Zimbabwe Rivals Strike a Bargain to Share Power
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai struck a power-sharing deal on Thursday after more than a month of wrangling, but it was still far from clear how the bitter foes would divide the authority to govern.
A West Bank Ruin, Reborn as a Peace Beacon
Pessimism is a steady companion these days for advocates of Middle East peace. A lame-duck Israeli government is negotiating with a weak Palestinian leadership in the twilight of an unpopular U.S. administration. Few forecast success.
I Like Ike?
It was only last week that Hanna swung through and drenched our Saturday night, and now Hurricane Ike is preparing to hit Texas. Ike, the fifth hurricane of the season, developed off the coast of Africa, and reached the status of Category 4 last Thursday with a low of 935 mb and peak winds at 145 mph (230 km/h). After drenching the Turks and Caicos Islands, it was downgraded to a Category 3; in Haiti its floodwaters and mudslides were the cause of 74 deaths; it dropped to a Category 1 after soaking Cuba. Ike now approaches Galveston with winds stretching 115 miles from the center. Storm surges are expected to reach up to 20 feet with 5-10 inches (125-250 mm) of rainfall on Saturday across the Louisiana and Texas coastline. It’ll weaken as it makes landfall turning up eastward through Arkansas and Missouri.
New York Pauses for 9/11 Observation at Ground Zero
Under chill gray clouds that gradually gave way to patches of blue, the city paused Thursday to observe the seventh anniversary of a day that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said “began like any other and ended like no other.”
Shorts (left)
In 1951, Morton Sobell was tried and convicted with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges. He served more than 18 years in Alcatraz and other federal prisons, traveled to Cuba and Vietnam after his release in 1969 and became an advocate for progressive causes.
Shorts (right)
Shares of United Airlines lost nearly all their value Monday morning when a false rumor swept financial markets that the struggling carrier had filed for bankruptcy protection.
McCain and Palin: Etiquette and the Coed Ticket
For now, the rule is simple: Hug your running mate, kiss your wife.
Large Hadron Collider Will Power On Tomorrow
The world’s biggest, most highly-anticipated physics experiment comes online this week, as the first beam of particles begins to circulate around a 17-mile underground racetrack that lies beneath France and Switzerland.
Shorts (left)
Five missiles fired from an American pilotless aircraft on Monday hit a large compound in North Waziristan belonging to one of Pakistan’s most prominent Taliban leaders, two Pakistani intelligence officials and a local resident said Monday.
Some 9/11 Rumors Solidify as Conventional Wisdom
Seven years later, it remains conventional wisdom that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida could not have been solely responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that the United States and Israel had to have been involved in their planning, if not the execution, too.
Get Your Sweaters
The remnants of tropical storm Hanna swept through Boston at a relatively innocuous timing (well, it depends for whom) and much weakened specifically in wind, so that it was hard to distinguish it from a regular rainstorm. After the passage of Hanna, weather has been fair and pleasant. Unfortunately this nice trend will end today abruptly as a cold front pushes through our region. The cold front will manifest itself with thunderstorms that will begin late in the afternoon. A high pressure will bring relatively cool weather with temperatures that might require you to dust off a sweater or a jacket for Wednesday evening.
New Fundraising Pressures For Obama Campaign
After months of record-breaking fundraising, a new sense of urgency in Sen. Barack Obama’s fundraising team is palpable as the full weight of the campaign’s decision to bypass public financing for the general election is suddenly upon them.
Dow Slides 345 Points Amid Gloomy Economic Reports
The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 345 points on Thursday on a confluence of poor news about the economy, although investors could not pin the drop on any overriding reason.
Shorts (left)
A Chinese government committee said Thursday that a rush to build schools during the country’s recent economic boom might have led to shoddy construction that resulted in the deaths of thousands of students during a devastating earthquake in May.
Shorts (right)
Vice President Dick Cheney flew here on Thursday to deliver a forceful American pledge to rebuild Georgia and its economy, to preserve its sovereignty and its territory and to bring it into the NATO alliance in defiance of Russia.
McCain Sets Course in RNC Speech, Vows to End ‘Rancor’
Sen. John McCain, the former prisoner of war whose bid for the White House appeared in complete collapse just one year ago, accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday with a pledge to move the nation beyond “partisan rancor” and narrow self-interest. His speech came at the end of a convention marked by some blistering attacks on his opponent, Sen. Barack Obama.
Hanna is Coming
Flourishing tropical activity in the Atlantic basin over the past week has yielded a trio of storms: Tropical Storm Hanna, poised to become a hurricane and affect Boston Saturday night into Sunday, category 4 Hurricane Ike over the central Atlantic, and minimal Tropical Storm Josephine over the eastern Atlantic. Ike could potentially affect the east coast of the U.S. sometime during the middle of next week, but the main story right now is Hanna, packing sustained winds of up to 70 mph. Its projected path and intensity has the storm grazing the Carolinas as a category 1 hurricane early Saturday and potentially making a second landfall over southern New England as a tropical storm early Sunday morning.
Detroit’s Kilpatrick Will Resign And Serve Short Prison Term
Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to felony charges here on Thursday and agreed to resign from office and serve 120 days in jail, ending eight months of political turmoil but also sparking a new era of uncertainty for the city.
Lobbyist Abramoff Sentenced To Four Years in Prison
Jack Abramoff, the onetime flamboyant lobbyist who amassed a fortune by showering gifts on congressional and executive branch officials while bilking Indian tribes of millions of dollars, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in prison.
Attack on Police Bus Kills At Least 8 in Pakistan
A car bomb apparently planted by Taliban insurgents blew up a police bus in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least eight people, security officials said.