USA
Twenty people in the US and abroad were arrested Wednesday on charges of operating Internet pharmacies that illegally shipped narcotics, ster-oids, and amphetamines to teenagers and other buyers around the world, federal authorities announced. They said the substances were shipped with little or no effort to verify the ages or medical needs of the recipents, allowing teenagers or drug abusers easy access to addictive and dangerous drugs. The arrests occurred in Fort Lauderdale and Sarasota, Fla.; Abilene and Tyler, Texas; New York City and Rochester, N.Y.; Philadelphia; and Greenville, S.C. Authorities also made arrests in Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, and India.
A decision on the nomination of John Bolton as the new US ambassador to the UN was thrown into limbo Tuesday when a Senate committee considering the candidate decided to postpone its vote. No new date was announced, and a delay of at least two weeks seemed probable. The postponement occurred after three Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee joined Democrats in asking for more time to consider assertions that Bolton mistreated subordinates at the State Department, where he has been the top diplomat for arms control.
Following last month's hearings on steroid use in Major League Baseball, members of Congress said Tuesday they'll probe the same issue with the National Football League next week. A congressional committee will ask NFL officials and players' union representatives to testify as it seeks to examine steroid use and its impact on why 500,000 high school students have experimented with the so-called performance-enhancing drugs.
Jason Kamras, a middle school mathematics teacher at John Philip Sousa Middle School in Washington, D.C., was named 2005 National Teacher of the Year by the Council of Chief State School Officers. Kamras is the first teacher from the District of Columbia to receive the 55-year-old honor.
Marine Gen. Peter Pace was set to receive Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's recommendation to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a senior defense official told the Associated Press. If President Bush nominates Pace, who currently serves as vice chairman - and the Senate confirms the nomination - he would become the first Marine to hold the post. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, who chairs the joint chiefs, is scheduled to retire late this summer.
