USA
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that a UN cease-fire draft solution was only a first step to stopping violence in Lebanon. "We're trying to deal with a problem that has been festering and brewing in Lebanon now for years and years," Rice told reporters near President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch, where he's vacationing for 10 days.
The State Department said Saturday it didn't have enough information to comment on new concerns raised about electronic passports, which the US is switching to. At a security conference in Las Vegas, German computer security expert Lukas Grunwald demonstrated how personal information stored using radio-frequency identification technology can be copied and transferred by criminals. Government officials have tried to assure the public that the information stored in passports couldn't be duplicated.
The New Orleans public transit system of buses and streetcars resumed collecting the $1.25 basic fare on Sunday. Since limited service was restored in October, riders have traveled free. The board of the Regional Transit Authority has voted to cut jobs and routes to reflect lower ridership, which was 674,000 in June compared with 3.4 million riders a month before hurricane Katrina struck.
In Oak Ridge, Tenn., eight of about 300 peace activists were arrested Saturday while protesting the 61st anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack in Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945. Much work on the bomb was conducted secretly at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge.
The Indianapolis Police Department boosted street patrols over the weekend in response to a spate of street violence described as "an extreme emergency" by Mayor Bart Peterson (D). Nine mostly unrelated murders have occurred during the past week. Peterson said that people are brazenly "shooting people practically in front of police officers."
Sled dog racer Susan Butcher, who died Saturday in Seattle, was best known for winning Alaska's 1,100-mile Iditarod race four times, including in 1986, when she became the second female champion. Butcher also helped drive the first sled team to the top of Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, in 1979.
During its annual induction ceremony Saturday in Canton, Ohio, the Pro Football Hall of Fame ushered in Warren Moon, the first black quarterback enshrined. Also honored were Harry Carson, Rayfield Wright, Troy Aikman, former coach John Madden, and the late Reggie White.
