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Jose Lazo overcame a childhood as an illegal immigrant, an education in alternative schools and the collapse of Enron Corp. But Lazo, 21, a nationally known spokesman for displaced Enron workers, may not be able to overcome a specter from his past. After rising from a life of poverty to a $40,000-a-year job straight out of high school, Lazo now faces deportation back to his native El Salvador because he impregnated a 13-year-old fellow student when he was 17. The girl insisted the sex was consensual, and the two are now married, but that did not prevent him from being...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO — A California police organization's endorsement of Republican Bill Simon has provoked anger within Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' re-election campaign as well as hints of retaliation against the veteran policeman who heads the group.</p> <p>Last week, the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs (COPS) announced its support of the Republican nominee for governor.</p>

ERUSALEM, June 24 — Delighted with President Bush's speech, Israeli officials expressed the hope tonight that perhaps, at last, Yasir Arafat would be ousted and a new, peace-seeking Palestinian leadership installed.But Ismail Abu Shanab, a leader of the militant group Hamas, which has been behind several recent suicide bombings, expressed a different hope: that perhaps, at last, Yasir Arafat and his Palestinian Authority would let real Palestinian violence explode."I hope the Palestinian Authority will now understand that it should support resistance and not chase after the West," said Mr. Abu Shanab, an engineer in Gaza City, observing that Mr....

ARARE, Zimbabwe, Tuesday, June 25 (Reuters) — A 45-day countdown for 3,000 white Zimbabwean farmers to abandon their land began today, but many vowed to stay put rather than watch vital crops rot because the nation is short of food."Some people actually have no choice. They will farm from tomorrow morning," said Jenni Williams, a spokeswoman for the Commercial Farmer's Union. She said the farmers would finalize papers today seeking a court ruling to stop the order.The farmers were given until midnight on Monday to stop working the land and just more than a month to leave entirely after...

$1.6 Billion Deal Would Aid a Blockade of Taiwan, Challenge U.S. Power in Region BEIJING, June 24 -- China has begun negotiations with Russia to buy eight more submarines in a $1.6 billion deal that will significantly boost its ability to blockade Taiwan and challenge U.S. naval supremacy in nearby seas, Western and Russian sources said. Rest of article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38496-2002Jun24.html

'Dead' Abu Sayyaf leader seen on Basilan Mounting doubts over Friday's reported killing of Abu Sabaya by Philippines special forces as body is still not found MANILA - Scepticism deepened yesterday over reports that Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya was killed in a clash with troops, as a military search for his body entered the third day. Mounting doubts were aired in the local media and coincided with a reported sighting in the southern town of Maluso on Basilan island, a known stronghold of the Al-Qaeda-linked group. A military source claimed the bandit - who has a US$5-million (S$8.9...

Ever since the announcement of the arrest of suspected al Qaeda radiation bomber Jose Padilla, sales of potassium iodide pills, used as an antidote radiation poisoning, have been skyrocketing in the Washington, D.C. area. "In fact, both Nukepills.com and KI4U, another potassium iodide distributor, agree that the greater Washington region has become one of the country's hottest markets, the Washington Post reported Monday. "We've been selling to the federal government, to individuals in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Baltimore and even the Eastern Shore, and to a lot of businesses around the Beltway," one distributor explained. The Post report follows NewsMax.com's...

ASHINGTON, June 24 — The Pentagon plans to create a new command that combines the military network that warns of missile attacks with its force that can fire nuclear or nonnuclear weapons at suspected nuclear, chemical and biological weapons sites around the world, administration officials said today.The command would fit neatly into the Bush administration's new doctrine of pre-emptive action against states and terrorist groups that are trying to develop weapons of mass destruction, officials said.Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have briefed President Bush on the plan...

Appearing on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn was Sheryl Underwood. A black, conservative comedian. She praised Bush and dogged Al Gore, and best of all, absolutely hilarious. I wasn't so surprised that she was black and conservative, I was surprised that she was a conservative comedian. I seem to remember her in an appearance on Def Comedy Jam, but I don't recall any conservative comedy from her. Anyways, check your local comedy clubs, she is touring the nation and she is a must see (she can get a little racy with sex humor). Click the Source for...

ETROIT, June 24 — An American Airlines plane from Newburgh, N.Y., to Chicago made an unscheduled stop here today after crew members learned that a federal employee on board had not informed airline officials that he was armed.A spokesman for the airline said the employee, a Postal Service inspector whom they did not identify, did not disclose that he was carrying a gun when he checked in at Stewart International Airport. He proceeded to the security checkpoint, where he told New York State Police officers before passing through the metal detector that he was armed.After the officers checked the...

ASHINGTON, June 24 — In an expansion of international cooperation in the war on terrorism, intelligence agents from several nations have interrogated fellow countrymen detained by the United States at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and shared the information with the Pentagon.Without saying which countries have conducted the interviews, the Pentagon said today that "foreign government delegations have had access to Guantánamo for law enforcement and intelligence purposes since January."Officials have attributed new information about terrorist threats to information gleaned in interrogations at Guantánamo. Britain, Morocco, Spain and Sweden are among the countries that have sent officials to Guantánamo to interview...

ASHINGTON, June 24 — Frustrated by recent Federal Election Commission rulings that he believes will undermine a campaign-finance bill he helped sponsor, Senator John McCain said today that he would seek to block all nominations before the Senate until a proposed new appointee to the panel was allowed to take office.The six-member commission, which has three Republicans and three Democrats, voted last week on rules implementing provisions of the McCain-Feingold bill designed to eliminate the influence in national elections of unlimited soft money donations from labor unions, corporations and wealthy individuals.But Mr. McCain and the other principal sponsors of...

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 24, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- American Jewish leaders met Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday and criticized the United Nations for not respecting Israel's right to self-defense against Palestinian suicide bombings. "Double standard is applied against Israel," said publisher Mortimer Zuckerman, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. "Israel is up against an unbelievable phenomenon that no other country has had to face in the form of this terrorist attack." At the meeting, he said, "The secretary-general did repeat to us how he believes terrorism to be morally repugnant, but the other...

The star witness against the government of Iraq hobbled into the room, her legs braced with clumsy metal callipers. "Anna" had been tortured two years ago. She is now four years old. Her father, Ali, is a thick-set Iraqi who used to work for Saddam's psychopathic son, Uday. Some time after the bungled assassination of Uday, Ali fell under suspicion. He fled north, to the Kurdish safe haven policed by Western fighter planes, but leaving his wife and daughter behind in Baghdad. So the secret police came for his wife. Where is he? They tortured her. And when she didn't...

WASHINGTON, Jun 24, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- There was little in President Bush's Middle East policy speech to cheer the Arabs. He set strict benchmarks as the price of U.S. support for Palestinian statehood, including the replacement of Yasser Arafat as their leader and the creation of what few nations in the Middle East can boast: full democracy. Those conditions will be difficult, if not impossible, for Palestinians to meet in the three-year time frame suggested by the president, analysts suggested after Bush outlined his evolving policy for the region in a Rose Garden speech Monday. Bush didn't...

WASHINGTON, June 24 (AFP) - President George W. Bush on Monday laid down tough conditions for US support for a future Palestinian state, demanding that Palestinians replace Yasser Arafat by a new leadership "not compromised by terror." In a key speech billed for weeks as a plan to revive moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after nearly 22 months of bloodshed, the US leader outlined a strategy sure to please Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. For months Sharon, who has been welcomed at the White House six times since he took office, had been trying to impress on Bush the need...

ATTOCK, Pakistan — When the G-8 leaders meet this week, cowering in a Canadian mountain resort beyond the reach of organized anarchists, here's a way for them to bolster terror-infested third world countries like Pakistan. They should start an international campaign to promote imports from sweatshops, perhaps with bold labels depicting an unrecognizable flag and the words "Proudly Made in a Third World Sweatshop!" The Gentle Reader will think I've been smoking Pakistani opium. But the fact is that sweatshops are the only hope of kids like Ahmed Zia, a 14-year-old boy here in Attock, a gritty center for carpet...

HEBRON, West Bank, Jun 24, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Israeli soldiers stormed the fortress-like Palestinian headquarters in the West Bank city of Hebron early Tuesday, killing two policemen, Palestinian security officials said. The violence came as Israeli and Palestinian leaders expressed widely divergent views on a Mideast policy speech delivered Monday by U.S. President George Bush. He called for a new Palestinian leadership and an end to terrorism, holding out the prospect of a provisional Palestinian state. The assault on the hilltop building in Hebron began when Israeli troops surrounded the site and exchanged for with policemen...

UNITED NATIONS, June 24 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday welcomed U.S. President George W. Bush's reaffirmation of his vision of a Palestinian state side by side with a secure Israel but said the question of Palestinian leadership was up to the Palestinian people. "The issue of who should lead the Palestinian people is one that only the Palestinian people themselves can decide," U.N. chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat "remains their leader and it will be up to them to decide through the fresh elections already announced who will lead them in the future,"...

June 24— By Mark Heinrich and Steve Holland JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush has written off Yasser Arafat as part of any Middle East peace accord, saying Palestinians must pick new leaders "not compromised by terror" to attain a state alongside Israel.Bush, presenting a long-awaited peace script, said Israel must do its part for peace too by halting settlement building on land where Palestinians are waging a revolt against occupation, and pulling tanks and troops out of Palestinian towns.A senior Palestinian official retorted that Arafat was democratically elected and could not be ousted by foreign fiat. But a Palestinian Authority...