WASHINGTON
Panel asks Gonzales for more documents
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, believing there is more to learn about the firings of eight federal prosecutors last year, formally asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Monday to turn over additional documents concerning the terminations and threatened to issue subpoenas if the materials are not forthcoming.
Specifically, the four senators want the internal rankings of all 93 U.S. attorneys that were made by the Justice Department over the years, as well as employment charts that Monica M. Good ling, a top aide to Gonzales, provided for top department officials as they decided which prosecutors to fire.
Three Democrats on the committee – chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Dianne Feinstein of California and Charles Schumer of New York – and the panel’s top Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, asked that the documents be turned over by Wednesday.
KOROLYOV, Russia
Billionaire arrives at space station
Two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. billionaire bringing a gourmet meal arrived at the international space station Tuesday – to a warm welcome from current crewmen and the earthbound applause of Martha Stewart.
The lifestyle guru was among Russian and American officials and visitors monitoring the docking at Russian Mission Control, on Moscow’s outskirts, as onboard TV cameras showed the Soyuz nearing the station and then jerking to a stop.
Stewart is a friend of Charles Simonyi, the American who shelled out $20 million to $25 million to be the world’s fifth paying private space traveler.
Simonyi, 58, brought a gourmet dinner for the space station’s crew. The menu, including quail marinated in wine, was selected by Stewart.
LOS ANGELES
Cancer deaths down for 2nd straight year
U.S. cancer deaths declined for the second year in a row in 2004, but there are worrisome signs that progress could falter, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society.
Deaths fell by 3,014 following a decline of 369 deaths in 2003. While the number of cancer deaths in women increased slightly in 2003, the number fell for both sexes in 2004 – the first time since the government began keeping death statistics in the 1930s.
The death rate for all cancers combined has dropped for 12 consecutive years, a total of 13.6 percent from 1991 to 2004.
But that drop was smaller than the population growth for the first 10 years, so that an actual decline in the number of deaths did not occur until 2003.
Among other crucial factors, declines in adult and youth tobacco smoking have leveled off and mammography is still not reaching a third of the population at risk.
Nearly a third of all cancer deaths this year will be a direct result of smoking, the report said, and another third are attributable to poor nutrition, obesity and physical inactivity. Many deaths in the remaining third could be prevented by screening to detect cancers early.
ATLANTA
Anna Nicole Smith companion mulls suit
Howard K. Stern has hired a lawyer who said Monday that he may sue media outlets that Stern believes are implicating him in the overdose deaths of his companion Anna Nicole Smith and her son.
“The nightly television, tabloid and Internet trial of Mr. Stern in the court of public opinion based on sensational lies, speculation, rumor and gossip is over,” Atlanta attorney Lin Wood said in a news release.
Wood has handled a number of high-profile cases, including representing the family of slain child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey.
A medical examiner ruled she died of an accidental overdose of sleeping medication and at least eight other prescription drugs, along with a case of the flu and a bacterial infection from injecting drugs into her buttocks. Most of the drugs were prescribed in Stern’s name.
WASHINGTON
Report cites Chinese threat to satellites
China’s anti-satellite test in January increased the country’s military threat to Taiwan by demonstrating a limited ability to blind the U.S. satellites that would be deployed in defense of the island, according to a report released today.
“The test is a vivid example of how China’s emerging military capabilities will complicate the strategic environment confronting U.S. forces for decades to come,” the study said.
The report was sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent private research group based in New York.
