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U.S. Arms Fuel Drug Violence On Border
Jonathan Roeder & Jorge Alejandro Medellín

As the U.S. government continues to criticize Mexico for failing to control rising drug-related violence, many of the guns used in the recent wave of killings are smuggled into Mexico from the United States.more »»»

CAFTA Battle Casts Doubt on Future Pacts
Tom Raum

President Bush signed a free trade agreement with six Latin American countries on Tuesday, celebrating a victory in Congress so narrow and grueling that it cast doubt on the future of other trade-opening pacts the administration is negotiating.more »»»

Bush Endorses 'Intelligent Design'
Ron Hutcheson

President Bush waded into the debate over evolution and "intelligent design" yesterday, saying schools should teach both theories on the creation and complexity of life. Bush essentially endorsed efforts by Christian conservatives to give intelligent design equal standing with the theory of evolution in the nation's schools.more »»»

US Appoints Coordinator for Overthrow of the Cuban Revolution
Granma International

Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban Parliament, stated that the appointment of Caleb McCarry as coordinator of the so-called transition program for Cuba is proof that the United States is hardening its policy toward the Revolution.more »»»

Caltech Astronomer Finds Solar System's 10th Planet
Reuters

A California astronomer has discovered what he believes is the 10th planet in our solar system. The new planet, known as 2003UB313, has been identified as the most distant object ever detected orbiting the sun, California Institute of Technology astronomer Michael Brown said.more »»»

Officials: Bush to Name Bolton to U.N.
Terence Hunt

Frustrated by Democrats, President Bush will circumvent the Senate on Monday and install embattled nominee John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations, two senior administration officials said.more »»»

US Forces Recruiting Overseas
James Brooke

The Army has found fertile ground in the poverty pockets of the Pacific. The per capita income is $8,000 in American Samoa, $12,500 in the Northern Marianas and $21,000 in Guam, all United States territories. In the Marshalls and Micronesia, former trust territories, per capita incomes are about $2,000.more »»»

Two Wounded in Weekend Incidents
Leslie Berestein & Anna Cearley

A Tijuana man who last weekend said he was shot shortly after crossing the border illegally into the United States is sticking to his story, despite some reports that he may have been shot in Mexico.more »»»

Mexico Now Top Supplier Of U.S. Drugs
Pablo Bachelet

Mexican drug traffickers have pushed aside their Colombian counterparts and now dominate the U.S. market in the biggest reorganization of the trade since the rise of the Colombian cartels in the 1980s, U.S. officials say.more »»»

Roberts Hearing to Start on Sept. 6
Jesse J. Holland

Supreme Court nominee John Roberts will face the Senate Judiciary Committee's questions about his candidacy for the nation's highest court beginning on Sept. 6, congressional officials said Friday.more »»»

Rice Tops List of World's Powerful Women
Gillian Wong

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has beaten 99 female heads of state, chief executives and celebrities to top Forbes magazine's list of the world's most powerful women for the second year in a row.more »»»

Hispanics New Target of Hate Groups
Bill Poovey

Organized hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan have historically terrorized blacks and Jews in the Southeast. But the recent influx of Hispanic immigrants to the region has given hate groups a new target, and officials say Hispanics are increasingly targets of hate crimes.more »»»

U.S. Closes Nuevo Laredo Consulate
Jorge Vargas

The United States is closing its consulate in this violence-wracked border city for a week following a shootout in which assailants used machine guns, grenades and even a rocket launcher to attack a home, the U.S. Ambassador said Friday evening.more »»»

White House Signals Bolton UN Appointment Likely
Steve Holland

The White House gave its strongest signal yet on Friday that President Bush will soon bypass the Senate and appoint John Bolton to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.more »»»

Mexican VIP Tours Tent City Jail
Mike Branom

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio pitched his tents to the Mexican government Thursday. About one of every eight inmates in the county detention system are citizens of Mexico, prompting a diplomat from that country to accept Arpaio’s offer to tour the infamous Tent City Jail.more »»»

US House Approves Free Trade Pact
Edmund L. Andrews

The House of Representatives narrowly approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement early Thursday, allowing President Bush to put his signature to the nation's biggest reduction of trade barriers in more than 10 years.more »»»

NASA Concerned Over Approaching Asteroid
Peter N. Spotts

Humans live in a vast solar system where 2,000 feet seems a razor-thin distance. Yet it's just wide enough to trigger concerns that an asteroid due to buzz Earth on April 13, 2029 may shift its orbit enough to return and strike the planet seven years later.more »»»

Judge Cites Terror Concerns, Rules Posada Must Stay in Jail
Oscar Corral

An immigration judge on Monday rejected a request by Luis Posada Carriles to be released on bond, ruling the Cuban exile must remain in detention until his case is resolved. Judge William L. Abbott said Posada's participation in operations against Cuba in the early 1960s could be considered terror under today's standards.more »»»

Trudeau Defends 'Turd Blossom' Reference, Says Editing Strips Is 'Not Acceptable'
Dave Astor

Why did Garry Trudeau use Karl Rove's "Turd Blossom" nickname in his "Doonesbury" strips? "Given that I'm writing for a general audience, I try not to use crude or vulgar language gratuitously," explained Trudeau. "But in this case, I felt that Bush's nickname for Rove was illuminating. 'Turd blossom' has so many connotations..."more »»»

Gonzales Sets Stage for Roberts to Vote against Roe
Dan Eggen

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. will be free to vote to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision if he is appointed to the high court, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said yesterday.more »»»

Colombia Gov't Offers to Buy Illegal Coca
Dan Molinski

The Colombian government is offering to buy farmers' illegal crops of coca — the plant used to make cocaine — in the latest effort to stem illegal drug production in this South American nation.more »»»

New Latin-Focused TV Station Transmitting
Thais Leon

A new TV station backed by Venezuela's government began transmitting this week in various countries across Latin America, carrying praise by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the American actor Danny Glover and others.more »»»

Some US Papers Pull, Edit 'Doonesbury' Strip
David Twiddy

About a dozen newspapers have objected to use of toilet humor in Tuesday's and Wednesday's "Doonesbury" comic strip, and some either pulled or edited the strip. Universal Press Syndicate said it had received some complaints from editors about a reference to Karl Rove.more »»»

Opponents Still See Chance to Block Bush on CAFTA
Doug Palmer

Opponents of a controversial free trade agreement with Central America said on Monday they still see a chance of defeating the pact, despite Bush administration claims it is nearing final victory with a vote this week in the House of Representatives.more »»»

Non-Mexican Illegal Aliens Set U.S. Record
UPI

Federal agents say a crisis is emerging at the U.S.-Mexican border that could allow as many as 150,000 non-Mexican illegal aliens into the United States. Some 65,000 non-Mexican illegal aliens crossed the U.S. border last year - 644 from "countries of concern," Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar told a House committee recently.more »»»

Mexican Accused Of Leading Document-Fraud Ring
Jerry Seper

The Mexican national indicted by a federal grand jury in a multimillion-dollar scheme to distribute millions of phony identification documents to illegal aliens in the United States is, according to authorities, a leader of a crime syndicate that specializes in document fraud.more »»»

Surfer-Activist May Win San Diego Mayor's Post
Valerie Alvord

A surfer is riding a wave of populist support that could make her this city's first write-in mayor. Capitalizing on scandals at City Hall, Donna Frye, a city councilwoman for three years, launched her late write-in bid a little more than a month before Election Day.more »»»

Jane Fonda To Oppose Iraq War On Bus Tour
AP

Actress and activist Jane Fonda says she intends to take a cross-country bus tour to call for an end to U.S. military operations in Iraq. "I can't go into any detail except to say that it's going to be pretty exciting," Fonda said.more »»»

Poll: Six in 10 Americans Expect New World War
Associated Press

Americans are far more likely than the Japanese to expect another world war in their lifetime, according to AP-Kyodo polling 60 years after World War II ended. Most people in both countries believe the first use of a nuclear weapon is never justified.more »»»

Multiple Administration Security Breaches Involving Valerie Plame Wilson
Rep. Henry Waxman

The disclosure of the covert identity of Valerie Plame Wilson in a July 14, 2003, column by Robert Novak has triggered a criminal investigation and led to calls for congressional investigations. The Novak column, however, appears to be only one of multiple leaks of Ms. Wilson's identity.more »»»

Hundreds Protest NM Border Patrol Group
Associated Press

Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the streets of Las Cruces, NM to protest a controversial civilian border patrol group, calling the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps racist and un-American.more »»»

White House Must Work To Win CAFTA - Gutierrez
ABC News

The Bush administration has "a lot of work to do" to win approval of a controversial free-trade agreement with Central America but will succeed when the House of Representatives votes next week, said U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.more »»»

Rove: Bush Serious About Gay Marriage Ban
Wire services

President Bush in his second term "absolutely" would push for a constitutional amendment that says marriage consists only of the union of a man and a woman, White House political adviser Karl Rove said.more »»»

Civil Rights Groups Aim To Strengthen Black-Hispanic Ties
Brian DeBose

National black and Hispanic leaders say work must be done to improve their relations at the grass-roots level. "Too often, in too many cities, despite a large presence of blacks and Hispanics, the [grass-roots] leadership don't know each other and don't work together as well as they might," said Julian Bond, board chairman of the NAACP.more »»»

US House Poised to Reauthorize USA Patriot Act
Alan Elsner

The House of Representatives, ignoring protests from civil liberties groups and some conservatives, moved on Thursday to renew the USA Patriot Act giving the government unprecedented powers to investigate suspected terrorists.more »»»

Daylight-Saving Extension Draws Heat Over Safety, Cost
Wendy Koch

A move by Congress to extend daylight-saving time for four weeks to save energy has prompted an outcry from parent groups and the nation's airline industry, which warn it could be dangerous and costly.more »»»

2 Arizona Cases Show 'Tangled Mess' U.S. Immigration Law Has Become
Dennis Wagner & Susan Carroll

A pair of controversies involving Arizona children have focused a spotlight on the vagaries of U.S. law when it comes to undocumented immigrants. In one case, a Mexican woman will be allowed to remain in the United States after her children were kidnapped and other members of her family were murdered.more »»»

Plame's Identity Marked as Secret
Walter Pincus & Jim VandeHei

A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to government officials.more »»»

Hillary Clinton Draws Applause from Hispanics
Darryl Fears

Speaking on the grandest stage of the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights organization yesterday in Philadelphia, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) made no mention of presidential ambitions, but many said her message and delivery had the aura of a campaign speech.more »»»

Ready for an Extension of Daylight Time?
Canada.com

The U.S. Congress on Tuesday adopted a move to extend daylight hours by two months to help save energy, and some say Canada would need to follow suit to avoid chaos.more »»»

US Republicans Introduce Tough Immigration Bill
Reuters

All of the estimated 10 million to 12 million illegal aliens in the United States would have to leave the country under an immigration bill introduced on Tuesday by two conservative Republican senators.more »»»

Why So Many Storms So Early in Hurricane Season?
Jeffrey Kofman

July is usually a slow month for Atlantic hurricanes, but it feels like peak season for parts of Florida and the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Emily - with winds of 115 mph - is the fifth named Atlantic storm since the beginning of June. Never before, since scientists began keeping records in 1851, have so many storms have formed so early.more »»»

US Bush Changes Parameters on Plame Punishment
Pete Yost

Bush said in June 2004 that he would fire anyone in his administration shown to have leaked information that exposed the identity of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame. On Monday, however, he added the qualifier that it would have be shown that a crime was committed.more »»»

Mexico Extends Vote to Migrants
Fernando Quintero & Hector Gutierrez

Francisco Almanza never voted in his native Mexico. Then he moved to the United States, where he got a taste of democracy, American-style. Now, after 34 years as a U.S. resident, Almanza and millions of other Mexican nationals and Americans with dual citizenship, will have the opportunity to help pick the next president of Mexico.more »»»

Memo Lists Possible Border Terror Plot
Alfredo Corchado & Jason Trahan

Dirt roads trace pale lines across a desolate landscape of bald peaks and plunging canyons near Texas' Big Bend and bridge the border at dozens of improvised crossings. For decades, these routes have been used to smuggle drugs and humans. Now there is growing concern they could become deadly conduits for terrorism.more »»»

Clinton Takes Cheap AIDS Drugs to African Children
Reuters

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton hopes his foundation will help treat more than 60,000 children suffering from HIV/AIDS as part of a plan to fight the disease in poor countries, he said on Sunday.more »»»

Top Cheney Aide Among Sources in CIA Story
Pete Yost

Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide was among the sources for a Time magazine reporter's story about the identity of a CIA officer, the reporter said Sunday. Until last week, the White House had insisted for nearly two years that vice presidential chief of staff Lewis Libby and presidential adviser Karl Rove were not involved in the leaks of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity.more »»»

Rove was First Source on CIA Agent - Time Reporter
Reuters

White House political aide Karl Rove was the first person to tell a Time magazine reporter that the wife of a prominent critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy was a CIA agent, the reporter said in an article on Sunday.more »»»

Civilian Group Patrols Mexico Border
Wire services

Volunteers began patrolling remote mountains outside San Diego on Saturday, watching for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers as part of a campaign to draw attention to the nation's porous border with Mexico. The patrols, called California Border Watch, are modeled on a similar effort in the Arizona desert earlier this year.more »»»

Reporters' Notes Subpoenaed in Evolution Suit
AP

A US federal judge has asked to review notes and other source material of two freelance reporters who've been subpoenaed in a lawsuit over the inclusion of "intelligent design" in one Harrisburg, Pennsylvania school district's biology curriculum.more »»»

US Gov't. Collected Airline Passenger Data
Leslie Miller

The US federal agency in charge of aviation security collected extensive personal information about airline passengers even though Congress forbade it and officials said they wouldn't do it, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press.more »»»


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