USA
Saying "we want everybody working," President Bush pledged renewed efforts to boost the economy, create jobs, and modernize the nation's aging electric grid at a Labor Day address to the International Union of Operating Engineers in Richfield, Ohio. Campaign strategists regard the holiday as the point when voters begin serious consideration of the next election, and recent opinion polls show many Americans are more concerned about the sluggish economy than about fighting in Iraq or terrorism. The US unemployment rate stands at a nine-year high of 6.2 percent.
The race for the Democratic presidential nomination heated up, with frontrunner Howard Dean under fire from his rivals. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts told NBC-TV's "Face the Nation" Sunday that the former Vermont governor "has zero experience in international affairs." Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut accused Dean of flip-flopping on key issues in a CBS interview. Democratic candidates are due to meet for a debate Thursday in Albuquerque, N.M. A CBS News poll, meanwhile, found two-thirds of respondents unable to name any of the nine declared Democratic candidates.
Four children died and two adults were missing after flash floods swept away seven vehicles in eastern Kansas late Saturday. Heavy storms dumped more than eight inches of rain on the area in the previous 24 hours, causing a small creek that usually crosses beneath I-35 to surge several feet above the roadway.
Hawaii was bracing for hurricane Jimena, set to pass within 50 miles of the island state's southernmost tip Monday. The storm, with 80 m.p.h. winds, was generating waves of 8 feet to 12 feet. Weather services issued flash flood and tropical storm warnings for other parts of the state. Elsewhere, storm-watchers were monitoring powerful hurricane Fabian, which has top sustained winds near 140 m.p.h. It's forecast to pass north of the Caribbean's Leeward Islands, posing little risk to land.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson was leading a Labor Day march for striking Yale University workers in New Haven, Conn., and said he expected to be arrested. Unions representing 4,000 clerical, service, and other workers whose contract expired in January 2002 called the strike Wednesday. University and union negotiators are locked in a dispute over wages and benefits.
Charles Bronson, who died Saturday in Los Angeles, appeared in more than 60 films. Bronson was best known for playing tough guys in movies such as "The Dirty Dozen," "The Magnificent Seven," "The Great Escape," and the "Death Wish" series.
