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A case can be made that Israel is to blame for the escalating violence by homicidal Palestinian suicide bombers -- of which this week's incident of 19 killed and 50 wounded in a bus bombing is only an especially grisly incident in this continuing war. Personally, and as one who has done a lot of reporting from past crises, wars and revolutions in the Middle East and elsewhere, I think Israel is partly at fault for today's situation -- not because it's been too tough and uncompromising, but because it's been too gentle, too concerned with international opinion, too restrained...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States is threatening to stop helping with U.N. peacekeeping operations unless U.S. participants are given immunity from the new international war crimes tribunal. A draft resolution presented by the United States to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday would exempt peacekeepers from prosecution, and U.S. officials say they won't send Americans on such missions unless they receive that protection. Critics see the draft resolution as a U.S. effort to undermine the International Criminal Court, which is opposed by the Bush administration. The international pact creating the court takes effect July 1. Sixty-seven countries have...

Frank: Dems are making a `mistake' with Romney by David R. Guarino and Andrew Miga Thursday, June 20, 2002 Democrats saw their legal challenge to Mitt Romney's gubernatorial candidacy erode further from within yesterday as one of the state's senior congressmen launched an open rebellion with party elders. As a team of Democrat-hired lawyers finished pleading with an obscure state board to knock Romney off the ballot, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Newton) bluntly told the Herald the party is making a ``political mistake.'' ``It was a mistake to challenge (Romney) legally,'' Frank said. ``A political party shouldn't put itself in...

(excerpts only due to restrictions) The United States' leading European allies, who have opposed U.S. efforts to limit the powers of the new international war crimes tribunal, quietly obtained written assurances that their troops serving as peacekeepers in Afghanistan would be immune from arrest or surrender to the court. ... News of the agreement put the United States and its allies sharply at odds today as the Bush administration formally introduced a draft Security Council resolution that would exclude personnel in all U.N. missions -- military and civilian -- from the reach of the new International Criminal Court (ICC). ......

<!-- .aoltextad { text-align: justify; font-size: 12px; color: black; font-family: Georgia, sans-serif } --> MAIN PAGEWORLD U.S. WEATHERBUSINESSSPORTSPOLITICSLAWSCI-TECHSPACEHEALTHENTERTAINMENTTRAVELEDUCATION IN-DEPTH QUICK NEWSLOCALCOMMUNITYMULTIMEDIAE-MAIL SERVICESCNNtoGOABOUT US/HELP CNN TV what's onshow transcriptsCNN Headline NewsCNN InternationalaskCNN EDITIONS CNN.com AsiaCNN.com EuropeCNNenEspanol.comCNNArabic.com Sister saw suspect on way to parents' room Elizabeth Smart, right, with her sister, Mary Catherine   SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) -- The sister of missing 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart tried to reach her parents right after the abduction, but turned back when she saw the kidnapper again, police said. Police said Smart's 9-year-old sister, Mary Catherine, witnessed the older girl's abduction at gunpoint...

WASHINGTON- Setting the rules for fund raising under the nation's new campaign finance law, the Federal Election Commission is applying a ban on lawmakers' raising of large corporate and union donations so narrowly that even its top lawyer warned it would be easy to evade. With one Democratic member joining three Republicans, the Federal Election Commission voted 4-1 late Wednesday that the only way a federal candidate or officeholder could violate the ban on raising soft money that takes effect in November would be by explicitly asking for such contributions. The FEC's chief attorney, Larry Norton, warned commissioners that adopting...

We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail! [President Bush] Good morning!! Do not let the victims of the attacks on New York and Washington, nor the brave members of our Nation's military who have given their lives to protect our freedom, die in vain!! Last night, a Cessna 182 was approaching Reagan National, and didn't properly identify itself to the control tower. The White House was evacuated. The plane closed within four miles of the mansion before turning away. The craft was then escorted by F-15s to Richmond, where the pilot was apprehended and...

The Federal Election Commission last night adopted regulations governing enforcement of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that the agency's general counsel warned could undermine the government's ability to limit the use of "soft money." ... Use link to view remainder of article.

The civil rights group intends to complain to federal authorities about alleged discrimination and campaign for a smaller class-size referendum. By ALISA ULFERTS, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times published June 20, 2002 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TALLAHASSEE -- The NAACP staged a two-front attack on Florida's education system Wednesday, accusing the state of discriminating against minority students and vowing to take action to stop it. The organization plans to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education civil rights office, alleging that minority students are more often suspended, expelled, moved into special education programs and stuck in crowded classrooms, an...

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP) - Border guards have seized one of their biggest-ever hauls of heroin on the Afghan-Tajik border - 211 pounds of the drug made from the first post-Taliban poppy harvest. Russian border guards helping to patrol the border fired warning shots when they noticed five infiltrators making their way across the Pyandzh River into southern Tajikistan late Wednesday, spokesman Alexander Kondratyev said Thursday. They then opened fire, killing two, but the other three traffickers managed to flee back into Afghanistan, Kondratyev said. The infiltrators left behind 90 packages of heroin. Investigators have determined the drug was produced from...

Senate suspends rules, prepares for all-out budget battle today By Richard Locker and Paula Wade locker@gomemphis.com wade@gomemphis.com June 20, 2002 NASHVILLE - The state Senate took the procedural steps Wednesday for a major floor fight today on a variety of tax plans, possibly including one that contains a state income tax. Senators agreed to suspend the rules to allow an expedited vote today on the so-called CATS budget, which would raise the sales tax to 8.75 percent statewide, increase taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, and cut up to $600 million from the governor's budget proposal. Sen. Doug Jackson (D-Dickson) indicated...

June 19, 2002 This past Sunday's homicide bus bombing in Jerusalem, which claimed 19 lives and injured an additional 40 persons, has apparently triggered the Israeli leadership to conclude that only the pacification of the Palestinian-held West Bank by Israeli arms will safeguard Israeli citizens. As regards their attitudes toward the Palestinian irredentists and their "authorities," the Israelis have transited from a negotiation-oriented posture to a war-oriented posture. High time. It's difficult to put oneself in the place of a person who might at any time be violently removed from the world by someone who doesn't care about his own...

June 7th, Audie Murphy was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. His gravesite, near the Amphitheater, is second most visited gravesite year round. President Kennedy's grave is the most visited In 1996 the Texas Legislature officially designated his birthday, June 20th, as Audie Murphy Day. On June 9, 1999, Governor George W. Bush, Texas made a similar proclamation declaring June 20th to officially be Audie Murphy Day in the state of Texas. FREEDOM FLIES IN YOUR HEART LIKE AN EAGLE Dusty old helmet, rusty old gun, They sit in the corner and wait - Two souvenirs...

<p>It was a cliche to call Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura larger than life. But yesterday the former professional wrestler, Navy SEAL and bodyguard for the Rolling Stones claimed to be just a dad angry over media coverage of his family as he announced he would retire after just one term. The truth -- as with everything about Minnesota's independent governor -- was more complicated.</p>

<p>Malikina got the chance to walk across the stage Wednesday.</p> <p>ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- All she wanted to do was walk across the stage and get her high school diploma.</p> <p>Wednesday night, 18-year-old Masha Malikina did just that -- at her very own ceremony at the Philips Arena, attended by more than 1,900 people, most of them strangers, cheering her on.</p>

I have been fooled, lied to, made to believe imperialist propaganda. It's all there in black and white -- all there in the media pictures, a sea of faces shouting in the Caribbean heat: Socialism or death! What can I say? Granma summed it up nicely in last week's coverage of the Cubans' 800 marches and 2,230 rallies throughout the island. The marches, the government-run newspaper noted, were "without precedent in the world, fruit of a high level of culture, patriotism, awareness and knowledge." You better believe it. I sure do. Because when jobs, schooling, food-ration cards, housing and all...

A few days ago, Israel has begun the construction of "buffer zones" between Israel proper and the Palestinian territories, approximately along the 1967 border line - "the green line". Those zones are supposed to protect Israeli citizens from Palestinian infiltrators' attacks, including suicide bombers. According to recent information, the width of those "buffer zones" will be 4 km along the so-called "green line" (wherever it is possible) and 10-15 km in the Jordan valley.Construction of the separator wall near Qalqilya In the following article we will try to explain what are those buffer zones and how effective they can be....

Ask a Republican about Democratic intellectual property theft and you might hear him complain about Bill Clinton's co-opting of the Republican Party agenda during the second half of his first term in office. Why, one might lament, he went from being the father (or mother) of gays in the military and then he signs into law welfare reform. I have a very different view of what Clinton did - for in my mind it was not stealing but smart politics. However this week there was an actual case of "theft" that is being spun by the media as "lucky politics"...

Here are some excepts of a message, I wrote to a friend in Israel (edited): The US need not restrain Israel anymore. Unleash the fury upon terror. Build the wall, expell all Palestinians from Jewish controlled lands, and disengage from them. I believe the IDF needs to [make Arafat disappear], and install an agreeable peace partner - Truth Propaganda would then be open, and flood the Palestinians to change their deluded minds, and hope to free their souls from the slavery of hate and fanaticism - it seems this would be the only way. Of course, this is pure idealism...

(CNSNews.com) - The Salvation Army of Portland, Maine, is about to lose $60,000 in annual local government funding for refusing to provide health care benefits to the domestic partners of its homosexual employees. Unless it changes its mind and abides by a city ordinance approved last year, the Portland Salvation Army will lose the funding as of July 1. The army, which has been using the money to fund its meals on wheels program for the elderly, denies it discriminates against homosexual employees. Domestic partners of its heterosexual workers also do not receive health care benefits, according to the...