, police said.\n\nPolice said only the two suicide bombers died the attack and no one else was hurt.\n\nPolice said the attacks were carried out around 10 p.m. (2 p.m. ET), one targeting a police station in central Basra and the other hitting a police internal affairs office. Police said there was slight structural damage to the buildings.\n\nBasra is the second largest city in Iraq and houses the headquarters of British troops in Iraq.\n\nThe city has not been hit with large-scale insurgent activity as other portions of the country have, but a series of car bombings in April killed nearly 70 people there.\n\nEarlier Monday, Baghdad deputy police chief Gen. Amer Ali Nayef was killed in an attack outside his home, the latest assassination of an Iraqi official in advance of January 30 national elections.\n\nGunmen killed Nayef and his son, Lt. Khaled Nayef -- also a police officer -- as they left their home in southern Baghdads al Dora neighborhood, a police official said.\n\nSeveral other attacks in Iraq claimed more than a dozen lives Monday, including two U.S. soldiers with Task Force Baghdad.\n\nThe two soldiers were killed and four were wounded by a bomb blast in southwest Baghdad, the military said in a press release. The roadside bomb struck a patrol, destroying a Bradley fighting vehicle.\n\nIn Samarra, north of Baghdad, insurgents attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding one, the U.S. military said.\n\nTwo U.S. soldiers were slightly hurt but returned to duty, said a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division in Tikrit.\n\nSeparate from the Basra attacks, two other suicide bombings were reported Monday.\n\nOne on the outskirts of southern Baghdad killed seven people, including three police officers, Iraqi police said. An attacker drove his vehicle into the courtyard of a police station, where it exploded, police said.\n\nThe attacker may have used a police vehicle or painted a vehicle to resemble a police car, officials said.\n\nIn the other suicide attack, a car bomb killed four security forces soldiers and damaged a building at the entrance of an Iraqi border security forces base in Rubaia, about 105 miles (170 kilometers) northwest of Mosul, an official with the Mosul governors office said.\n\nIraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi acknowledged an escalation of violence as the January 30 elections approach. But he vowed not to delay them and said there will be no safe haven for terrorists in Iraq.\n\nIraqi and U.S. officials have long warned there could be a spike in violence before the elections, as insurgents tried to disrupt them. They have worked to convince many Iraqis that it will be safe to vote.\n\nTwo schools scheduled to be used as polling places were attacked Monday in northern Baghdad.\n\nExplosives detonated at the main gate of al-Shuruk High School for Girls, damaging the gate and exterior fence, police said. No casualties were reported.\n\nIn the same neighborhood, police said an insurgent died while trying to detonate explosives at the Salah al-Din Middle School for Boys.\n\nAmong the other Iraqi officials killed in the past week were Baghdads provincial governor and the security chief for Iraqs Independent Election Commission in Diyala province.\n\nThree authority figures were targeted on Sunday.\n\nA former Interior Ministry official, Col. Midhat al-Ubaidi, was assassinated in eastern Baghdad during a drive-by shooting, a ministry spokesman said.\n\nAl-Ubaidi, chief of the Iraqi National Accords administration bureau, was driving his daughter to school at the time, the party said. The girl was wounded and was in critical condition at Kindi Hospital.\n\nBrig. Fayiz Sabeeh with the Mansour passports office, was wounded Sunday along Baghdads notorious Haifa Street. Two of his guards were killed.\n\nContrary to an earlier report, Brig. Mohammed Mudhafar Al-Badri, the citys deputy police chief, was not killed in a drive-by shooting.\n\nFifty percent of Americans believe the invasion of Iraq was a mistake, and 59 percent say the war there is going badly for the United States, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday. Fifty-six percent said they disapproved of President Bushs handling of the war. Only 28 percent said it is very likely or somewhat likely that peace and security would be established in the next year. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. (Full story)\n\nUkraines outgoing President Leonid Kuchma ordered his defense and foreign ministers Monday to draw up plans to call home his nations nearly 1,600 troops in Iraq during the first half of 2005, his office said. The country was already expected to pull its troops, but no timetable had been announced. Viktor Yushchenko, who recently won the election replace Kuchma, has vowed to call the soldiers home. (Full story) \n\nBritain will send an additional 400 troops to Iraq, British Defense Secretary Geoffrey Hoon told the House of Commons on Monday. The 1st Battalion, Royal Highland Fusiliers -- based in Cyprus -- will deploy in the southeastern portion of the country ahead of the January 30 elections, he said. (Full story)\n\nU.S. Embassy officials met during the weekend with representatives of an influential group of Sunni clerics, who have offered to end their boycott of the elections, spokesmen for the embassy and clerics said Monday. We asked that the American forces put forward a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, said Omar Ragib Zaydan, a spokesman for Muslim clerics. In return, we will call off our boycott of the elections.\n\nAn explosion Sunday at an ammunition storage area killed seven Ukrainian soldiers and a Kazakh soldier, said Multi-National Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Artur Domanski. Seven Ukrainians and four Kazaks were wounded in the blast. The incident, believed to be an accident, is under investigation. An explosives disposal team was detonating ordnance near the town of al-Suwaira, about 31 miles (51 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Domanski said. Nearly 1,600 Ukrainian soldiers and 30 Kazakhs are serving in Iraq. (Full story) \n\nCNNs Mohammad Tawfeeq and Cal Perry contributed to this report. \n\n','WORLDmeast'),(7167,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/08/demo.radio.reut/index.html','2005-01-08','2005-01-13 08:46:15','Democrats accused President Bush Saturday of trying to scare Americans into believing the Social Security retirement system is in crisis to build support for his private investment account plan.','1935uring the Great Depression in 1935 to help lift the elderly out \n','WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Democrats accused President Bush Saturday of trying to scare Americans into believing the Social Security retirement system is in crisis to build support for his private investment account plan.\n\nIn the Democratic Partys weekly radio address, U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York said there was no imminent crisis with the program created during the Great Depression in 1935 to help lift the elderly out of poverty.\n\nThe White House wants Americans to believe that Social Security is heading for an iceberg, he said. They think that, by scaring people, they will help increase support for privatization.\n\nRangel said Bushs plan to divert a portion of Social Security taxes into private accounts that workers could invest in stocks and bonds will add to the systems financial woes.\n\nUnfortunately, the presidents proposal for privatized accounts makes Social Security weaker, not stronger, Rangel said. It drains $2 trillion from the trust fund, leading to drastic cuts in benefits of more than 40 percent.\n\nBush has said his plan would not cut benefits of current or near-term retirees. But conservative groups familiar with some of the White House thinking on the proposal said officials are considering changing the way benefits are calculated from wage inflation to price inflation. \n\nThat eventually would lead to deep cuts in guaranteed Social Security benefits because wages rise faster than prices.\n\nWhite House officials argue that earnings from private accounts invested in stocks and bonds would more than make up the loss of guaranteed benefit.\n\nRangel said that was not true. He spoke about the issue in honor of Rep. Robert Matsui of California, a leading Democratic voice on Social Security who unexpectedly died of a rare blood disease a week ago.\n\nBob Matsui was fiercely committed to protecting the guaranteed bedrock protection of Social Security, Rangel said.\n\n','ALLPOLITICS'),(7168,'/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/07/video/index.html','2005-01-07','2005-01-13 08:46:23','CNN is receiving home video of tsunami victims for possible use on CNN. If you have video of missing or deceased friends or family you wish to share for this purpose, please mail it to CNN by Tuesday, January 11.','','CNN is receiving home video of tsunami victims for possible use on CNN. If you have video of missing or deceased friends or family you wish to share for this purpose, please mail it to CNN by Tuesday, January 11.\n\nSome of the videos submitted may be selected for use in CNN television programming or other CNN programming services honoring the tsunami victims. CNN reserves the right not to use the video at all and/or to use as much or as little of the video as it chooses.\n\nIf your video is selected for exhibition, you will be notified and sent a license and release to sign and return to CNN immediately . This license and release will grant CNN the rights necessary to exhibit your video, ensure CNN that you are the exclusive, rightful owner of the video and that the video may be used by CNN without making payment to you or any third party.\n\nUpon CNNs request, you may be required to obtain written permission from other individuals featured in your video. CNN will not use your video without a signed license and release.\n\nPlease include the following information with your submission: Your name, phone number and e-mail address if available; the name of the person who is missing or deceased; his or her status, last known location and relationship to you; any additional information you would like to include.\n\nAll video formats are acceptable (VHS, 8 mm film, Hi-8, digital video) as well as videos transferred to DVD or CD/ROM. 8 mm film transferred to videotape will also be accepted.\n\nPlease mail your video along with your name, age, address, phone number and e-mail address to: CNN Futures, NT0512A, CNN Center, Atlanta, GA 30303. Please label the video with your full name.\n\nNote that we are not responsible for lost, damaged or misdirected tapes, so if your tape is valuable to you, you should send us a copy only. Due to the large number of submissions, videos WILL NOT BE RETURNED.\n\nChildren under age 18 must have a parent or legal guardians written permission to submit their videos and such permission must accompany the videos or they will not be considered .\n\nEmployees (and their immediate families and household members) of CNN and its parent, subsidiaries, divisions, and affiliated entities are not eligible to submit videos.\n\nCNN has the right to edit and/or alter any submission.\n\nCNN values and maintains your privacy. The information you submit is subject to our privacy policy. \n\n','WORLDasiapcf'),(7169,'/2005/WORLD/meast/01/09/iraq.ukraine/index.html','2005-01-09','2005-01-13 08:46:38','Seven Ukrainian soldiers and one Kazakh serving in Iraq were killed in an explosion Sunday when troops were detonating ordnance at an ammunition storage point, the U.S.-led military said.','','(CNN) -- Seven Ukrainian soldiers and one Kazakh serving in Iraq were killed in an explosion Sunday when troops were detonating ordnance at an ammunition storage point, the U.S.-led military said.\n\nIt is believed to be an accident. An investigation is under way.\n\nAn additional seven Ukrainians and four Kazakhs were wounded in the blast, said Lt. Col. Artur Domanski, spokesman for the Multi-National Forces.\n\nThe troops were less than two months into a six-month deployment.\n\nThe incident took place at noon (4 a.m. ET), when an explosives disposal team with the 2nd Brigade combat team was detonating ordnance at an ammunition storage point near the town of al-Suwaira, about 50km (31 miles) south of Baghdad, Domanski said.\n\nNearly 1,600 Ukrainians are serving in Iraq, as are about 30 Kazakhs.\n\nBefore Sunday, a total of nine Ukrainian troops had been killed in Iraq since the war began -- three of them in hostile incidents. There were no reports of earlier Kazakh deaths.\n\nCNNs Arwa Damon contributed to this report.\n\n','WORLDmeast'),(7170,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/08/bush.radio.ap/index.html','2005-01-08','2005-01-13 08:46:56','U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday offered a long list of ways the United States is trying to help victims of the deadly tsunami in South Asia.','2004 to claim deductions on their 2004 tax returns, if they contribu\n','WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday offered a long list of ways the United States is trying to help victims of the deadly tsunami in South Asia.\n\nIn this time of grief for so many around the world, Americans have come together to pray for the victims and families of the tsunami disaster, Bush said in his weekly radio address.\n\nWe think especially of the children who have been lost, and the survivors searching for their families. And we offer our sustained compassion and generosity as the people of the devastated region begin to rebuild.\n\nThe administrations pledge of US$350 million -- which Bush called only an initial commitment and is essentially a line of credit that can be spent as American relief officials identify needs -- ranks fourth behind Australia, Japan and Germany.\n\nOther U.S. government contributions to the effort include a massive showing by the military that has sent ships, planes and helicopters to the region to ferry aid and supplies to the suffering.\n\nWe are rushing food, medicine, and other vital supplies to the region, Bush said. We are focusing efforts on helping the women and children who need special attention, including protection from the evil of human trafficking.\n\nOn Monday, Bush is to hear U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powells in-person report from his damage-inspection tour of the Indian Ocean region. Powell was to recommend what the United States should do next.\n\nAfter that White House briefing, Bush was to visit the Washington headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, to thank workers at the U.S. aid agency as well as representatives from other international organizations, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.\n\nBushs brother has already given the president an initial readout of the trip, which Florida Gov. Jeb Bush led along with Powell at Bushs request. The brothers met when Gov. Bush returned ahead of Powell to attend an anniversary party at the White House on Thursday night for their parents anniversary.\n\nOur military is flying chopper lift after chopper lift after chopper lift to get needed supplies to help alleviate the incredible suffering that has gone on, Bush said, during a lawsuit reform event in Michigan on Friday, of the report he heard from Gov. Bush.\n\nI am proud of the efforts we have made. I will be proud of the efforts we will make, because this compassionate country will help those around the world who hurt as a result of these natural disasters.\n\nIn his radio remarks, Bush also encouraged Americans to continue giving generously out of their own pockets to private relief organizations -- singling out charities such as the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, the Salvation Army, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children, CARE and AmeriCares as particularly reputable. He referred people to a White House Web site -- www.usafreedomcorps.gov -- for other suggestions.\n\nI urge all Americans to contribute as they are able, the president said.\n\nAs part of the effort to boost private donations to the relief effort, Bush has tasked former Presidents Bush and Clinton with leading a nationwide charitable donation drive. \n\nOn Friday, the White House released television public service announcements taped by the two former presidents asking Americans to give.\n\nNo one can change what happened, former President Bush says in one ad. But we can all change what happens next, Clinton says.\n\nBush also has signed legislation aimed at inspiring individual check-writing. The new law, which he signed Friday, allows people who donate to the tsunami relief effort to claim deductions on their 2004 tax returns, if they contribute before end of the month.\n\n','ALLPOLITICS'),(7171,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/13/bush.tsunami/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 16:39:22','President Bush praised the United States response to the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster on Thursday, and said the U.S. militarys relief efforts are greatly appreciated.','','WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush praised the United States response to the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster on Thursday, and said the U.S. militarys relief efforts are greatly appreciated.\n\nOur military is making a significant difference in providing relief and aid and help and compassion for those who have suffered, the president said as he and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld left a Pentagon briefing.\n\nI am very impressed, Mr. Secretary, about how quickly we have responded and the assets that you have ordered deployed to help these people.\n\nAs of Thursday, more than 15,000 U.S. troops were providing relief support in the region, according to the Defense Departments Web site.\n\nMost of the personnel were serving on the more than two dozen ships that have been deployed.\n\nMore than 2,600 troops are on the ground in the region -- 1,423 in Thailand, 618 in Sri Lanka and 382 in Indonesia. There are also 187 troops in Malaysia and eight in Bangladesh, the Pentagon said.\n\nTheres a lot of talk about how some in the world don appreciate America, Bush continued. I can assure you that those that our military has helped appreciate America.\n\nThe president said Rumsfeld also briefed him on terrorism.\n\nWe\re constantly reviewing our strategy as to how to defeat the enemy, he said. (I) fully recognize that the war on terror will require a coordinated effort within our own government as well as a coordinated effort with countries around the world which understand the stakes of this war.\n\nBush said he was pleased with the response from other countries.\n\n(I) appreciate so many nations understanding that we must work together to defeat these killers, the president said. I am mindful of the fact that we have constantly got to review our plans and never lose our will.\n\nBush also praised Rumsfeld, who has come under fire in recent months for what critics say was his failure to adequately plan for the occupation of Iraq.\n\nYou\re doing a fine job on behalf of the American people, he said.\n\n','ALLPOLITICS'),(7172,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/13/illinois.familyfeud.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 16:39:40','Gov. Rod Blagojevich asked his inspector general Wednesday to investigate accusations that his administration traded appointments in exchange for campaign contributions.','','CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich asked his inspector general Wednesday to investigate accusations that his administration traded appointments in exchange for campaign contributions.\n\nRod Blagojevichs father-in-law, influential Chicago Alderman Richard Mell, claimed last week that an adviser to the governor had arranged for people to be appointed to state boards and commissions in exchange for $50,000 in contributions to the governors campaign fund.\n\nIn an interview with The Associated Press, the Democratic governor angrily denied Mells accusations of misconduct and manipulation and called them reckless and defamatory. He said his inspector general should look into the issue so it can be laid to rest.\n\nThe inspector general has been asked to look into the allegations, Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said.\n\nThe inspector general, Zaldwaynaka Z. Scott, said her office would have jurisdiction over that type of a complaint. She said state ethics laws prevent her from saying whether she is investigating a specific complaint.\n\nMell made his accusations during a public argument with Blagojevich after the governor closed a landfill run by a distant cousin of his wife. Mell accused Blagojevich of shutting down the landfill to punish him for criticizing the governor in the past and to polish his public image.\n\nBlagojevich ordered the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to investigate Land Reclamation Services Inc. after the cousin, Frank Schmidt, allegedly told customers he could evade permit requirements because of his family ties. The governor asked the environmental agency to shut down the landfill after an investigation found multiple violations there.\n\nMell did not return calls for comment Wednesday.\n\nMell, a Democratic political heavyweight credited with helping get his son-in-law elected governor, said Tuesday that the public dispute must end for the good of the family.\n\nThis is something that is going to be put to rest today, Mell said, choking back tears. What was done was regrettable, I think. Im hoping that theres a possibility of repairing this.\n\n','ALLPOLITICS'),(7173,'/2005/US/01/13/human.rights.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 16:39:59','The torture of detainees at Iraqs Abu Ghraib prison and the treatment of those held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, dealt a blow to the United States credibility as the worlds leader on human rights and the fight against terrorism, a human rights group said Thur','2004 Schlesinger agreed in August 2004 that the blame lies mainly wi\n','WASHINGTON (AP) -- The torture of detainees at Iraqs Abu Ghraib prison and the treatment of those held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, dealt a blow to the United States credibility as the worlds leader on human rights and the fight against terrorism, a human rights group said Thursday.\n\nWhen most governments breach international human rights and humanitarian law, they commit a violation, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in its annual report of human rights developments in 60 countries.\n\nWhen a government as dominant and influential as the United States openly defies that law and seeks to justify its defiance, it also undermines the law itself and invites others to do the same.\n\nThe group urged the administration of President George W. Bush to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate any U.S. officials who participated in, ordered or had command responsibility for torture or mistreatment. It also dismissed the Bush administrations claim that Abu Ghraib prisoner treatment was a problem limited to a few soldiers acting on their own.\n\nAn independent commission headed by James R. Schlesinger agreed in August 2004 that the blame lies mainly with the American soldiers who ran the jail. But the panel also said senior commanders and top-level Pentagon officials -- including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld -- can be faulted for failed leadership and oversight.\n\nIn the midst of a seeming epidemic of suicide bombings, beheadings and other attacks on civilians and noncombatants -- all affronts to the most basic human rights values -- Washingtons weakened moral authority is felt acutely, Human Rights Watch says in its report.\n\nThe report cited two matters as posing fundamental threats to human rights around the world: the treatment of the detainees, and ethnic cleansing in Darfur, western Sudan, in which tens of thousands have died and millions have been displaced.\n\nHuman Rights Watch said the United Nations or any responsible group of governments should deploy a force to protect the civilian population and create secure conditions for people to return home.\n\nContinued inaction risks undermining a fundamental human rights principle: That the nations of the world will never let sovereignty stand in the way of their responsibility to protect people from mass atrocities, Human Rights Watch said.\n\nThe vitality of human rights defense worldwide depends on a firm response to both of these threats, Human Rights Watch concluded.\n\nElsewhere in the more than 500-page report, the group said there is growing evidence of conflicts between religious communities and the human rights movement, and a backlash against movements for the rights of sexual minorities. Human Rights Watch argues against efforts in the name of religion, tradition, or morals to censor expression or limit the behavior of others.\n\n','US'),(7174,'/2005/US/01/13/fbi.software.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 16:40:08','A $170 million computer overhaul intended to give FBI agents and analysts an instantaneous and paperless way to manage criminal and terrorism cases is headed back to the drawing board, probably at a much steeper cost to taxpayers.','2001 the attacks of September 11, 2001, FBI Director Robert Mueller \n2001-09-11fter the attacks of September 11, 2001, FBI Director\n2001-09-11and the independent 9/11 commission said the\n','WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A $170 million computer overhaul intended to give FBI agents and analysts an instantaneous and paperless way to manage criminal and terrorism cases is headed back to the drawing board, probably at a much steeper cost to taxpayers.\n\nThe FBI is hoping to salvage some parts of the project, known as Virtual Case File.\n\nBut officials acknowledged Thursday that it is possible the entire system, designed by Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego, is so inadequate and outdated that a new one will have to be built from scratch.\n\nThe FBI did not get what was envisioned, said a senior FBI official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity because the project is the subject of an internal Justice Department review.\n\nThe official said its capabilities were only about 10 percent of what was sought.\n\nIt is not clear how much more money will have to be spent. The official said the FBI probably will have to ask Congress for additional funds.\n\nSome of the necessary software is probably now commercially available, which was not the case when the project began.\n\nVirtual Case File was to be the final piece of the overhaul of antiquated FBI computers.\n\nThe first two phases of the project -- deployment of a high-speed, secure FBI computer network and 30,000 new desktop computers -- have been completed.\n\nSAIC spokesman Jared Adams said the company delivered the Virtual Case File system initial operation capability in December as agreed to and would have no further comment until the Justice Department review is finished.\n\nVirtual Case File was supposed to provide a way for FBI agents, analysts and other personnel around the world to share information about all types of investigations, including terrorism cases, without using paper or resorting to time-consuming scanning of documents.\n\nUnder the current system, for example, all FBI terrorism documents are loaded into a central database each night; under Virtual Case File the information would be available much faster.\n\nAfter the attacks of September 11, 2001, FBI Director Robert Mueller made improvement of the agencys computer systems a priority.\n\nMembers of Congress and the independent 9/11 commission said the overhaul is critical to enabling the FBI and intelligence agencies such as the CIA to connect the dots in preventing attacks.\n\nThe FBI officials said that although all essential national security information is available under the current system, it is more cumbersome than it should be.\n\nThe main database, known as the Investigative Data Warehouse, can be accessed by about 6,000 FBI officials as well as others on the bureaus joint terrorism task forces around the country.\n\nReasons for the problems include weak management of the project contract, numerous hurdles in figuring out how to share often-secret information with other agencies and the difficulty of making such major changes without requiring the FBI to suspend operations, at least for short periods.\n\nThe FBI will make a final decision on the Virtual Case File provided by SAIC after a limited test of the system in the New Orleans FBI office and completion of a $2 million independent evaluation by computer experts at Aerospace Corp., whose primary government customer is NASA.\n\n','US'),(7175,'/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/13/williams.education.ap/index.html','2005-01-13','2005-01-13 16:40:19','Outgoing Education Secretary Rod Paige directed his agency Thursday to begin a speedy investigation into its public relations contract with a prominent black media commentator after leaders of a Senate committee asked for records of the departments public','2002the Ketchum contract from the 2002, 2003 and 2004 budget years. \n2003, 2003 and 2004 budget years. \n','WASHINGTON (AP) -- Outgoing Education Secretary Rod Paige directed his agency Thursday to begin a speedy investigation into its public relations contract with a prominent black media commentator after leaders of a Senate committee asked for records of the departments publicity deals.\n\nAt the same time, a Federal Communications Commission member asked that his agency investigate whether the commentator, Armstrong Williams, broke the law by failing to disclose that the Bush administration paid him $240,000 to plug its education policies to min