USA
At its first meeting on US soil since 1974, the Organization of American States reached a compromise Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., between US demands for greater account- ability and Latin America's wariness. In particular, the Western Hemisphere's top diplomatic body pledged cooperation - but not assertive intervention - in facilitating dialogue in Bolivia, where protesting peasants want to nationalize the country's huge natural gas reserves.
Thirteen Cubans crammed into a makeshift water taxi were intercepted 20 miles off south Florida by the Coast Guard Tuesday. Although those caught trying to make the 90-mile crossing from the communist- run nation generally are returned, Coast Guard officials were not immediately available to comment on this case. A Miami TV station that captured video footage of the episode identified the converted watercraft as a 1949 Mercury.
Federal authorities in Lodi, Calif., last weekend arrested a father and son who are suspected of having Al Qaeda connections, the Associated Press confirmed Tuesday. Two other men who met separately with the son, Hamid Hayat, Saturday are being held on immigration violations. The younger Hayat allegedly acknowledged training to use explosives and other weapons at an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan.
The international Cassini spacecraft, a joint NASA-European Space Agency project, has spotted what appears to be a volcanic vent on Saturn's planet-size moon that spews ice rather than lava. The findings, which appear in the latest issue of the journal Nature, may help to explain the source of Titan's thick atmosphere, which scientists believe could provide clues to how life began. Titan is the only moon in the solar system with a significant atmosphere made up of nitrogen and methane.
Anne Bancroft, who died Monday in New York, achieved acclaim on both stage and screen, winning back-to-back Tony Awards for her performances in the late 1950s - opposite Henry Fonda in "Two for the Seasaw" and with Patty Duke in "Miracle Worker." She also won an Oscar as Helen Keller's teacher in the film adaptation of the latter show. Arguably, her best-known performance, however, was as the seductive Mrs. Robinson in the 1967 coming-of-age classic, "The Graduate."
