NATION IN BRIEF

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Antiwar Rallies Held In Cities Across U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO -- In the largest of a series of war protests taking place in New York, Los Angeles and other U.S. cities, thousands of people called for a swift end to the war in Iraq as they marched through downtown San Francisco on Saturday, chanting and carrying signs that said "Wall Street Gets Rich, Iraqis and GIs Die" or "Drop Tuition Not Bombs."

Labor union members, antiwar activists, members of the clergy and others rallied near City Hall before marching to Dolores Park. As part of the demonstration, protesters fell on Market Street as part of a "die-in" to commemorate the thousands of American soldiers and Iraqis who have died since the war began in March 2003.

No official head count of protesters was available. Organizers of the event estimated that about 30,000 people participated in San Francisco. It appeared that more than 10,000 attended the march.

Space Station Crew Inspects New Room

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Astronauts chose the name Harmony as they christened their spacious and sparkling addition to the international space station. The school-bus-size chamber will provide the station with air, electricity and water. Perhaps just as important, Harmony will provide extra living space for the three station residents. It is the craft's seventh section; the first was launched in 1998. The space station's crew will move Harmony to its permanent location after the shuttle Discovery leaves a week from now.

Contractor Denies Bribing Lawmaker

SAN DIEGO -- A defense contractor emphatically denied bribing then-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) when he spoke on the stand in his own defense. "I never bribed anyone," Brent Wilkes testified. "I never asked anyone to do anything for any reason other than that they believed in the projects." Wilkes has denied prosecutors' allegations that he bribed Cunningham with luxurious trips, meals and a rendezvous with prostitutes at a Hawaiian resort in exchange for help securing nearly $90 million in federal contracts. Wilkes blamed the shady dealings with Cunningham on his nephew Joel Combs and his former colleague Mitchell Wade, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to bribing Cunningham.

Purdue Honors Armstrong

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Former astronaut Neil Armstrong addressed a crowd at the dedication of a new engineering building named in his honor at Purdue University, his alma mater. Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, said the faculty, not the building's name, will make it valuable to students. Armstrong graduated from Purdue in 1955 with a degree in aeronautical engineering. Sixteen of Purdue's 22 graduates who became astronauts attended Saturday's dedication, including Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon.

Dutch Officials Fault Lantos

Dutch lawmakers who recently visited the Guantanamo Bay military prison said they were offended by a testy exchange in Washington with a senior congressional Democrat. The lawmakers said that Rep. Tom Lantos (Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told them that "Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay." Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, was responding to arguments that the United States should shut down the U.S. prison in Cuba, the lawmakers said. "You have to help us [in Afghanistan] because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany," Lantos said, according to the Dutch lawmakers. A spokeswoman for the Democrat said Lantos was not available and had no comment.

Cancel WWII Convictions, Army Urges

SEATTLE -- Black soldiers court-martialed 63 years ago in the rioting death of an Italian prisoner of war at Fort Lawton were unfairly denied access to their attorneys and investigative records and, therefore, their convictions should be overturned, the Army said. The decision could grant the soldiers honorable discharges, back pay and benefits. Forty-three black soldiers were tried in the 1944 death of POW Guglielmo Olivotto, in one of the largest courts-martial of World War II. Twenty-eight were found guilty of rioting and sentenced to as many as 25 years in prison.

MRSA Infection Shuts Down Schools

PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- A school district in eastern Kentucky with one confirmed case of antibiotic-resistant staph infection plans to shut down all 23 of its schools Monday, affecting about 10,300 students, to disinfect the facilities. One student of the Pike County school system was diagnosed in September as having been infected with MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The bacterial infection can be treated with other antibiotics, but without treatment, it can be deadly.

-- From News Services