The Week
Peaceful No More
Iraq's second-largest city and capital of the Shiite south once seemed the model for running an occupation: British troops roamed Basra without helmets and played soccer with Iraqi children. But that calm was shattered last week as a British armored vehicle slammed into a police station to free two British officers arrested by Iraqi police. Days of protest followed, highlighting simmering tensions in the city. Officials from Baghdad arrived to try to regain peace, but the incident was a worrisome sign that violence has now reached Iraq's last quiet corner.
Supreme Nominee on the Fast Track
With John G. Roberts on the verge of becoming the nation's 17th chief justice, partisans are now bracing for a battle over President Bush's second Supreme Court nomination. The Senate this week is set to confirm Roberts, 50, with at least a dozen Dems--but not presidential wannabe Hillary Rodham Clinton or rising star Barack Obama--expected to join the GOP majority. The move follows the Senate Judiciary Committee's endorsement of Roberts by a 13-to-5 vote, including three Democrats. Roberts will replace the late William Rehnquist, and as early as this week, President Bush could name his choice to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Liberals--worried about civil and abortion rights setbacks --are pressing for a centrist like O'Connor, while conservatives are clamoring for more, well, conservative justices in the mold of Clarence Thomas or Antonin Scalia. Bush has not tipped his hand, but pols paint three likely scenarios: He could nominate his old friend Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, 49, to become the first Hispanic on the court; he could bow to first lady Laura Bush and others angling for a (conservative) woman like Circuit Court Judges Edith Hollan Jones, 56, or Priscilla Owen, 50, both based in Texas and both denounced as anti-feminist by women's groups. Or he could pick another white guy, like Fourth Circuit Court Judge Michael Luttig, 51, similar to Roberts in the brains and resume departments but with a more proven conservative judicial record.
The one known: The next nominee will face a far more brutal firing squad as liberals try to maintain a say.
Will Seminaries Bar Gay Students?
The fallout from the Roman Catholic Church's sex scandal seems far from over. Word is the Vatican may bar gay men from attending seminaries to train for the priesthood if the pope OK s the controversial move. The Associated Press, quoting an unnamed Vatican official, said a document will be released within weeks upholding the Catholic Church's view that gays should not be ordained priests. The Catholic World News reports that the document has been circulating for over a decade. A possible new twist: that gay priests already ordained be "strongly urged to renew their dedication to chastity and a manner of life appropriate to the priesthood."
Some experts speculate the rule would be observed sort of like the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
Germany: And the Winner Is...
Who knows? Germany's top two vote-getters in last week's elections were slugging it out over who would lead the nation's next government after neither managed to muster a clear majority. The murky results left a key U.S. ally and the world's third-largest economy in limbo at a time when it's wracked by joblessness and budget woes. Voters booted Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic government but failed to hand opposition candidate Angela Merkel a decisive victory. Early polls had Merkel, head of the Christian Democrats, positioned to become Germany's first female chancellor. But her lead virtually vanished by election day. The candidates have been exploring joining forces with other political groups to gain enough support to govern; Merkel even tried to recruit the antiestablishment Greens, but the group--which wants to shut down all of Germany's nuclear power plants--didn't bite. If neither secures a majority in three rounds of parliamentary voting, President Horst Koehler could appoint a minority government.
Well, at least there weren't any hanging chads.
The Death of a Nazi Hunter
Simon Wiesenthal did not believe that time heals all wounds. And so he would spend his life--after being liberated from concentration camps--pursuing Nazi war criminals. Wiesenthal, a Ukrainian-born architect who lost 89 relatives in the Holocaust, is credited with tracking down more than 1,100 Nazis, including Adolf Eichmann, a key planner of Hitler's "Final Solution," who was tried and hanged in Israel in 1962. Wiesenthal died last week at his home in Vienna at age 96 and was buried in Israel. He survived five death camps and was 36 when liberated from Germany's Mauthausen camp in 1945--along with war hero Tibor Rubin (box, Page 16). He spent the next 60 years pursuing those responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews and others during World War II.
His philosophy: "If we don't do anything about evil, that will encourage future perpetrators."
Lawmakers Tackle Pet Concerns
Hurricane Katrina carved many a heart-wrenching scene as families lost everything--including one another--in its wake. Some of those losses were beloved pets--who can forget the little boy caught on camera crying hysterically when torn from his dog as he got on the evacuation bus? Others complicated the evacuation by refusing to leave their animals; some died as a result. Last week, lawmakers introduced legislation designed to keep people and their pets together in future disasters; the bipartisan measure requires that state and local evacuation plans accommodate pets to qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency grants. The Humane Society of the United States says about 6,000 animals have been rescued, but tens of thousands more may still be stranded or lost.
"I cannot help but wonder," said cosponsor Rep. Tom Lantos, "how many more people could have been saved had they been able to take their pets."
Flying the More Secure Skies
Still get the jitters when you step aboard a plane? Fear not. The feds are on the case. The Federal Aviation Administration last week proposed that airlines devise ways for pilots to keep an eye on passengers from the cockpit and for flight attendants to covertly alert pilots to trouble in the cabin. Some safety expert suggestions: surveillance cameras over seats, pocket-size wireless communications devices for attendants, and peepholes in cockpit doors. This is the latest in the feds' post-9/11 attempts to beef up flight safety. They previously ordered planes to install stronger cockpit doors to keep out would-be terrorists and lunatics, authorized trained pilots to carry guns, and deployed more air marshals on flights. "We rely on the flight attendants . . . to let us know what's going on in the cabin," says Denis Breslin of the Allied Pilots Association. "But what happens if the attendant is injured and can't make it to the hard-wired phone in the back of the plane?"
Yes, what happens? Let's hope flight attendants go wireless very soon.
This story appears in the October 3, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.