Iran Challenges Bush to Debate
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad challenged US President George W. Bush to a live television debate on global issues. Ahmadinejad made the offer two days before a UN deadline for Iran to abandon its atomic work. An American government official rejected the public challenge, claiming Ahmadinejad's move was “a diversion from the legitimate concerns that the international community, not just the US, has about Iran's behavior.”
Multiple Errors Led to Kentucky Commuter Crash
The doomed Comair Flight 5191 departed from the wrong runway, a mistake the lone air traffic controller on duty at Lexington's Blue Grass Airport missed while performing routine paperwork duties. All 47 passengers and crew members except one were killed when the commuter jet crashed seconds after takeoff. The co-pilot, who was in control of the aircraft at the time of the accident, remains in critical condition at a Lexington hospital. Tire marks indicate the plane's wheels went into grass beyond the end of the runway—a shorter takeoff strip than the jet was designated to use. The craft clipped a fence and struck a stand of trees before crashing to the ground.
Deadline Nears for Iran Ending Nuclear Program
The UN Security Council face a tough challenge should Iran fail to comply with the Council’s demand to halt its uranium enrichment program this week. The US and the four other permanent members of the Security Council have offered Iran incentives in exchange for full disclosure of its nuclear activities, and a stoppage of uranium enrichment. Thus far, Iran has rejected all offers to comply with the UN’s demands. American officials suspect Iran is developing atomic weapons, but Iran insists the program is for energy-producing purposes.
US Blocks Funds to Hezbollah
US officials targeted a key fundraising arm of Hezbollah, the militant Shiite Muslim movement based in Lebanon, by ordering a freeze on its assets in the United States. Hezbollah seized two Israeli solders last month, sparking a war with Israel. The US regards Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, justifying the freeze of accounts for the Islamic Resistance Support Organization with copies of its donor cards that include designated for such causes as a “contribution to the cost of a rocket” and “contribution to the cost of bullets.”
British Troops Seize Top Militants in Iraq
British troops arrested five people in Basra, Iraq, suspected Shiite militants vying for power in the second largest Iraqi city. Soldiers raided the offices of a small political party, the Movement of the Gathering of the Iraqi Nation, in search of an unnamed militia leader in connection with the ongoing violence between Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias. British authorities say the target of the raid has not yet been identified as one of the captured five.
Afghan Police Kill Two Taliban
Two Taliban-linked militants were killed and three other insurgents were wounded after the rebels raided an Afghan police checkpoint. The battle took place in Afghanistan's southern Ghazni province; according to provincial police Chief Tafsil Khan Khogyani, who reported no Afghan police officers were wounded in the firefight. Police seized three motorbikes from the militants. Afghanistan’s Taliban-led insurgency continues to plague Afghan officials and US troops, claiming more then 1,900 lives in Afghanistan since January.
Trial Begins for 8 Soldiers in Iraqi Killing
Pretrial hearings for seven Marines and a Navy corpsman, held in custody at Camp Pendleton in San Diego since May, have begun. All eight ex-US soldiers stand accused of killing a 52-year-old Iraqi man by shooting him to death in a dusty hole at the side of a Baghdad road without provocation. If found guilty, the servicemen face the death penalty.
Polygamist on Most Wanted List Captured
Warren Steed Jeffs, 50, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spent two years evading authorities before being captured by the Nevada Highway Patrol during a routine traffic stop. Jeffs, wanted in Utah and Arizona on charges of arranging two marriages between underage girls and older men, has at least 40 wives and 60 children. The notorious polygamist was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list for the past three months, but claimed to be invincible, protected by God from capture.
Hezbollah Makes Demands on Release of Israeli soldiers
A Hezbollah cabinet minister said that the rebels have no intention of releasing two captured Israeli soldiers without a prisoner exchange agreement. According to one of two Hezbollah members in Lebanon's Cabinet, Minister of Energy and Hydraulic Resources Mohammed Fneish, “There will be no unconditional release. This is not possible.” Fneish claims Hezbollah would make a prisoner exchange only through indirect negotiations. The capture of two Israeli soldiers seized June 25 by Hezbollah sparked a month of intense fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Charges Dropped in JonBenet Ramsey Investigation
The case against John Mark Karr for the murder of JonBenet Ramsey has been dropped after the Boulder District Attorneys Office determined Karr’s DNA did not match items found at the murder scene of the 6-year-old girl. Karr became the focus of the nearly 10-year-old investigation after making graphic claims of sexual contact with JonBenet. Karr’s obsession with the little girl was detailed in hundreds of emails he sent to a Colorado professor, documentation that led to charges of first-degree murder, felony murder, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree kidnapping and sexual assault on a child. Karr is next expected to be transferred to Sonoma County, California to face child pornography charges.
