■ United States
Marine denies desertion
The Marine who vanished last month in Iraq and turned up three weeks later in Lebanon said on Monday that he had been taken by enemy forces, emphatically denying that he had deserted. Speaking publicly for the first time since his re-emergence, Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, read a brief statement outside the base here, where military investigators have met with him and he has been undergoing repatriation, a routine process for any Marine who has been captured or detained. "I did not desert my post," Hassoun said at a news conference. The details of how Hassoun, 24, disappeared on June 20 near Fallujah and resurfaced at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut on July 8 are the subject of a military investigation, the details of which officials accompanying him declined to discuss.
■ United States
Vietnam activists get cash
The House of Representatives late Monday voted to freeze all non-humanitarian assistance to Vietnam and provide aid to its dissidents in response to what it described as "a policy of harassment, discrimination, and intimidation" against those who dare to speak out against the country's government. By a vote of 323-45, the chamber passed the Vietnam Human Rights Act that bars the government from increasing non-humanitarian assistance to the southeast Asian nation over this year's level of about US$40 million, unless the president certifies that Hanoi is releasing political prisoners and is taking steps to improve its overall human rights record. It also authorizes the White House to spend US$4 million in fiscal 2004 and 2005 to provide support for Vietnamese dissidents and groups that "promote internationally recognized human rights."
■ United States
Crime-related deaths fought
Spurred by a rash of deadly crashes involving stolen cars, the District of Columbia declared a crime emergency on Monday, the second time in a year that the city has taken that measure to fight crime. Although crime is down this year in all major categories, including auto theft and homicide, district officials assert that auto theft involving teenagers remains at epidemic levels -- often with fatal consequences. This month, a 21-year-old father was killed in Southeast Washington when the moped he was riding was struck by a stolen van driven by an adolescent boy. Last week, a teacher from suburban Washington and a 15-year-old Washington boy were killed in an accident involving a stolen van. And early Monday morning.
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