No image available
/ 8 November 2004
It’s literally because he has an answer for everything that Ken Jennings is now rich and famous, having broken world records in a game-show winning streak that has Americans holding their breath. Jennings has won more than 65 games and correctly answered more than 2 000 questions since his first appearance on Jeopardy!.
No image available
/ 3 November 2004
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday banned the import of two male sexual stimulant diet supplements sold on the internet, saying they contain an undeclared prescription drug ingredient. It said the products were found to contain prescription-strength quantities of sildenafil … the active drug ingredient in Viagra.”
No image available
/ 3 November 2004
George Bush scored a key victory in Tuesday’s extremely tight United States presidential vote, taking the crucial battleground state of Florida that proved decisive in the 2000 election, US television networks projected. Still, results in many of the hotly contested critical swing states were too close to call and hours after all polls had officially closed nationwide the networks were holding off on calling them for Bush or challenger John Kerry.
No image available
/ 2 November 2004
![]()
Americans started voting on Tuesday in one of the tightest presidential elections in decades after a long and often bitter campaign between Republican incumbent George Bush and his Democratic rival John Kerry. A huge turnout has been forecast, with Iraq and the war on terror dominating the campaign.
No image available
/ 1 November 2004
American voters may have shrugged off a surprise appearance by Osama bin Laden, but one day ahead of the United States presidential election, daily newspapers conveyed a general pessimism about the election, no matter who wins.
With final opinion polls searching for any late shift in voter sentiment, neither candidate was seen as breaking out of a suffocating deadlock ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
No image available
/ 29 October 2004
![]()
Four years on, the United States presidential election is again a dead heat between a radical conservative and a mainstream liberal. And once more, Ralph Nader’s oddball candidacy threatens to tip the delicate balance to the right. This time the consumer activist is a much-reduced force. The overwhelming majority of his closest aides and supporters have defected, including Michael Moore.
No image available
/ 26 October 2004
The wealth gap between white households and Hispanic and African-American families in the United States has widened significantly, with the last recession inflicting a heavy toll on minority households. An analysis of US census data by the Pew Hispanic Centre revealed that the 2001 economic downturn deepened a legacy of economic discrimination, with Hispanics and African-Americans harder hit and taking longer to recover.
No image available
/ 25 October 2004
After almost two million ballots were discounted in 2000 in a presidential election that was decided by 537 votes in Florida, this year’s United States election should be far more accurate, USA Today reported on Monday, citing better ballot design, new voting machines and voter education.
No image available
/ 25 October 2004
Male freshwater bass are producing eggs in the South Branch of the Potomac River in West Virginia, a possible sign of environmental pollution. Although the waters of the South Branch were described as ”clear as bottled water” by the Washington Post, the newspaper quoted scientists as saying the water could actually be highly polluted through poultry manure or other sources.
No image available
/ 22 October 2004
Whoever wins the United States election, nuance has become a no-no this year, bludgeoned by campaign attack ads and each side’s distortion of the other’s positions. Nuance, a trait most often associated with John Kerry and rarely with President George Bush, now is taken to mean flip-flop, wishy-washiness or appeasement.
No image available
/ 19 October 2004
The United States on Monday called on the European Union and other democracies to consider imposing a full import ban on Myanmar to pressure the country’s military junta to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The call came as the political leadership in Myanmar was riven with tensions amid rumours Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt may have been removed or arrested.
No image available
/ 18 October 2004
Hispanic voters are hot commodities this year, as President George Bush and Democrat John Kerry fight to win their support in what is expected to be an extremely close presidential election on November 2. There are more than seven million Hispanic voters in the United States, and their ballots could be decisive in five swing states where they make up a large chunk of the population.
No image available
/ 13 October 2004
The United States government has moved for the first time to block unsolicited circulation on the internet of spyware, a type of software that can inundate web users with pop-up ads, secretly take control of their computers and spy on their online activities.
No image available
/ 12 October 2004
Privatisation and trade liberalisation policies foisted on developing countries in return for financial help are often bad for the poor, according to a confidential United Kingdom government paper. The document says the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and individual governments should limit and streamline so-called ”conditionality” for aid money.
Democratic challenger John Kerry won the first televised presidential debate against Republican President George Bush late on Thursday, according to instant polls. A Gallup poll for CNN gave Kerry a 46% to 37% win over the president. It added that 46% of those asked now have a better opinion of Kerry against 21% for Bush.
No image available
/ 26 September 2004
An incident this week in which British former pop star Cat Stevens was deported from the United States to London as a ”no-fly” terrorist risk was caused by a spelling error, reports Time magazine. Stevens gave up his successful pop career in the late 1970s, taking the name Yusuf Islam and converting to Islam.
No image available
/ 24 September 2004
An art teacher who was jailed for having sex with a 13-year-old pupil and bore his child has said that she and the now 21-year-old plan to marry, according to news reports late on Thursday. Mary Kay LeTourneau, who was 34 when she began a relationship with then-sixth grader Vili Fualaau in 1996, has reunited with him since her release from prison earlier this year.
No image available
/ 23 September 2004
Iraq’s interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, thanked the United States on Thursday for liberating his country and said Iraq is on the path to success. ”We are succeeding in Iraq,” he told a joint session of Congress. The US has made ”enormous sacrifices” in Iraq, Allawi said, vowing that those ”sacrifices are not in vein”.
No image available
/ 22 September 2004
The United States tobacco industry on Wednesday fired its first shots in a bid to undermine a government claim for -billion to punish firms it accuses of plotting to cover up the harm of smoking. Lawyers for the major industry firms said the companies no longer seek to hide the fact that cigarettes are ”a dangerous product”.
Tobacco giants deny fraud
No image available
/ 22 September 2004
A United Airlines flight from London to Washington was rerouted to Bangor, Maine, late on Tuesday to prevent Yusuf Islam, the British pop musician formerly known as Cat Stevens, from entering the United States. Islam is believed to be a financial supporter of groups believed to be linked to terrorism, US officials said.
No image available
/ 20 September 2004
United States President George Bush has decided to lift sanctions against Libya, which he expects to trigger release of more than -billion to families of the Lockerbie victims, a senior administration official said. Bush could announce the step as early as Monday, the official said on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity because Bush prefers to publicise such moves himself.
No image available
/ 19 September 2004
Pornography and erotica have made their way into mainstream United States bookstores with guides to a better sex life written by adult film stars, seven months after Americans expressed shock over briefly seeing Janet Jackson’s breast on television. Porn queen Jenna Jameson has penned How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale.
No image available
/ 18 September 2004
Zimbabwe is falling deeper into economic and social misery as a result of poor governance and corruption in the African nation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday. In its annual review of the country’s economy, the IMF notes that conditions in Zimbabwe ”have continued to deteriorate”.
No image available
/ 18 September 2004
Actor Macaulay Culkin was jailed on Friday on charges of possessing marijuana and a dangerous controlled substance without a prescription, police said. Culkin (24) was a passenger in a car that was pulled over for speeding on Friday in Oklahoma, Captain Jeffrey Becker of the Oklahoma City police department said in a statement.
No image available
/ 17 September 2004
A new system of sign language developed by deaf children in Nicaragua may hold clues about the evolution of languages. When the country’s first school for the deaf was established in 1977, children were not taught sign language but developed a system of signs to communicate.
No image available
/ 14 September 2004
No settlement talks were underway on Monday, one day before a federal lawsuit seeking -billion from tobacco companies was set to open, United States Department of Justice officials said on Monday. The case alleges that the country’s largest tobacco companies manipulated nicotine levels, lied about the dangers of smoking, and targeted young teens with multibillion-dollar advertising campaigns.
No image available
/ 13 September 2004
For the second time in less than two years, US Airways Group announced on Sunday it had filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to resolve a dispute over wages and benefits with its key unions. ”Since we still lack the new labour agreements that are needed for the transformation plan to succeed, we must preserve the company’s cash resources that are required to implement the plan,” US Airways chief executive Bruce Lakefield said in a statement.
No image available
/ 8 September 2004
Hollywood stunt pilots hired by Nasa to catch a capsule carrying samples of the sun were gearing up for a blockbuster ending to their mission on Wednesday over Utah in the western United States. When the Genesis spacecraft re-enters Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday, the helicopter pilots are to intercept a capsule from the vessel in midair.
No image available
/ 8 September 2004
United States President George Bush and his Democratic rival John Kerry clashed on Tuesday over the US economy and the Iraq war as the US military death toll reached 1Â 000. Bush seized on Kerry’s latest criticism of the US-led war in Iraq as a new sign of the Massachusetts senator’s indecision, which Republicans have sought to highlight in the campaign for the November 2 vote.