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<p>The abusive behavior of the U.N.'s Bosnian War Crimes tribunal with regard to an American journalist prefigures what it is to come after the new International Criminal Court comes into being in July, and only confirms the wisdom of America's refusal to sign on to the ICC.</p>

A recent article by Caroline E. Mayer in the Washington Post's National Weekly Edition tells an interesting tale about what might be called our national inclination to high-tech laziness. "Americans," Ms. Mayer reports, "buy the most sophisticated computers, the coolest digital cameras, the most advanced automobiles, the most versatile cell phones and handheld organizers, and then...and then we forget, or decline, or flat out refuse, to read the directions." Mayer goes on to detail some of the results of this endemic aversion to reading the users' manuals: unnecessary and costly product repairs and returns, clogged manufacturer "Help" lines, frustrated...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ The Roman Catholic diocese where Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez was raised has banned him from speaking at its churches because of his support for abortion rights. The Corpus Christi Diocese ban also applies to John Sharp, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. Both Sanchez and Sharp are Catholics who say they personally oppose abortion but support a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy. ``That's being schizophrenic about it,'' Bishop Carmody said Monday. ``That's saying, `In my own home, I respect life, but when I'm in public office, I'm going to go with the pack.' ''...

Pooling of Space-Based Reconnaissance is the GoalBy Peter B. de Selding, Brussels Military authorities from five European nations say they are moving toward a common European system for space-based reconnaissance by stitching together their separate national programs. Each of the five — Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain — has signed a joint operational requirements document for space-based reconnaissance. By agreeing on what hardware is needed for a military observation system, they are making slow but steady progress toward a full pooling of their resources, these officials said. Known by its French acronym, BOC, the "Common Operational Requirements for a...

WASHINGTON -- Officials from the U.S. Customs Service and Dutch finance ministry meet Tuesday in Rotterdam to sign an agreement to station American inspectors there, under a Bush administration push to prevent terrorist attacks by knowing more about the contents of cargo ships headed to the U.S. About 5.7 million shipping containers a year enter the U.S. by sea, roughly half of all U.S. imports. Due to increased concern that terrorists might use the containers to smuggle in a weapon of mass destruction or interrupt commerce by exploding such a device in an American seaport, Customs officials have been...

NORFOLK, Va. -- U.S Navy divers will begin work this week on raising the turret and guns from the sunken Civil War battleship the Monitor off the coast of North Carolina. The divers were to leave for the wreck site off Cape Hattaras, N.C., with a team of marine archaeologists from the Newport News-based Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. The team is hoping to bring up the entire turret, containing two Dahlgren guns weighing a combined 160 tons, by early August. The gun turret is considered the Monitor's signature feature, and officials admit recovering it presents a difficult challenge. "We...

<p>Fed up and frustrated by the alarming number of armed robberies in the city, Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright is urging law-abiding people to fight firepower with firepower.</p> <p>But the proposal has generated little public support, and at least one expert said the suggestion borders on irresponsibility.</p>

Gov. Gray Davis this spring blocked efforts to impose a new $22-million tax on the timber industry, three months after leading timber interests donated $105,000 to his reelection campaign. The legislative analyst's office suggested the timber tax hike, and several Democratic lawmakers embraced it as a way to help close the state's $23.6-billion budget deficit. But the governor successfully opposed it during budget talks, according to legislators who participated in those discussions. Davis' revised budget, released in May, included general tax hikes that will affect almost all Californians but did not endorse the proposed timber tax. Administration officials and timber...

The Navy’s mine warfare branch of its expeditionary warfare office has developed a mine countermeasures (MCM) modernization plan for FY ‘03 through FY ‘09 that could include major platform and weapons systems replacements and upgrades, according to a service official. With the FY ‘03 budget now under debate on Capitol Hill, the mine warfare modernization plan being vetted as the Navy builds its FY ‘04 through FY ‘09 draft budget includes several concepts for replacement of the decommissioned mine warfare command ship Inchon; the possible consolidation of MCM helicopters from a mix of Sikorsky [UTX] H-60s and H-53s to...

FOUNTAINDALE -- Blasted into a mountain near here, the military's nuclear-proof command bunker known as Site R was once so secret the federal government denied its very existence. But the folks at Sunshine Lanes knew, because about 20 men from Site R bowl on Friday night. And workers at Chubbies sub shop knew, because Site R workers sometimes order subs and pizzas to be delivered. "They meet us at the gate," Chubbies owner Dave Sander said. Since Sept. 11, with Site R buzzing almost daily with helicopters and fighter jets, the secret is out. Stories about Site R have...

Army leaders around the world put great stock in the power a tank brings to the battlefield, but with few new sales expected, industry officials say modernization is the lone bright spot in the main battle tank’s uncertain future. "To talk about the death of the tank brings to mind Mark Twain’s famous quote, ‘The news of my death is greatly exaggerated,’ " said N.S. Sridharan, vice president of the General Dynamics propulsion unit in Muskegon, Mich. Sridharan was among thousands of executives in land forces materiel manufacturing worldwide who gathered here in Paris from June 17-21 for the...

Amid lingering scepticism among several US government offices, US Air Force (USAF) officials maintain that the proposed arrangement to lease 100 Boeing 767 tanker/transport aircraft over a period of approximately 10 years is the best near-term option for relieving the growing stress on its 40-year-old aerial refuelling fleet. The service is currently negotiating a lease deal with Boeing that it will submit to Congress for approval. The talks began in April. Initial estimates indicated that a lease would cost between $26 billion to $28 billion over 10 years, although the USAF says these estimates may be outdated. The service...

Did anyone hear my call to Rush Limbaugh earlier this afternoon? The first thing I said was "Mega Free Republic dittos from Wilmington, DE." I took issue with Rush's earlier comments that he thought Bush was calling for Israel's withdrawal to the 1967 borders. I read excerpts from Bush's speech, and then I said I think Bush knows that full withdrawal to these borders is suicide. I also thanked Rush for influencing me in my conservatism when I was younger.

Looking to nature to improve on engineering, UC Berkeley researchers have cleared a major design hurdle in their quest to build a tiny robotic fly that the Defense Department hopes to use as a spy. The robot, called "microfly," remains a long way from buzzing around a room, but the recent creation of minuscule wings that flap like their biological counterparts marks a breakthrough in understanding how insects fly, scientists said. Microfly is at the vanguard of a field known as biomimetics, based on the idea that biological systems are more flexible and adaptable than anything coming out of...

A Senate panel will investigate whether the Pentagon intended to use American sailors as human guinea pigs during the 1960s testing of chemical weapons aboard Navy ships, Sen. Max Cleland said yesterday. The Georgia Democrat, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee, said he will convene hearings this fall on the once-secretive testing program that Pentagon officials acknowledged for the first time last month. Cleland says he is pushing for open hearings, but the Pentagon might insist some of the material stay classified. Military documents indicate two kinds of nerve gas and a biological agent were...

Though the Marine Corps faults the cockpit crew for the January plane crash in Pakistan that killed seven Miramar-based Marines, some experts wonder whether the finger of blame also should point at military decisions and priorities made years ago in peacetime. The overarching question is: Why can't a technologically sophisticated military that can drop a bomb through a window from four miles high prevent an airplane – in this case a KC-130 transport – from slamming into a mountain at night? Experts say the military tends to spend money on new weapons systems and gear for combat forces rather...

The Emancipation Proclamation, more than any act, exposes the real President Lincoln and hits at the core of why the mythical day of June 19 is celebrated. Issued on the 22nd day of September in 1862, [the Emancipation Proclamation] stated that on the first day of January 1863, "all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." Clearly, this was a war measure for suppressing the so-called rebellion. If the Confederate States of America stop rebelling...

Jewish Patrols Fail to Materialize   By TED SHAFFREY : Associated Press Writer Jun 24, 2002 : 8:46 am ET NEW YORK (AP) -- There were no signs of armed patrols a rabbi promised in two heavily Jewish neighborhoods because of an FBI terrorism warning.Rabbi Yakove Lloyd had said his armed patrols would meet at two Brooklyn street corners, but the only people who arrived Sunday night were reporters, police, community leaders and curious residents.Early Monday, however, Lloyd told the Associated Press that the patrols had gone ahead as scheduled. He said 25 members of his right-wing Jewish Defense Group...

6 killed, 30 hurt in I-8 crash Van carrying migrants was going wrong way By Pauline Repard and Brian Hazle UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS June 25, 2002 At least six people were killed last night when a van full of undocumented immigrants driving the wrong way with its headlights off slammed head-on into a sport utility vehicle on Interstate 8 west of Buckman Springs Road. Motorists reported the wrong-way driver at 9 p.m. heading west in eastbound lanes, the California Highway Patrol said. CHP spokesman Steve Lopez said the van's lights were off, probably to evade a Border Patrol checkpoint. The...

Astronomers on Brink of Watershed in Planet Discoveries By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 07:00 am ET 24 June 2002 WASHINGTON, D.C. - The first phase of a two-decade hunt for planets around other stars ended this month with announcements of the discovery of two planets in Jupiter-like orbits, proving that our solar system has cousins, at least of the distant variety. Now it is census time. The world's top planet hunters are rushing headlong into Phase II, during which they expect the number of known extrasolar planets to rise dramatically from its present total of about...