``We would have strongly preferred to avoid litigation in connection with this matter,'' Walker wrote. ``But given the request by the four Senate committee chairmen and subcommittee chairmen, our rights to this information and the important principal and precedents involved, GAO will take the steps necessary to file suit in United States District Court.''

Posted by at January 30, 2002 11:15 PM

Two students have been suspended from Juneau-Douglas High School after being in a group that unfurled a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" as the Olympic torch passed the school last week.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 01:44 PM

If Enron received no special deals from the Cheney task force, that is at least in part because the task force recommendations have not been enacted by Congress as the Senate is now in opposition to many of its proposals. The task force's 105-point plan was premised on the declaration of an "energy crisis," which, to the extent it ever existed, has now passed as energy prices have fallen sharply since the spring of 2001.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 12:16 PM

New York's first attempt to remember the twin towers collapsed on January 18th amid the sort of racial politicking people once hoped had disappeared on September 11th. The idea was for a big statue outside the fire department's headquarters in Brooklyn modeled on the famous photograph of three firemen raising the stars and stripes amid the rubble of the World Trade Centre��with one small difference: two of the (white) firemen would become a black and a Latino. Many in the 94%-white fire department objected.

Err, why wouldn't the statue be of the actual guys who raised the damn flag?

Posted by at January 30, 2002 12:07 PM

Finance Minister Gary Collins said the pay cut is symbolic. "It's not about a lot of money," he said. "It is to try and send a message that we're going to take a certain amount of the burden personally."
Ms. MacPhail, who is the leader of the New Democrats, called the Liberals' voluntary pay cuts an "empty gesture," saying she and Ms. Kwan wouldn't participate.
"This ridiculous small gesture is a gimmick, as far as I'm concerned," she said. "No one in B.C. should have to donate money to Gordon Campbell so he can spend it wildly on tax breaks for the rich."
Mr. Collins retorted: "If the NDP members don't want to help contribute to clean up the mess they created over the last decade, either financially or by showing some leadership, that's their call."

Posted by at January 30, 2002 11:42 AM

Poet Sarah Jones said she was surprised by the ruling, because she wrote the song as a criticism of the degradation of women in hip-hop. Her lawsuit, filed in federal court on Tuesday, asks the court to overturn the FCC ruling and seeks an injunction against a $7,000 fine imposed on KBOO-FM of Portland, Ore., for airing the song.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 11:40 AM

"[ . . . ] there was no explanation of how a trio of middle-aged western boozers had acquired proficiency in C-4 plastic explosives, a skill we now know was part of the regular curriculum at al-Qaeda training camps."

Posted by at January 30, 2002 11:38 AM

"It is amazing that Bush, officially and in a combative tone, describes ... Iran, Iraq and North Korea as terrorists," state television reported him telling a gathering of journalists from Muslim countries. "It is possible that Americans will cheer Bush as the congressmen did, but we will not be threatened by such aggressive language."

Posted by at January 30, 2002 11:36 AM

Microsoft is already planning a future in which you will rent its software as a set of services over the Internet. Microsoft will then monitor your computing activities and charge you for them. Essential services will be dependent on databases that store much of your private information at Microsoft data centers and run your transactions through them. The only way to stop this is to restore competition in operating systems, office applications, and Internet applications now.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 11:34 AM

Also like many others, he was deemed deportable early in his detention and agreed to leave the U.S., only to remain in jail without any word of release. Other complaints ring familiar to attorneys and advocates who have been monitoring the situation of detainees. Baloch has charged that he was kept from contacting lawyers and Canadian officials. It took them and his family nearly two months to track him down, since he had been apprehended without notice to anyone and since, according to the habeas petition, the jail on occasion flatly denied that Baloch was being held there. A Voice request to visit Baloch, with his lawyers' support, was passed from the prison to the Justice Department, which turned it down.
Canadian government spokesman Reynald Doiron says the U.S. government forwarded him a copy of a waiver Baloch signed soon after his arrest, limiting Canada's ability to intervene on his behalf. "Now, was he under stress or duress? I don't know," says Doiron.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:54 AM

Mr Milosevic, who has previously rejected the court's legitimacy, said the trial was "an attempt to turn the victim into the culprit."

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:34 AM

Diplomats say it would have to have been a significant meeting for the opposition leader to come out of her home. She did not even attend the Martyr's Day ceremony last year which marks her father's assassination.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:27 AM

"Ikeja mortuary is filled; they have started to use other government facilities," he said. "It's a disaster. We did not anticipate it would rise to this level."

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:25 AM

Suspicion is now focused on the cleric, Sheik Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, who had ties with Muslim groups in the United States and who has disappeared from sight. He has a home in Rawalpindi and is described as the guardian of a mystical shrine in Lahore, Pakistan.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:19 AM

Mark Palmer, an Enron spokesman, said the commercial shredding was a routine matter. The materials destroyed by a private company, Shredco, included items like payroll runs, old personnel records, performance reviews, medical records and other items that he called "sensitive employee documents."

Shredco didn't notice the public's interest in Enron documents?

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:13 AM

'��If you look at the systems of other countries,�ذ� [Prince Abdullah] said, �ư�you see a lot of people who are beholden to whoever put them in office, whether that��s a company or a group,�ذ� he said. �ư�I��m not trying to be critical of elections, but what may work for you may not work for us. Look at the stalemate in Florida in your own elections. Elections may not be the most efficient way. The objective is to have good government which improves the lot of its people.�ذ�

Posted by at January 30, 2002 10:00 AM

"There is no justification for maintaining the current distinctions between same-sex and heterosexual conjugal unions in the light of current understandings of the state's interests in marriage," the study says.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 09:24 AM

Guy Chevrette, 62, and Jacques Brassard, 61, announced yesterday that they were quitting politics immediately. Both were disappointed by what they concluded to be a deliberate effort to encourage them to step aside to make way for a younger cabinet.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 09:21 AM

These cards are not some made-up form of "reality entertainment" - these guys are real...in someways, people may not even share this much about themselves with close friends. We asked everyone a whole bunch of funny, odd, and plain old cool questions about their lives, likes and experiences.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 09:21 AM

The closest thing to a universal rule is that most men like a woman who's comfortable with her body, whatever her body happens to look like. Similarly, most men are pretty frustrated about women who reject their bodies. Given a choice between a supermodel who always feels fat and the chubby lady who feels sexy, most men will take the chubbette in real life, where it counts.

Zat so, fellas?

Posted by at January 30, 2002 09:12 AM

Two scientists who were adept at discovering fundamental equations and especially perceptive about the role of mathematics in science were Albert Einstein and the almost comparably brilliant theoretical physicist Paul Dirac. Neither was a mathematician per se, but both were remarkable in their ability to write down new equations that were as fecund as the greatest poetry. And both were captivated by the belief that the fundamental equations of physics must be beautiful.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 09:03 AM

"They totally ambushed us with snowballs," one reporter said, recounting his approach to high school students who might have known Amy Gehring.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 07:17 AM

Peter Blake, one of the world's most successful yachtsmen, who was killed by armed pirates in the Amazon last month, tried to defend himself against his attackers but died after his rifle jammed, a court heard yesterday.

Posted by at January 30, 2002 06:29 AM