USA
A graphic e-mail said to be written by a player on Duke University's lacrosse team, released Wednesday, has deepened a crisis on campus over allegations that team members raped an exotic dancer at a team party in mid-March. Also on Wednesday, Mike Pressler, coach of the Division 1 team, resigned. The player alleged to have written the e-mail has been suspended, and Duke President Dick Brodhead said the university is undertaking a "very, very serious self-study" of campus culture.
The sentencing trial for admitted Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui entered its final phase Thursday. An Alexandria, Va., jury, which decided Monday that Moussaoui is eligible for the death penalty, heard testimony from former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and will listen to previously unreleased cockpit voice recordings from United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.
The United States will delay seeking a seat on the new UN Human Rights Council, an anonymous official said Thursday. American officials have been outspoken against the new council since the General Assembly approved it last month, complaining that the council will allow too many human rights violators to become members.
North Dakota and Minnesota residents were grappling with a receding Red River on Thursday. Melting snow and heavy rain pushed the river to its 47.8- foot crest in Grand Forks, N.D., on Wednesday night.
The jury in a Vioxx lawsuit was meeting again Thursday in New Jersey to decide whether to increase its $4.5 million award to John McDarby and his family. McDarby, who is diagnosed as a diabetic, claims that the painkiller caused him to have a heart attack. McDarby's is the second courtroom loss out of six for Merck, the drug's designer. Some 9,650 lawsuits against the company are pending.
Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling was set to testify Thursday in the trial against himself and Enron founder Ken Lay. The disgraced executive will be the trial's 11th defense witness.
Television personality Meredith Viera will fill the spot left by Katie Couric on NBC's "Today" show. Viera told her audience on "The View" Thursday that she will join the "Today" show's Matt Lauer in September.