Bush orders flags lowered today for Coretta Scott King
Washington – President Bush ordered American flags to be flown at half-staff today in memory of Coretta Scott King, the civil- rights leader and widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Bush and former President Clinton lead the dignitaries expected to attend her funeral at noon EST at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., outside of Atlanta, where King’s youngest child, Bernice, is a minister.
King, 78, died Jan. 30 at an alternative-medicine clinic in Mexico, where doctors said she was battling advanced ovarian cancer. She also had been recovering from a serious stroke and heart attack.
In a proclamation issued Monday, Bush said flags shall be lowered until sunset today at the White House and on all public buildings, U.S. naval vessels, military posts and embassies across the nation and abroad.
ANAHEIM, Calif.
Fire burns 1,200 acres, prompts evacuations
A Southern California wildfire driven by Santa Ana winds ate through 1,200 acres of wilderness Monday near Orange County suburbs, forcing evacuation of 1,500 homes.
The dwellings, in Anaheim and the city of Orange bordering Cleveland National Forest, were protected by fire crews, and there were no reports of damage by midafternoon.
Red-flag warnings for critical fire danger were posted for much of the region, from Santa Barbara County south to the U.S.-Mexico border.
HENDERSON, Nev.
Ex-President Carter’s son runs for Senate
Democrat Jack Carter, son of the former president, kicked off his U.S. Senate campaign Monday by calling for a return to “our American values.”
Carter, a 58-year-old investment consultant in Las Vegas, is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. John Ensign in his first bid for elected office.
“The singular difference between the junior senator and me is he works for the Bush administration and I want to work for Nevada,” Carter said at a union hall outside Las Vegas, accompanied by his parents, former President Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter.
Jack Carter worked for a short time as an lawyer in Georgia before becoming an investment consultant. He also served in the Navy in Vietnam but was discharged in 1970 after admitting using drugs.
Carter was in his late 20s when his father won the presidency in 1976. He campaigned but did not live in the White House.
VIENNA
Klimt works sent to Jewish art dealer’s kin
Vienna’s Belvedere Gallery packed five Gustav Klimt paintings Monday for return to a California woman whose family owned the works when they were stolen by the Nazis.
The Dutch government agreed to return about 200 artworks to descendants of a Jewish art dealer whose collection had been seized by Hitler’s top aide.
The Klimt paintings have hung for decades at the gallery in Belvedere Castle and are considered national treasures.
Last month, an arbitration court ruled that the paintings must be returned to Maria Altmann of Beverly Hills. Austria conceded last week it could not afford the $300 million price tag.
HILLSBOROUGH, Northern Ireland
Talks resume for joint leadership
Negotiations to revive a Catholic-Protestant administration for Northern Ireland resumed Monday after a 14-month hiatus caused by the IRA’s alleged record-breaking robbery of a Belfast bank.
In the interim, the Irish Republican Army handed over its weapons stockpiles to disarmament officials and pledged never to resume “armed struggle,” major achievements on the road to lasting peace in this long-contested British territory.
The governments of Britain and Ireland, which jointly oversaw Monday’s discussions with rival local leaders, hope that such reconciliatory actions by the IRA will eventually permit Protestants to work again with Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party that represents most of Northern Ireland’s Roman Catholic minority.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip
2 Palestinian militants killed in missile fire
Israeli forces fired a missile at a car in the northern Gaza Strip after nightfall Monday, witnesses said, killing two Palestinian militants – including a man described as a senior commander.
The victims were identified as members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement. One victim was Hassan Asfour, described as a senior commander.
HARTLEY BAY, British Columbia
Pact aims to protect huge rain forest
Canadian officials from the provincial government, coastal Native Canadian nations, logging companies, and environmental groups will announce today an agreement that they say will protect the world’s largest remaining intact temperate coastal rain forest.
A wilderness of close to 5 million acres, almost the size of New Jersey, in what is commonly called the Great Bear Rain Forest or the Amazon of the North will be kept off limits to loggers.
The agreement comes after more than a decade of talks and international boycott campaigns against Great Bear wood products.
