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w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m IDF, settlers evacute three illegal settler outposts in West Bank The Yesha Council of Jewish settlements evacuated three unpopulated illegal settler outposts Sunday afternoon, in coordination with the IDF. According to an agreement with Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, seven other outposts are to be dismantled by Sunday evening. One mobile home close to the settlement of Talmon near Ramallah, two mobile homes near the Beit Haggai settlement in the southern Mount Hebron area and two other homes near the...

EMPHIS, June 29 — Al Gore told top donors and fund-raisers from his 2000 presidential run today that he made a mistake by allowing himself to be too programmed and controlled by pollsters and consultants in the campaign, and he promised a much different race if he ran in 2004.Mr. Gore, the former vice president, said he would make that decision next year. But in what some supporters viewed as another sign he was likely to pursue the nomination, Mr. Gore's wife, Tipper, and his oldest daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff, told supporters here that they wanted him to run...

An image of a Palestinian baby dressed as a suicide bomber shocked the world last week. But, says Peter Beaumont, the picture carries a stark message about a society where radicalism is becoming the norm The boy from Hamas came walking down the alley with a shopping bag dangling from one hand. His destination was the Gaza City home of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the Islamist militant group and the man behind a spate of suicide bombing attacks against Israel. He looked about 12 years old, a slightly chubby kid with the big self-conscious grin of someone on...

Prayers requested during week of 6/23/02 Prayers for Freeper father_elijah on mission work where Sudanese churches were bombedContinued Prayers for mini_teacup and family for safe return of BillyUpdate on foster child--Continued PrayersPrayers for ImAMightyRighty's father-in-lawUpdate on Ann, home from the hospital, continued prayersPrayer request for rwfromkansas' motherPrayer request for those affected by fires in ArizonaContinued prayers for foster childPraise report on friend and prayers for foreverfree's mother and pastorPrayers for gwmoore and familyPrayer request for those affected by bus accident in TexasPrayer request from LeeMcCoy for resolution to two issuesUrgent prayer request for Teacup, mini teacup, and sonPrayer request for...

JERUSALEM, June 30 (AFP) - The Israeli army on Sunday started dismantling two unauthorised settlement sites in the southern West Bank, settler sources and army radio said, after Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer pledged to shut down 10 settlement outposts built without government permission. The army moved into the small settlement sites of Beit Hagai et Maale Hever, near the city of Hebron, the sources said. There were no immediate reports of the troops meeting any opposition in the area that is a bastion of hardcore settlers. Ben Eliezer on Saturday ordered the dismantlement of 10 outposts built without authorisation...

<p>In 1997, the year before Charles Ramsey became the police chief of Washington, the city's homicide-closure rate exceeded 70 percent. In mid-1998, the year he arrived, the homicide-closure rate hit 64.5 percent. In 1999, the closure rate dipped again, to 61.2 percent. So, in establishing bonus-related goals for 2000 and 2001, it hardly seemed extreme to seek to achieve a closure rate fractionally above the rate achieved during the year he was hired. Thus, the homicide-solving goal became 65 percent, which, it's worth noting, was still more than 5 percentage points below the rate obtained the year before the chief arrived. Well, as it happens, the homicide-closure rate continued to deteriorate. In 2000, the rate fell to 57 percent.</p>

<p>Boys under the age of 18 will be required to preregister for Selective Service when they get their Virginia driver's licenses, one of a raft of new laws that will take effect tomorrow.</p> <p>"What we are trying to do is make sure that the process is equitable and fair," said retired Army Brig. Gen. Manuel R. Flores, Virginia director for Selective Service.</p>

his article was reported by Patrick E. Tyler, David E. Sanger, Todd S. Purdum and Eric Schmitt and was written by Mr. Tyler.WASHINGTON, June 29 — After a fitness run last Saturday through Fort McNair near the Pentagon, President Bush asked a few top aides to join him in the White House residence to discuss his long-delayed Middle East policy speech.When they settled into Mr. Bush's private study, the president said he was dissatisfied with a crucial point: The speech left unclear whether Washington's disappointment with Yasir Arafat had grown so deep that the peace effort could not go...

A Web site with ties to the Democratic Party and ex-President Bill Clinton is charging that President Bush is most likely "personally and directly responsible for the deaths of 37 passengers and 7 crew members on Flight 93," claiming that evidence shows Bush and Vice President Cheney ordered the plane shot down on 9-11. The left-wing Web site Democrats.com goes so far as to contend that the famous photo depicting President Bush talking on the phone that morning aboard Air Force One was likely taken as Bush was authorizing Cheney to give the order to have Flight 93 blown from...

It will be Samba all the way as Brazilians celebrate their World Cup victory Brazil star Ronaldo laid to rest his 1998 nightmare by scoring both goals as the samba kings defeated Germany 2-0 to clinch a record fifth World Cup in Yokohama, Japan today. The injury-plagued two-time world footballer of the year netted in the 67th and 79th minutes to steer Brazil home and spark wild celebrations at the Yokohama International Stadium. Ronaldo had only returned to international duty in March this year after a series of devastating injuries that had threatened to end his career at the age...

So are you much of a TV watcher?I've learned to become one. I kind of lost the 90's. I hardly watched any TV in the White House. Like a lot of people my age, I grew up on ''The Partridge Family,'' ''The Brady Bunch,'' all those sitcoms, and then had a period of ''Family Ties'' and ''L.A. Law'' in the 80's. But I just lost the 90's. So I'm getting back into TV. But also I used to watch a lot when I was a kid -- a lot of morning TV. I was a big fan of Barbara...

Arafat Says Ready to Meet Bush 'Anytime, Anywhere' June 30 — By Andrea Friedli CRANS MONTANA, Switzerland (Reuters) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat offered on Sunday to meet President Bush "anytime, anywhere" to promote Middle East peace despite Bush's call for his removal from power. Arafat also referred to Bush's recent Middle East policy address, which effectively linked a future Palestinian state to Arafat's ouster, as "important," although he did not say in what way. "I would like to meet President Bush anytime at a place of his choice so we can work toward comprehensive peace," Arafat, speaking by satellite...

< HAVANA (AP) -- Fidel Castro said Russia had betrayed Cuba and formed an alliance with the United States when Moscow severed agreements with the communist island after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. ``I do not try to blame any one leader in particular. It was the fruit of its (Russia's) errors and the painful way in which it lost the ideological battle against the western capitalist and imperialist bourgeoisie, under the standard of the United States,'' Castro said in speech reported by Sunday the Communist Party daily Granma. ``Russia, allied with the United States, broke all the...

<p>Editor's note: Wednesday last a three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in San Francisco, ruled 2-1 that inclusion of the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. Ferdinand F. Fernandez, a judge on that panel, was the lone dissenter.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Gold mutual funds compiled returns of as much as 32 percent in a second-quarter stock market that behaved like a very naughty child. Against a U.S. equity landscape devoid of profits, precious metal funds dominated the top ranks of second-quarter performers. If short-selling mutual funds are set aside, the gold names made up nine of the top 10 equity funds for the quarter ending Friday. See fund results on CBS MarketWatch. "Clearly, gold was the place to be, but I can't say I am entirely pleased," said Caesar Bryan, manager of the $98 million Gabelli Gold...

Archaeologists have been able to compile enough evidence to write an accurate history of man before the invention of writing. Recent findings in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe strongly supported the results found by the archaeologists of Western Europe, and research in all field areas generally corresponded in determining the stages of human development. At one point in that development, man devised vocal signals to express fear, hunger, thirst, sadness thereby making up the beginning of spoken language. At the sight of approaching large beasts, men scattered, producing guttural screams to warn others of the coming danger. At night, hunters...

HARDLY a day goes past without a new corporate scandal, each one bigger than the last. Last week we were just recovering from the news that Rite Aid had fraudelently overstated its earnings by $1.6 billion when we learned that WorldCom had performed the same trick to the tune of $3.8 billion. Even Martha Stewart, that goddess of the American hearth and home, stands accused of supping on a diet of corporate corruption. Professions like accountancy that were once regarded as the very embodiments of solid professionalism are becoming synonyms for corner-cutting -- or worse. Companies that were once celebrated...

Harvard Law School will need to wait a year for one of its incoming freshmen. Standing on a platform of teen abstinence, 22 year-old Erika Harold of Urbana was crowned 2002 Miss Illinois on Friday night.

Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) yesterday offered an unusually pointed critique of President Bush for his handling of the economy and other domestic concerns and accused him of being perhaps the most political chief executive in history. "Almost on every one of the issues involving domestic policy, he has been a source of great disappointment," Daschle said yesterday during a lunch with Washington Post reporters and editors. "I think his record on the economy is a disaster. I think his record on fiscal policy is a disaster. I think his position on education has fallen far short of...

A HIGH SCHOOL teacher came into my office one day last week with a picture, taken back in the 1930s, of a boy and a big fish. It was a rainbow trout, weighing five and a half pounds and measuring 26 inches, almost as big as the boy struggling to hold it up for the camera. He had caught it not far from his home, in one of the feeder streams that flow into Beaver Brook, the same brook that, a couple of generations later, I fished as a kid. It held occasional leviathans then and it holds them now....