USA

Vice President Dick Cheney said that the controversial Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, prison, which has come under fire from human-rights activists, will continue to play a role in the war on terror despite some calls to close it. Speaking at a journalism awards ceremony in Washington Monday, Cheney also said that while the Army is falling behind its recruiting goals, he's convinced that the Defense Department can make "the necessary adjustments."

Wholesale prices fell 0.6 percent last month, their steepest decline in more than two years, the Labor Department reported. Three-fourths of the drop was attributed to the energy sector. The Producer Price Index had risen 0.6 percent in April and 0.7 percent in March, triggering worries that inflation was entering an upward spiral. Offsetting the wholesale price news somewhat, however, retail sales slid 0.5 percent in May, the Commerce Department said.

A special election was called for Nov. 8 by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on ballot initiatives that he maintains are vital to the state's future. Among them: a proposed limit on state spending, a change in how legislative districts are drawn, an extension of the time required for teachers to obtain tenure, a limit on the use of union dues for political purposes, and a requirement for parental notification of abortions for unmarried minors. Democratic opponents called the election, which is projected to cost taxpayers at least $52 million, a waste of money. Schwarzenegger is expected to be a candidate for reelection next year.

Pop star Michael Jackson was cleared on all counts of child molestation by a jury in Santa Maria, Calif., Monday, ending a three-month trial that had turned into a media circus. The acquittals marked a stinging defeat for Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon, who displayed open hostility for Jackson and had pursued him for more than a decade.

By voice-vote, the Senate overturned its long record of silence on lynchings by apologizing Monday for not standing against the violence that once marred the segregated South. Seven presidents petitioned Congress to end lynchings, and between 1920 and 1940 the House passed three anti- lynching measures, but the Senate passed none. Between 1882 and 1968, 4,743 people were killed by lynching - three out of four of them black.