USA
The Chicago man arrested in an alleged Al Qaeda plot to set off a radioactive bomb is "a bad guy and he is where he needs to be detained," President Bush said. Jose Padilla, who also uses the name Abdullah al Muhajir, is among 2,400 people taken into custody in a "full-scale manhunt" for terrorists, Bush said at a meeting on his proposed Department of Homeland Security. Separately, Attorney General Ashcroft defended the decision to declare Padilla an "enemy combatant," allowing him to be held indefinitely and questioned without an attorney present. (Related stories, pages 1, 2; editorials, page 8; opinion, page 9.)
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal was headed to Washington, via Cairo, on a previously unannounced visit. The trip followed Bush's strong backing for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a meeting Monday. The US leader agreed with Sharon's demand for extensive reforms of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority before a Saudi-proposed and US-backed regional peace conference can be convened.
Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of Roman Catholic Bishop J. Kendrick Williams of Lexington, Ky., the Vatican said. Williams, accused in three lawsuits of sexually abusing teenage boys in the 1980s, was on voluntary leave. He denies the allegations. Williams is the third American bishop to step down in the clergy sex-abuse scandal. His resignation came as US bishops are due to work on a national policy for abuse claims at their annual conference, which opens tomorrow in Dallas. (Story, page 2.)
A shooting at a Roman Catholic abbey killed two monks and left two others hurt. Investigators were looking for a motive for what led retiree Lloyd Jeffress to do the shooting Monday at the Benedictine monastery and seminary in Conception, Mo., before taking his own life. There was no immediate evidence linking the incident to the clergy sex-abuse scandal, police said.
Warmer weather last week put shoppers in the mood for summer clothes and similar seasonal items, two reports showed. The Redbook Retail Sales Average, an index by Instinet,was up 2.3 percent for the week ending June 8. The Bank of Tokyo and UBS Warburg's Weekly Chain Store Sales Snapshot listed a 1.6 percent increase.
