Washington: USS Carl Vinson returns
The USS Carl Vinson returned Wednesday from the war in Afghanistan to the cheers of thousands of flag-waving friends and family members.
The 3,000 crew members waved and shouted as the aircraft carrier inched toward its pier at Naval Station Bremerton. First off the ship were the 76 men who missed seeing their children born. Among them was Rear Adm. Thomas Zelibor, commander of the Vinson's battle group.
The Vinson was on routine deployment to the Arabian Sea on Sept. 11 and has been at sea for six months, launching aircraft strikes against the Taliban and al-Qaida.
Its aviators flew some 4,200 sorties and dropped more than 2 million pounds of bombs over 70 days after air strikes were launched Oct. 7.
Washington: Terror victims' taxes eased
President Bush granted tax breaks Wednesday to family members of those killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and last year's anthrax mailings.
The bill Bush signed helps the families of victims of those attacks, which killed more than 3,000 people; the anthrax mailings, which killed five; and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168. McVeigh was executed for that bombing in June.
The legislation erases the federal income tax liability for most of those families from 2000 and 2001, with a provision that ensures a minimum of $10,000 in tax benefits to each family.
The new law shields from taxation employers' death benefits, charitable payments to the families and creditors' debt forgiveness. It exempts the first $8.5 million of a victim's assets from the federal estate tax.
India: Six suspects charged in attack on U.S. center
Indian police charged three Bangladeshis and three teachers from an Islamic school with murder Wednesday for an attack at an American cultural center that killed four police officers.
The six were arrested Tuesday night. Police said they were still trying to determine the motive for the attack.
Calcutta Police Supt. Shivaji Ghosh said 55 other people had been detained for questioning about the attack Tuesday on the American Center in Calcutta, which also wounded 20 people.
U.S. officials said they suspected the attack was criminal, targeting the policemen, and not a terrorist attack as India initially labeled it.
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