USA
By unanimous vote, former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay was subpoenaed by the Senate Commerce Committee to testify at hearings on the Houston-based energy giant's collapse. A House panel was expected to do the same, after Lay backed out of scheduled appearances earlier this week. Lay's lawyer says he doesn't know his client's whereabouts. On Monday, William Powers (above), an Enron director, told a House Financial Services subcommittee that an internal inquiry he headed found that senior executives - although not Lay - skimmed millions of dollars from the company through complex partnerships and engaged in "systematic and pervasive" efforts to hide its true finances. (Related story, page 2; editorial, page 8.)
To underscore his call for spending $6 billion to prepare against bioterror attacks, President Bush traveled to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Public health officials there monitor regional hospitals for signs of large-scale medical alerts as part of an early warning system. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who accompanied Bush, said the allocation in the 2003 budget shows the president "is absolutely determined to make sure our response capabilities get to where they need to be."
US soldiers in Afghanistan have returned to the scene of a raid to investigate claims that they killed friendly Afghans by mistake, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said Monday. If found true, he said, "I would hope that ... American forces would express apologies." Afghans say a delegation from interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai was present at the time US Special Forces attacked a suspected Al Qaeda or Taliban arms depot two weeks ago in Uruzgan province. At least 15 people were killed and 27 others were arrested, among them a police chief.
The US real gross domestic product is expected to grow 2.7 percent over 2002, according to Bush's annual economic report to Congress, indicating the administration believes the economy is on the road to recovery. The report also projects that the unemployment rate will continue to rise through the middle of this year, when it's expected to peak at about 6 percent.
Five days after a deadly storm, more than 120,000 people remained without electricity in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, where more snow was forecast. Authorities in Kansas said most residents should have power by the end of the week. Missouri Gov. Bob Holden (D) has asked Bush to declare 33 counties as federal disaster areas. Twenty-eight counties in Oklahoma already have been so designated.
A bomb scare interrupted travel for 56 passengers aboard a Delta Air Lines flight to Salt Lake City, where security is tight for the soon-to-begin Winter Olympics. The pilot turned back to Denver an hour after takeoff Monday night, after telling passengers a written bomb threat had been found on board. The plane was searched and a new flight was planned.
