Published March 10, 2004
Marines help Haitian police disarm rebels
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
Loyalists demanding the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide set up flaming barricades and stoned cars yesterday, and
the U.S. Marines said they will begin helping Haitian police disarm
rebel groups.
Also, the U.S. military announced a second death caused by
American Marines, who, with French Legionnaires, form the vanguard
of a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
Efforts to bring calm to this troubled Caribbean nation followed
a bloody insurgency that ousted Aristide on Feb. 29, put rebels in
control of half the country and sparked a frenzy of looting and
violence. At least 130 people were killed in the rebellion;
reprisal killings since Aristide’s ouster have left at least
300 dead.
The announcement yesterday that the Marines will begin helping
disarm rebel groups is a tall order in a country where all sides
are threatening to resume the rebellion.
Marine Col. Charles Gurganus called on Haitians to tell
peacekeepers who has weapons and to turn in arms. “The
disarmament will be both active and reactive, but I’m not
going to say any more about that,” he said, giving few
details.
Hubble shows deepest view of universe yet
BALTIMORE
The deepest-ever view of the universe, a photo by the Hubble
Space Telescope that looks back to the edge of the big bang, shows
a chaotic scramble of odd galaxies smashing into each other and
re-forming in bizarre shapes.
The snapshot of the universe, called the Ultra Deep Field,
captured light that had streaked through space for more than 13
billion years, starting its journey when the universe was only 5
percent of its 13.7-billion-year age. The view has about 10,000
galaxies, some mixed in chaos that one astronomer said
“looked like a train wreck.”
Capturing such faint and distant light, officials at the Space
Telescope Science Institute said yesterday, was like photographing
a firefly hovering above the moon.
“For the first time we’re looking back at stars that
are forming out of the depths of the big bang,” said Steven
Beckwith, director of the institute. “We’re seeing the
youngest stars within a stone’s throw of the beginning of the
universe.”
U.S., Europe tone down Iran criticism
VIENNA, Austria
Accepting painful compromises, the United States agreed with key
European nations yesterday to tone down criticism of Iran for its
continued nuclear secrecy.
Washington also accepted a draft resolution containing some
praise of Tehran’s willingness to open its nuclear programs
to outside inspection.
Both sides signed off on the draft document prepared for a
high-level conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency
after days of grueling negotiations aimed at finding the proper mix
of praise and criticism.
The United States insists Iran is interested in making nuclear
weapons. Washington wanted the meeting to condemn Iran for not
fully living up to pledges to reveal all past and present nuclear
activities while keeping open options for future involvement by the
U.N. Security Council.
Study: 92 Air Force cadets accused of rape
HONOLULU
A study showed airmen in the Pacific were accused of 92 rapes
from 2001 to 2003, prompting an order to change how sexual assaults
are reported and the way victims are treated. The five-month study
was the most intense examination of its kind by an Air Force
command.
“We owe our airmen and our airmen owe each other immediate
and decisive action to prevent further sexual assault,” Gen.
William Begert, commander of Pacific Air Forces, told field
commanders in a letter dated March 1. “Too many sexual
assaults have occurred and continue to occur.”
Begert initiated the study after seeing dozens of rape claims
arise among cadets in the Air Force Academy.
Robot vehicles race in Pentagon trials
FONTANA, Calif.
They’re a motley bunch of garage tinkerers, off-road
enthusiasts, high school students, physicists and programmers who
hope their microprocessor-jammed jalopies usher in the next
generation of military combat vehicles.
But can any of these meticulously engineered, unmanned autos
actually cross the Mojave Desert on their own?
On Saturday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the
Pentagon’s research and development arm, will award $1
million to the first team whose robotic vehicle can cover a rugged
desert course from Barstow, Calif., to Primm, Nev., in less than 10
hours.
— Compiled from Daily wire reports
