Headlines August 14, 2003 Full Show | First Story >

The Guardian of London is reporting the Pentagon is developing a new weapon to fires bursts of high energy gamma rays that produce a reaction thousands of times more powerful than conventional chemical explosives. The Guardian describes the weapon as a "death ray bomb."

Opponents say the weapon, which is still in development, blurs the line between conventional and nuclear weapons. The Pentagon claims the weapon "has the potential to revolutionize all aspects of warfare."

The Pentagon yesterday announced 200 more U.S. troops would be sent into Liberia to deliver humanitarian aid and to support the African peacekeeping forces.

In Afghanistan more than 55 people have died in the most violent 24-hour period the country has seen in nearly a year. A bus bombing in southern Afghanistan killed 15 including six children. Another 40 people died in fighting by Taliban guerillas in the south and the east.

The Pentagon has cleared the U.S. soldiers responsible for killing two international journalists in April after opening fire on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, which served as the base of operations for foreign journalists during the war on Iraq. Killed by the U.S. troops were Jose Couso of Spain’s Telecinco network and Taras Protsyuk, a cameraman for Reuters.

A U.S. Central Command investigation concluded the soldiers were defending themselves from an Iraqi "hunter-killer" team. This conclusion was reached despite testimony from journalists staying at the hotel at the time of the shootings saying there was no fire coming from inside the hotel.

The late Jose Couso’s family in Spain dismissed the Pentagon’s findings. They said, "The report is more of the same. A series of lies . . . to justify the actions of their soldiers."

In the West Bank of Hebron, Israeli troops have killed a top leader of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad.

Yesterday Libya agreed to set up a $2.7 billion fund for the victims of the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing that killed 270. Families of each of the victims will receive $10 million. United Nations sanctions against the Libyan government are now expected to be lifted.

The New York Times is reporting that the Bush administration will not seek more help from the United Nations with the occupation of Iraq. Instead the U.S. will place more pressure on individual countries to contribute more troops. More than 90 percent of the 160,000 soldiers in Iraq are from just two countries, the U.S. and Britain.

U.S. soldiers yesterday shot into a crowd of thousands of Shiite Muslims protesting the U.S. occupation. At least one Iraqi was killed, four more were wounded. U.S. troops claimed a rocket-propelled grenade was thrown at them.

British Airways, the Europe’s largest air carrier, has suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia citing possible threats.

The health ministry of France is saying up to 3,000 recent deaths may be linked to the recent heatwave.

This news from Kenya: Dozens of women are demanding an independent inquiry into the rapes of hundreds of Kenyan women by British soldiers over the past three decades.

This news from New Jersey: The 31-year-old daughter of poet and activist Amiri Baraka has been murdered. The bodies of Shani Baraka and her friend Rayshon Holmes were found Tuesday night.

And a new CBS News poll has determined that only 36 percent of Americans approve of how President Bush is handling the economy.