The Week
A Tower Of Terror
Saudi Arabian forces last week killed four terrorism suspects in Jidda; a fifth blew himself up. The official Saudi Press Agency said four of the five were on the government's list of most-wanted militants and that the action foiled more suicide-bomb plots. The raids were launched after a bomb blew up police headquarters in Riyadh, killing at least five and injuring 148; the blast tore off the five-story building's facade.
The Media: USA Dismay
In a scene that's become plenty familiar recently, the editor of USA Today resigned last week after an independent investigation found that former star foreign correspondent Jack Kelley had fabricated a long string of stories. Karen Jurgensen, 55, abruptly stepped down in the wake of a scathing 28-page report that ripped into the nation's top-selling newspaper for taking so long to catch onto and put an end to Kelley's flashy but often faux dispatches. Among them: that he'd witnessed a Cuban woman drown as she was trying to flee her country; in fact, she's very much alive. The report, by a panel of independent editors, blames the 2.25 million-circulation daily for perpetuating a climate in which a journalist--expert at buttering up his bosses--was given a pass despite years of questions by fellow staffers, outside government officials, and journalists about the veracity of his articles. Investigators specifically took to task the paper's news section managers for creating a "virus of fear" that discouraged suspicious colleagues from complaining about "Golden Boy" Kelley and for "routinely" allowing the "star" to break rules limiting the use of unnamed sources. "Jack Kelley thrived as a dishonest journalist for a dozen years," says the report. "Every executive that served during the years he betrayed readers shares USA Today's embarrassment." Many reporters who for years suspected Kelley, 43, of manufacturing material are eager to see the old regime shoveled out to make room for fresh blood and help close this painful chapter in the newspaper's 22-year history. Just two days after Jurgensen resigned, divisive Managing Editor Hal Ritter also quit. "The day is finally here," one staffer gushed after hearing Ritter was out. More heads are expected to roll.
The moves come nearly a year after the New York Times went through a similar house cleaning when it determined that rising star Jayson Blair had made up quotes and sources and pretended to report from scenes when he was really closeted at home.
International: A Train Wreck
A blast ripped through two trains in a remote area of North Korea near the Chinese border last week, reportedly injuring thousands and killing hundreds as nearby homes and office buildings were leveled. The notoriously secretive North Korean government was close-mouthed, making it difficult to gauge the extent of the damage. But South Korean news agencies reported that two trains carrying fuel collided on Thursday just north of Ryongchon rail station, about 12 miles inside North Korea's border.
Reuters quoted Chinese officials saying that North Korea had asked China to help with the rescue.
Terrorism: Showtime
Still wondering why President Bush didn't react more aggressively to an Aug. 6, 2001, briefing memo titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S."? So are members of the commission investigating the 9/11 attacks, who will quiz him and Vice President Cheney at the White House this week. "The president will be pressed hard" in the private session, says a commission insider, "on why the bells didn't go off." Bush last month said he "never saw any intelligence that indicated there was going to be an attack on America--at a time and a place." Also on the hot seat: commission member Jamie Gorelick.
Eleven GOP lawmakers sent a letter last week to the panel cochairs requesting that Gorelick, who was the Clinton administration's No. 2 at the Justice Department, tell what she knows under oath about the so-called wall that discouraged intelligence sharing.
Terrorism: Terror Case On Track
A federal appeals court last week paved the way for alleged would-be hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui to be tried in a criminal court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, overturning a trial judge's order, agreed with the feds that Moussaoui should be barred from interviewing three al Qaeda detainees but said he could introduce statements made by the trio.
The three-judge panel, 2 to 1, also ruled that prosecutors could present evidence from the 9/11 strikes and seek the death penalty.
Health: Smoking Gun
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the first time last week warned that people with heart trouble should steer clear of restaurants and other places that allow indoor smoking. The reason: Secondhand smoke can significantly up the risk of having a heart attack, says a CDC advisory in the current British Medical Journal .
The alert accompanies a study that shows the number of heart attacks in Helena, Mont., plummeted after the city banned indoor smoking but jumped again after the law was dumped.
Health: Sick? Leave
Well, this is a fine how-do-you-do. Are you one of those troopers who slog into work even when you feel lousy? Don't expect any Brownie points. A new study says workers who come in sick cost their employers an average of $255 a year. That's because, says the report in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, they have trouble concentrating, operate more sluggishly, and often have to repeat tasks, reducing overall productivity. What's more, they can make their coworkers sick.
So much for dedication.
This story appears in the May 3, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.