USA
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein must "cooperate willingly and comply completely" with a UN resolution to disclose his weapons programs by Sunday's deadline or face confrontation with the US, President Bush warned. He spoke Monday at the Pentagon, where he signed a $355 billion defense spending bill. Meanwhile, en route to NATO ally Turkey, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz took a more conciliatory tone Tuesday, telling the BBC that the goal is to disarm Iraq "peacefully if possible, voluntarily if possible, by force if necessary."
The Postal Service plans to offer potassium iodide pills - used to treat radiation exposure - to all of its 750,000 workers in the event of a nuclear emergency. "It's a protective approach regarding the safety, health, and well-being of employees," spokeswoman Sue Brennan said. She compared the precautionary move to vaccinations offered during anthrax scares that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It was recommended by the mail- security task force.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) issued a formal apology to more than 2,500 people forcibly sterilized by the state between 1917 and 1983. The mentally and physically disabled, criminals, homosexuals, and others deemed "unfit" to be parents were targeted under a eugenics law that "resulted from widespread misconceptions, ignorance, and bigotry," said Kitzhaber, at a ceremony signing the formal declaration in Salem, the capital. Of 33 states that conducted forced sterilizations, only one other, Virginia, has apologized.
A Florida death-row inmate won a stay of execution from Gov. Jeb Bush (R), just 90 minutes before his sentence was to be carried out. In a statement, the governor said he granted the temporary reprieve to allow DNA testing of evidence that might exonerate Amos King. King was convicted in the 1977 rape and murder of an elderly woman.
Winter storm watches were in effect from the East Coast to the southern Plains states, as parts of western New York were digging out from under as much as 2-1/2 feet of snow. Northwest Pennsylvania, northern Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin also experienced significant accumulations, which caused scattered school closures and delays on roads and at airports.
Weather permitting, the shuttle Endeavour is slated to land at Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday after delivering a 45-foot girder and a fresh crew to the International Space Station. American Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonauts Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschyov, are returning home from six months in orbit.