USA
Using his most combative language to date, President Bush demanded that congressional Democrats advance their own ideas on Social Security reform and other issues and stop delaying confirmation votes on his nominees to the federal bench and to the US ambassadorship to the UN. Bush told a Republican fundraiser Tuesday night that Democrats "stand for nothing except obstruction." Against that backdrop, Senate Republicans were expected to try again to break the deadlock on John Bolton's nomination to the UN post. Majority leader Bill Frist said he'd hold another procedural vote by week's end to try to move the nomination to the Senate floor. But Democrats said they still had enough votes to block confirmation.
For the first time in 10 months, consumer prices fell in May, the Labor Department reported. Its price index, a widely watched inflation gauge, edged down 0.1 percent, suggesting that the economy is continuing to grow steadily.
Forty years after disappearing while patrolling the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas, Army deserter Charles Jenkins returned to the US. Accompanied by his Japanese wife and two daughters, he visited his family home in Rich Square, N.C. Last year at his court-martial, Jenkins pleaded guilty to crossing into North Korea and aiding the enemy. He spent 25 days in a military jail in Japan. Jenkins and family will return to Japan next week.
Phil Jackson, who was dismissed last June as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers despite having taken the team to three championships in five years, was hired back Tuesday. By signing a three year deal, Jackson hopes to revive a team that lost 19 of its last 21 games and finished out of the playoffs last season.
A magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck off California's northwest coast Tuesday night, prompting a tsunami warning from the border with Mexico to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, and the warning was lifted later. The area experiences earthquakes of this magnitude about once a decade, the US Geological Survey said. Brief evacuations occurred in Crescent City, Calif., where, in 1964, 11 people died in the only deadly tsunami to hit the continental US.
