USA
The war in Iraq has made global terrorism worse by fanning Islamic radicalism and providing a training ground for lethal methods that are increasingly being exported to other countries, according to a classified document representing the consensus of all 16 US intelligence agencies. The 30-page document, which was completed in April but not made public, paints a considerably bleaker picture of the impact of the Iraq war than the Bush administration has acknowledged, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for more money to stabilize his country, saying Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Afghanistan would be "heaven in less than a year" if his country received the $300 billion the United States has spent in Iraq.
Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro claims he and members of his delegation were treated abusively by police during a 90-minute detainment at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday. The US State Department apologized for the "regrettable incident," while a Homeland Security spokesman denied the abuse charges. A UN diplomat said Maduro was subjected to secondary screening after he showed up late without a ticket.
Thousands of Puerto Ricans lashed out at the US on Saturday during an observation of the territory's first call for independence, calling FBI agents "killers" in the shooting death of an independence leader one year ago. Supporters in Lares, Puerto Rico, burned a US flag, chanted "Yankees go home," and marched with images of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, who was shot and killed by FBI agents coming to arrest him. The annual Grito de Lares event is held on Sept. 23, when Puerto Ricans rebelled to demand independence from Spain in 1868. The day also marks the anniversary of Ojeda's death.
It's safe to eat spinach grown outside California's Salinas Valley, federal health officials said Friday, after tracking cases of E. coli to spinach grown in only three California counties.
High winds, heavy rain, and tornadoes pounded parts of the Midwest and South this weekend, leaving seven people dead and stranding others in shelters.
Six paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn – long housed in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam – are hanging in Ohio's Dayton Art Institute, marking the first time Rembrandt paintings "of this quality" have gone on display together outside the Netherlands, according to the Dutch museum's director of collections. The exhibit will travel to other US cities, while the Rijksmuseum goes under renovation.
