USA
The Japanese government will pay about 60 percent, or some $10 billion, of the costs to remove US military forces from the island of Okinawa. The agreement came after three hours of negotiations Sunday between Japanese Defense Minister Fukushiro Nukaga and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The negotiations for transferring about 8,000 American soldiers from Japan to bases on Guam are part of a larger effort to streamline the 50,000-strong US armed presence in Japan.
Prosecutors finished off six weeks of sentencing testimony Monday morning against admitted Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. "There is no place on this good Earth for Zacarias Moussaoui," said prosecutor David Raskin. "It is time to put an end to his hatred and venom." After closing arguments from the defense, jurors were to begin deliberating Monday afternoon on whether to sentence Moussaoui to death or life in prison.
Disgraced Enron founder Kenneth Lay took the witness stand on Monday morning. Testifying in a trial in which prosecutors have portrayed him as a greedy manipulator who deceived stockholders for personal gain, Lay held firmly to his own innocence. "We've seen a lot of interesting testimony," said Lay. "We've seen a lot of interesting people, a lot of allegations, a lot of lies...." Lay, who founded Enron in 1985 before building it into one of America's top energy firms, faces 6 counts of fraud and conspiracy.
After a ceremonial march across Brooklyn Bridge with transit workers on Monday, the union chief whose illegal three-day strike shut down New York City's transit system in December said he will turn himself in to police. Roger Toussaint faces a 10-day jail sentence and a $1,000 fine for violating New York state laws against strikes by public employees.
The Boeing Delta II rocket carrying both the CloudSat and Calipso cloud-monitoring satellites was still sitting on its launchpad Monday. The launch, which was scheduled for 3 a.m. Sunday morning, is facing its second delay. NASA scientists are looking for a new launch time.
Religious leaders led some 10,000 protesters through the streets of San Francisco on Sunday to demand that Congress enact immigration-friendly legislation. Senate leaders reconvening Monday morning were still divided on immigration reform as President Bush arrived in Irvine, Calif., to promote a bill that would allow more foreigners to work legally in the US.
