USA
White House counselor Karen Hughes, one of President Bush'ss leading advisers, announced she's going back to Texas, where she served him in his previous post as governor. Bush said, "She may be changing addresses, but she's not leaving my inner circle."
In a key land-use decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government may temporarily block construction projects to protect the environment or prevent overdevelopmnent. The 6-to-3 decision was a defeat for landowners seeking to build retirement homes near Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada line, but barred from doing so when the regional planning agency imposed a moratorium.
A federal judge ordered a mental evaluation for Zacarias Moussaoui, after he asked to represent himself on charges of conspiring to carry out the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. At a court hearing Monday in Alexandria, Va., Moussaoui asked to dismiss his court-appointed lawyers on grounds that they were working with prosecutors and the judge to assure his execution. Moussaoui also said he was praying for the destruction of the US and Israel. The French national is the only person charged to date in the attacks and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates was to take the stand in his company's defense for a second day Tuesday. In earlier testimony before a federal court in Washington, Gates said the antitrust penalties sought by nine states would cripple the software giant and allow competitors to clone its Windows operating system. The states want tougher penalties such as the sharing of technical information than are required under a settlement reached last fall with the Justice Department and nine other states after the software giant was convicted of operating as an illegal monopoly.
While reforms of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) are needed, raising the $100,000 limit on bank account coverage isn't one of them, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress. In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, he said the FDIC's proposal would "increase the government subsidy to banking ... and reduce the incentive for market discipline."
City officials in Los Angeles were looking for an interim police chief, after the resignation of Bernard Parks. The Police Commission earlier rejected a second five-year term for Parks, in what he termed a political conspiracy. Mayor James Hahn (D) opposed the reappointment, angering the city's large African- American community. Parks is black.
The Monitor's Clay Bennett won the 2001 Sigma Delta Chi award for editorial cartooning from the nation's largest journalism organization, the Society for Professional Journalists. This award is based on craftsmanship, interest, forcefulness, general worth, and originality. He also won this year's Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartoons.
