USA

Kansas State Sen. Stan Clark (R) was among seven persons killed as tornadoes tore through Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Arkansas, according to police. The worst of the storm system passed south of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with rain delaying the start of the Indianapolis 500, and causing a two-hour interruption. Eighty-three tornadoes were reported on Sunday, leaving many areas without electricity.

Archibald Cox, the special Watergate prosecutor who was fired by the Nixon White House in the "Saturday Night Massacre" in 1973, died Saturday at his home in Maine. Mr. Cox was fired by President Nixon after he subpoenaed eight tapes Nixon had secretly recorded of White House conversations and phone calls. Cox, a Harvard law professor, had also been an adviser to President Kennedy and served as US solicitor general through the 1960s.

Parishioners who wore rainbow-colored sashes to Mass in support of gays and lesbians were denied communion in Chicago, while the laity in Minnesota tried to prevent gay Roman Catholics from receiving the sacrament. The Rainbow Sash Movement, a national group of gay advocates trying to change the church's stance on sexuality, conducted silent protests at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. Members of the group were refused communion when they approached the altar, and instead, received a blessing.

A Pentagon e-mail claims Vice President Cheney's office "coordinated" a multibillion-dollar Iraq reconstruction contract with his former employer, Halliburton, Time magazine reported Sunday. The e-mail, sent by an Army Corps of Engineers official March 5, 2003, said Douglas Feith, a senior Pentagon official, provided arrangements for the contract between Halliburton and the US government, Time said. A spokesman for Cheney said his office had no role in the contract process.

President Bush was slated to participate in the annual Memorial Day observance Monday at Arlington National Cemetery while his presumed Democratic challenger, John Kerry, was to march in the Portsmouth, Va., 120th annual Memorial Day parade. In Washington, World War II veterans marched in a parade through the city as a sequel to Saturday's dedication of a new bronze and granite memorial.