USA
Prosecutors will seek a death sentence if Zacarias Moussaoui is convicted of conspiring in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Attorney General Ashcroft said. Moussaoui, a French national, is the only person charged to date in attacks. Ashcroft said "the impact of the crime on the thousands of victims" at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon justified capital punishment. Jury selection for Moussaoui's trial is set to begin Sept. 30 in Alexandria, Va.
An explosion killed one Special Operations soldier and injured another near the Afghan city of Kandahar, US military officials said. It's suspected they encountered a land mine or a booby-trap. As the Monitor went to press, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was scheduled to deliver an update on the mission, in which 31 US troops have died.
Wrapping up a three-state fundraising effort, President Bush was in Dallas to support Texas Attorney General John Cornyn, who is running for a Senate seat in November. Previous stops in Georgia and South Carolina raised some $2.5 million for other GOP candidates. Bush is scheduled to spend Easter weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Army Secretary Thomas White, a former Enron Corp. executive, said he will resign if a Justice Department inquiry takes too much of his time or erodes confidence in his leadership. White said he is complying with requests for military and personal documents related to the bankrupt energy giant, but noted: "I'm not a victim. I'm not a perpetrator, either."
Jersey City, N.J., joined a multicity and state effort to sue gun manufacturers, a day after Boston dropped out. Neighboring Newark, N.J., New York City, and Los Angeles are among 33 municipalities, counties, and states to file lawsuits alleging that gunmakers flood areas with looser gun-control laws, knowing that weapons will end up in places with tougher ones and will be used to commit crimes. Boston's mayor said his city was dropping its suit for budget reasons.
Known as "Mr. Television," entertainer Milton Berle, who died Wednesday in Los Angeles, was one of the medium's first major stars as host of the "Texaco Star Theater." Over a career that spanned eight decades, Berle (above, in an undated photo) appeared in films, on radio, the Broadway stage, in nightclubs and vaudeville, and entertained US servicemen during World War II.
Comic actor Dudley Moore, who died Wednesday in Plainfield, N.J., was best known to Americans as the star of the films "Arthur" and "10." He also was an accomplished pianist who studied at Oxford University in his native Britain.
