WASHINGTON, D.C.: Ashcroft has benign lesions removed from ear, shoulder
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft had benign skin lesions removed from an ear and a shoulder last week, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Reporters initially noticed a small bandage on Ashcroft's ear Monday during a speech he gave on terrorism at the Organization of American States in Washington.
Ashcroft, 59, a former Missouri governor and U.S. senator, took over as attorney general in February 2001. He spends time outdoors and owns a family farm in Missouri.
Doctors say it is common for people who spend long hours in the sun, such as Ashcroft on his farm, to develop skin lesions in their 50s.
Capt. David Ferguson said, "The attorney general's overall health was found to be excellent."
New York: Port Authority workers charged with 911 aid theft
A dozen Port Authority employees who escaped the World Trade Center attack were charged Tuesday with stealing nearly $20,000 in relief funds from the American Red Cross and another agency.
The workers allegedly received money from the Red Cross and Safe Horizon, a nonprofit support agency for crime victims, District Atty. Robert Morgenthau said.
Despite being paid by the Port Authority for missed work on Sept. 11-14, the workers allegedly went to a disaster assistance center in late September and early October to successfully apply for emergency aid totaling $19,581 from the two agencies.
Afghanistan: WFP director says famine no longer a big fear
International relief efforts have helped pull Afghanistan back from the brink of widespread famine, but many people are still subsisting on insufficient diets, the head of the World Food Program said Tuesday.
The twin scourges of war and drought had raised fears that Afghanistan could be facing mass starvation; the WFP said some 6 million people were in imminent risk. The concern was compounded by thefts of international food aid by bandits in the security vacuum following the fall of the Taliban.
Other organizations distributing food within Afghanistan include the international Red Cross, the Iranian Red Crescent, Japan's Peace Winds, Tzu Chi of Taiwan and Mercy Corps International.
VIRGINIA: Animal rights group to send furs to Afghanistan refugees
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is offering fur-wearers a new way to recycle their old mink coats: send them to Afghanistan to help freezing refugees keep warm.
More than 250 coats, shawls, blankets and other fur items valued at $306,000 have been donated to PETA for the giveaway.
Normally, PETA would not want anyone wearing fur, arguing that animals suffer in traps and on fur farms. But the group sees this as a way to get good use out of the furs, which will be turned into bedding and cut up to be made into children's jackets.
PETA put a request for fur donations on its Web site about a month ago.
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