USA
A 48-hour deadline from President Bush for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave the country or be deposed expires Wednesday, with no sign of compliance from Baghdad. US officials said Iraqi military units in the south of the country already were being bombarded - with leaflets and broadcasts urging them not to oppose the US-led military force poised at the border. Bush's ultimatum to Hussein was criticized by many foreign leaders, antiwar groups - some of which pledged acts of civil disobedience, and congressional Democrats. Senate minority leader Tom Daschle (D) of South Dakota said he was saddened that Bush had "failed so miserably at diplomacy."
The nation's terror-alert status was raised to orange, the second-highest level, due to concerns of possible reprisals over Iraq. Noting "there is bound to be disinformation," Secretary of Homeland Security Ridge urged the public not to react to rumors of attacks and said more federal officers are being stationed at US borders, airports, seaports, and nuclear plants under a series of measures dubbed "Operation Liberty Shield." Another will hold asylum-seekers from Iraq and 33 other countries in detention while their applications are reviewed.
The murder trial of anti-abortion radical James Kopp was winding up, with a judge expected to rule in the case Tuesday afternoon. Kopp had waived his right to a trial by jury. He admitted shooting Dr. Barnett Slepian in 1998, but said the intent was to injure, not kill, the abortion provider. Kopp still faces federal charges of interfering with the right to an abortion.
Gulf War veteran Louis Jones Jr. was executed at a federal prison near Terre Haute, Ind., Tuesday after Bush and the US Supreme Court declined requests for clemency. Jones's attorneys had argued that his rape and murder of a young servicewoman was the result of exposure to nerve gas during military service - information that wasn't available at his trial.
A police standoff with a tractor driver claiming he had explosives was continuing for a second day in downtown Washington, raising security alarms and snarling traffic. The Washington Post identified the driver as Dwight Watson, a tobacco farmer from North Carolina.
Federal health officials are investigating 14 possible US cases of a mystery illness that first appeared in Asia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted, however, that 10 of them probably are not SARS, or "severe acute respiratory syndrome." At least nine deaths are blamed on the ailment, out of 170 diagnosed cases around the world.
