USA
At a meeting with congressional leaders, President Bush pledged to seek their support before launching any action to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, who has said the administration has intelligence information proving that Iraq is close to acquiring nuclear weapons, was briefing lawmakers on Capitol Hill as the Monitor went to press. Several of the latter say the administration hasn't yet convinced them that military action is warranted.
The Navy has hired a private shipper to move cargo, thought to be battle tanks, to a Persian Gulf port this month, Reuters reported. The news agency said this would be the third commercial delivery of military hardware in recent weeks. While the Pentagon said the shipments are for long-planned exercises in Jordan, analysts compared them to the buildup prior to the 1991 Gulf War.
Trailing in opinion polls, Andrew Cuomo withdrew from the race for governor of New York Tuesday, throwing his support behind Democratic rival H. Carl McCall. "Maybe we could win the battle, but we would lose the war," Cuomo said, referring to the effort to unseat popular Gov. George Pataki (R). Cuomo served in President Clinton's Cabinet and is the son of ex-New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.
Construction spending remained flat in July from the previous month, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $834.1 billion, the Commerce Department reported. Analysts had projected a 0.4 percent drop.
Former WorldCom chief financial officer Scott Sullivan pleaded innocent, along with a second ex-finance executive, to charges of conspiracy and fraud in federal court in Manhattan. Sullivan and Buford Yates are accused of scheming to inflate earnings at the since-bankrupt telecommunications giant by $5 billion.
Boston's Roman Catholic Archdiocese reached a tentative $10 million settlement with dozens of plaintiffs who sued over alleged sexual abuse by former priest John Geoghan, a lawyer for Cardinal Bernard Law said. The archdiocese backed out of a previous deal in May worth up to $30 million. Separately, a former altar boy who had accused a senior Boston church official of abuse withdrew his suit as questions emerged about his truthfulness.
Many Europeans believe US foreign policy is at least partly to blame for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a new poll found. The French, at 63 percent, were most critical of US policy, followed by the Dutch at 59 percent. Britons, Germans, Poles, and Italians also were questioned for the study, commissioned by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
"Do you want fries with that?" Hoping more customers will say "yes," McDonald's announced its 13,000 US outlets will switch to a new, comparatively healthier cooking oil over the next five months. The oil contains half the current level of transfatty acids and substantially more polyunsaturated fat, the fast-food giant said.
