What's Happening
in San Jose Vietnamese Community & Interested News:
July 31, 2002: Explosion rocks Jerusalem university. An explosion rocked a crowded cafeteria at Hebrew University in Jerusalem at lunchtime Wednesday, killing at least seven people, including one American, and wounding dozens more, according to police and rescue workers. The militant Palestinian group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. More NBC.
July 30, 2002: Use of U.S.-built F-16 in deadly Gaza attack recasts military aid question. The death of 15 Palestinians last week including 9 children in an Israeli bombing using an American-made F-16 warplane has stirred new interest in a 1976 law prohibiting American weaponry sold abroad from being used for offensive purposes. The act was last applied to Israel in 1982, when the Reagan Administration suspended deliveries of cluster bombs after determining that Israel had used them improperly during its invasion of Lebanon. More NBC.
July 28, 2002: Nine miners alive, in good condition. SOMERSET, Pa., After hours of steadfast drilling and agonizing setbacks for rescuers, nine miners emerged in surprisingly good condition Sunday after three days spent fighting for their lives in a western Pennsylvania mining shaft. The men suffered minor hypothermia but showed no signs of serious injury, bringing a joyous end to a tense drama that played out across the nation. More NBC.
July 26,
2002: Israeli
forces enter Gaza City. Despite violence, 2 sides plan to meet
Friday. Israeli tanks entered Gaza City early Friday, residents said, destroying
a police post and two other buildings in the first military activity since
the Israeli bombing of a house killed a Hamas leader and 14 other people.
More NBC.
July 25
, 2002: Outcry
against Israeli attack. A MISSILE launched by Israeli F-16s fighter
jets early Tuesday hit a five-story apartment building, causing its collapse.
Inside, Salah Shehadeh, head of the military wing of the radical Palestinian
group Hamas, was killed along with his wife and 14-year-old daughter. Twelve
other civilians also were killed, and more than 150 people were pulled from
the rubble of neighboring apartments. More
NBC.
July 23, 2002: Strike kills Hamas leader, 11 others. Israeli warplanes launched a missile attack in Gaza early Tuesday, killing the military leader of Hamas and at least 11 other Palestinians, including several children. The attack appeared to sink recent goodwill gestures by both sides as Hamas, which confirmed its activist’s death, promised retaliation. More NBC.
July 22. 2002: Slaying girl's suspect to be charged Monday. Southern California prosecutors plan to file kidnapping, murder and possibly other charges against factory worker Alejandro Avila on Monday for the abduction and killing of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion, police officials said Sunday. It will definitely happen tomorrow in the Central Court in Santa Ana, said Orange County Sheriff spokesman Jim Amormino. More NBC.
Hamas mulls
stopping attacks. Israel begins
lifting restrictions on Palestinians. The militant Palestinian group Hamas
said on Monday that it would consider halting suicide attacks on Israelis
if Israel pulled out of West Bank cities and took other measures. More
NBC.
July 20, 2002: Criticism of Plan Targeting Militants' Families. On Friday, in a rare criticism of Israel, the U.S. State Department warned against punishing relatives of militants simply because they are family. The comments came after Israel destroyed the homes of suspected Palestinian militants and detained their relatives for possible exile.
The army said its forces,
destroyed the homes of Nasser al-Din Assidi of Hamas and Ali Ahmad al-Ajouri
of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, and detained relatives
of both men. Palestinian officials said 16 men were taken into custody. Israeli
political sources said Israel intended to send the militants’ fathers
and brothers to the Gaza Strip. More
Wash. Post.
July 19 , 2002: Officers charged in taped beating. A white Inglewood police officer who was videotaped punching a handcuffed black teenager pleaded not guilty Thursday to assault under color of authority. A second officer pleaded not guilty to filing a false report. More NBC.
July 17,
2002: Jeb
Bush's daughter jailed for contempt. ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) --
Noelle Bush, the 24-year-old daughter of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, was jailed
Wednesday in Orlando for violating her court-ordered drug treatment plan.
The governor said he was "saddened and disappointed" in his daughter,
and he respected the judge's decision to put her in jail.
More
CNN.
July 17.
2002: IRA
apologizes for killing civilians. BELFAST, Northern Ireland, With
the approach of a key anniversary in the Northern Ireland conflict, the Irish
Republican Army issued a statement Tuesday offering an unprecedented apology
for killings of noncombatants over the past 30 years. The statement said,
While it was not our intention to injure or kill noncombatants,
the reality is that on this and on a number of other occasions, that was the
consequence of our actions.
It is, therefore, appropriate on the anniversary of this tragic event, that
we address all of the deaths and injuries of noncombatants caused by us, the
statement said. We offer our sincere apologies and condolences to their families.
In addition to the apology for killings of noncombatants, the outlawed organization
acknowledged the grief and pain of the families of the combatants police,
soldiers and loyalist paramilitaries killed during the violence. The IRA said
the future would not be found in denying collective failures and mistakes
or closing minds and hearts to the plight of those who had been hurt. That
includes all of the victims of the conflict, combatants and noncombatants.
It will not be achieved by creating a hierarchy of victims in which some are
deemed more or less worthy than others. It said the process of conflict resolution
required the equal acknowledgment of the grief and loss of others.
More
Wash. Post. Text
of IRA statement by CNN.
A hundred years of hummmmmmmmmmm. Air conditioning helped shape the 20th century. For all that, we thank YOU, Willis Haviland Carrier. A hundred years ago Wednesday, this young man -- just a year out of Cornell University, paid $10 a week by Buffalo Forge Co. -- invented air conditioning. More CNN.
July 16, 2002: Cyber-cafe owners may join to fight Garden Grove rules. After two killings and other crimes, the city cracked down on the businesses. Garden Grove -- When Xtreme PC cyber cafe opened in February, owner John Pham knew there would be stiff competition. Eighteen other cyber cafes had already popped up in a two-mile radius, all vying for customers. So Pham started offering free pizza and sodas on the weekends. His cyber cafe soon became packed with avid video gamers. More OC. Register.
July 15
, 2002: Lindh
pleads guilty to aiding Taliban. He faces up to 20 years in prison
under surprise plea bargain. Under terms of his deal with prosecutors, Lindh
would serve two 10-year prison sentences consecutively and would cooperate
fully with U.S. authorities in the investigation of al-Qaida and terrorism.
More
NBC.
4 found guilty of Pearl slaying. HYDERABAD, Pakistan, Four Islamic militants were convicted Monday morning of the kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl after a trial that fanned the anger of Islamic hard-liners who accused Pakistan’s government of betraying them. The alleged ringleader, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was sentenced to death and three other men were sentenced to 25 years in prison as accomplices. Saeed immediately issued a statement warning of a war between Muslims and the rest of the world. More NBC.
Police stop gunman’s bid to assassinate French leader at Bastille Day celebrations. French President Jacques Chirac survived an assassination attempt Sunday by a man described as an emotionally disturbed neo-Nazi who pulled a rifle from a brown guitar case and fired one shot before he was wrestled to the ground. More NBC.
July 13 , 2002: New report outlines Beijing moves to corner Taiwan, limit U.S. power. China’s doctrine is moving toward the goal of surprise, deception and shock effect in the opening phase of a campaign, said the annual report on Chinese military power. While seeking stable relations with Washington, Beijing will continue to try to curb Washington’s influence in Asia. More NBC.
Bush watchdog was on board of company hit with charges of fraud. President Bush’s top official on corporate crime and responsibility was a director of a credit card company that paid more than $400 million to settle allegations of consumer and securities fraud. More Wash. Post.
July 12, 2002: Man who taped arrest hospitalized. LOS ANGELES, The man who videotaped the violent arrest of a black teen-ager by a white police officer was back in a jail cell Friday after being briefly hospitalized following his arrest on outstanding warrants. Meanwhile, black leaders planned a protest march to demand the immediate firing of the police officers involved in the arrest of the teen-ager. More NBC.
Songwriter Extraordinaire. Pop, Rock, Country She Can Do It All. What do Celine Dion, Aerosmith, Mary J. Blige and Reba McEntire have in common? They have all had Top 10 hits written by the same woman: Diane Warren. Warren, 45, is a one-woman hit factory. She has written no fewer than 90 Top 10 songs, and 38 of her songs have gone all the way to No. 1. More ABC.
July 11,
2002: Police
video shooter, deputy DA spar on radio. Los Angeles County prosecutors
seek original tape. Tensions related to the incident were illustrated Wednesday
in a terse exchange between Chief Deputy District Attorney Curt Livesay and
videographer Mitchell Crooks on "The John and Ken Show" on KFI radio
in Los Angeles. More
CNN.
Bush took oil firm’s loans as director. As a Texas businessman, President Bush took two loans from an oil company where he was a member of the board of directors, engaging in a practice he condemned this week in his plan to stem corporate abuse and accounting fraud. BUSH ACCEPTED loans totaling $180,375 from Harken Energy Corp. in 1986 and 1988, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Bush was a director of Harken from 1986 to 1993, after he sold his failed oil and gas exploration concern to the company. More NBC.
Another violent arrest caught on tape. OKLAHOMA CITY, Two police officers were under investigation Wednesday after a videotape showed them beating a suspect with batons and using pepper spray to subdue him after he was on the ground. THE VIDEOTAPE SHOWS the officers, both of whom are white, repeatedly hitting the suspect, who is black, with batons as he apparently tried to avoid being handcuffed after being apprehended Monday for allegedly having sex with a prostitute in a van. More NBC.
July 10, 2002: Teen in video, father sue police. Amid growing outrage over the brutal arrest of a California teen-ager that was captured on videotape, lawyers for the 16-year-old and his father on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in federal court charging that arresting officers violated their clients’ civil rights. More NBC.
July 9, 2002: Peres meets with Palestinian officials. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met Monday with Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Faiad to discuss reforms demanded by Israel and the United States, in the first cabinet-level meetings between the two sides in four months. Peres, the best-known dove in the Israeli government, was given the go-ahead for the talks by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, but with conditions. More NBC.
Video of arrest sparks investigations. Three separate investigations were under way Monday into a weekend arrest caught on video that shows an Inglewood police officer punching a teenager and slamming his head against the hood of a patrol car. The officer was suspended. More NBC.