USA

Stephen Hadley, President Bush's national security adviser, suggested that skipping the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics would be a "cop-out." The better means of protesting China's crackdown in Tibet, he said during a broadcast interview Sunday, would be to practice the "quiet diplomacy" favored by the US.

A swarm of more than 600 earthquakes in 10 days off the Oregon Coast has baffled scientists. A magnitude 5.4 quake was the largest recorded. Geophysicists speculate the quakes could be the result of molten rock rumbling away from faults off the Oregon coast.

Catholic-school enrollment has dropped 14 percent since 2000, and 1,267 parochial schools have been closed nationwide, according to National Catholic Education Association data. The trend could come up as Pope Benedict XVI makes his first trip to the US this week.

As Philadelphia's City Council prepares to open a hearing Monday about drugs in the city's water supply, the water department revised downward for a second time the trace amounts of pharmaceuticals found in the drinking water.

The US Postal Service has introduced a test program for recycling cellphones, inkjet cartridges, MP3 players, and other small electronic devices at 1,500 post offices in several states. Postage-free envelopes are available at selected post offices for sending the electronics to a remanufacturer.

Accounts varied about friction between two labor groups at a Dearborn, Mich., hotel Saturday night. According to Business Wire, up to 500 members of the Service Employees International Union arrived by bus at a labor conference and roughed up members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, who tried to bar them. The SEIU said simply that it called on the nurses' group to "stop fighting with other unions."

The Dalai Lama called for world disarmament Saturday while speaking to an estimated crowd of 51,000 people at Seattle's Qwest Field during a compassion conference. On Sunday, he planned to address the Chinese crackdown on protests in his homeland. Above, the exiled Buddhist monk sat with Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) of Washington.