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Experts: Valium Gas Used in Raid Military Experts, Toxicologists Suspect Valium Gas Used in Russian Troops' Theater Raid Oct. 26 — Military experts and toxicologists say Russian commandos probably pumped a gas containing Valium into a Moscow theater to subtly disable and disorient heavily armed Chechen rebels prior to Saturday's dramatic assault.Russian authorities didn't identify the gas used in the operation, which freed hundreds of hostages but also resulted in the deaths of more than 100 captives and rebels. Officials claimed none of the hostages were killed by the gas.Several nations, including the United States, have developed a variety...

. Nine women are to be ordained as Roman Catholic priests in a secret ceremony in Austria this weekend which could lead to their excommunication from the church. The women, who are from Austria, Germany and the United States, are to gather in an undisclosed location on Saturday for the ordination, which Church authorities have insisted will not be valid. But the group, who include several pioneer theologians, argue that the Roman Catholic Church's refusal to ordain women has no basis in the scriptures. "Both the doctrine of the ban on women priests and the law that is based on...

March 2, 2002 Burning Diesel Is Cited in Fall of 3rd Tower By JAMES GLANZ and ERIC LIPTON assive structural beams that functioned as a sort of bridge to hold up the 47-story skyscraper known as 7 World Trade Center were compromised in a disastrous blaze fed by diesel fuel, leading to the building's collapse on Sept. 11, investigators have concluded in a preliminary report. The tower was set on fire by debris from the twin towers and burned for about seven hours before collapsing in the late afternoon under previously unexplained circumstances. The analysis of its collapse is one ...

U.S. Companies File in Bermuda to Slash Tax Bills By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON growing number of American companies, encouraged by their financial advisers, are incorporating in Bermuda to lower their taxes sharply without giving up the benefits of doing business in the United States. Insurance companies led the way, but now manufacturers and other kinds of companies are following. Stanley Works (news/quote), for 159 years a Connecticut maker of hammers and wrenches, is among the latest with plans to become a corporation in Bermuda, where there is no income tax. The company estimates that it will cut its tax bill ...

January 18, 2002 U.S. Military Has No Evidence bin Laden Is Dead By DAVID STOUT ASHINGTON, Jan. 18 — The general who is running the military campaign in Afghanistan said today that he has no evidence to support an assertion from Pakistan's leader that Osama bin Laden is probably dead. "We don't know the location of bin Laden," Gen. Tommy R. Franks, head of the United States Central Command, said at a news briefing at command headquarters in Tampa, Fla. He added that the terrorist leader may be "alive or dead, in Afghanistan or not." That is what General Franks ...

Tuesday, 8 January, 2002, 12:32 GMT Transvestite ploy by Beijing bars By BBC Beijing correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes According to one state-run newspaper, some bars in the city have begun replacing young female hostesses with male transvestites. China's sex industry is the biggest in the world Bar owners in China's capital are resorting to some unusual measures as they attempt to avoid a police clamp down on sleaze. Few customers object - some do not even notice the change of sex. China's capital has come a long way since the days of Maoist imposed puritanism. So-called hostess bars are now getting ...

Testing of Osprey Aircraft to Resume By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 10:58 a.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon announced Friday it will resume testing of the V-22 Osprey, which has been grounded since last year following two crashes that killed 23 Marines. Pete Aldridge, undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, said while he still has ``some serious doubts about the safety, reliability and operational suitability'' of the V-22, flight tests on the helicopter-like aircraft are scheduled to resume in April 2002, in hopes of fixing the problems. Testing is expected to last for about two years, he said. ``We ...

At $92.60 a Vote, Bloomberg Shatters an Election Record By MICHAEL COOPER Sixty-eight million, nine hundred sixty-eight thousand, one hundred eighty-five dollars. That's how much Michael R. Bloomberg spent from his personal fortune on the election that made him the mayor of New York City, according to documents his campaign filed yesterday with the city's Board of Elections. It breaks all records for spending in municipal elections by tens of millions of dollars. It is just $2 million less than Ross Perot spent on his 1992 presidential campaign, and it is more than the $48.6 million Steve Forbes spent ...

US space-based reconnaissance reinforced Extracted and adapted from Jane’s Space Directory The launch of a Titan 4B rocket from Vandenburg Air Force Base on 5 October with a giant satellite identified as USA 161 indicates that a fourth or maybe fifth Advanced KH-11 (Improved Crystal) photo-reconnaissance satellite has been placed in orbit to assist with target location and damage assessment for Operation ‘Enduring Freedom’. Improved Crystal (variously referred to as the KH-12 or Advanced KH-11) is an enhanced version of the KH-11 system used during the 1990-91 Gulf War. At 16,300kg it is much heavier than the KH-11 and has ...

Sept. 11, 2001 | The World Trade Center's twin towers were the tallest buildings in the world at the time of their opening in 1970. They each stood 110 stories and more than 1,300 feet tall. They are the dominant features in an enormous office complex totaling more than 9 million square feet of office space and together make up one of the most recognizable architectural landmarks in the world. Today they were reduced to heaps of rubble after one of the worst catastrophes in U.S. history. A pair of jetliners crashed into them Tuesday morning -- at precisely the ...

Why Thirty Mile Fire raged without water By Chris Solomon Before the Thirty Mile Fire turned deadly July 10, dispatchers delayed sending a helicopter to drop water on the flames because they were unsure whether they needed permission to draw water from a river containing threatened fish, the U.S. Forest Service said yesterday. Fourteen firefighters and two hikers were trapped late that afternoon by the fire along the Chewuch River in Okanogan County. Four of the firefighters died. One critically burned firefighter remains in the hospital. Yesterday, Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., chairman of the House Resources' forest subcommittee, suggested that ...

The operation to lift the sunken Russian nuclear submarine, the Kursk, has run into trouble. The commander of the operation admits preparatory work is taking longer than planned. Vice-admiral Mikhail Motsak told the pro-Kremlin strana.ru website that divers are having to carry out work by hand which was supposed to be done by robots. "In the beginning of the operation we thought everything would be considerably quicker and smoother," he said. It is not yet clear whether the raising of the vessel, planned for September, will have to be put back. Torpedoes Before the Kursk can be raised, holes must ...

AKRON, Ohio (AP) -- A couple who once campaigned to make Ohio's rape laws tougher has been accused of violating those laws by forcibly impregnating the woman's teen-age daughter. John and Narda Goff, the girl's stepfather and mother, were free on a $500 bond after pleading innocent Tuesday in Summit County Common Pleas Court to accusations they used a syringe to impregnate the girl with her stepfather's semen. Prosecutors say paternity tests confirmed that John Goff is the father of the 18-year-old girl's 22-month-old son. The girl, who was not identified, said when she was 16 her mother asked her ...

Immigrants killed in minefield Three immigrants have been killed and another severely injured after straying into a minefield while trying to cross the Greek-Turkish border, police said. The four men, whose identities and nationalities have not been released, were found by a Greek border patrol shortly before dawn. Three were already dead, while the fourth man was hospitalised in the nearby town of Alexandroupolis and is in a serious condition, authorities said. Greece has designated mine fields along its north-eastern border with Turkey, and dozens of immigrants have been killed and injured after straying into them while attempting to cross ...

The leader of a group trying to repeal Broward County's gay-rights law resigned Monday, citing a Herald report that he was charged in 1999 with sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl in Maryland. The charge against Joel A. Hawksley of Deerfield Beach was dropped last year.