New York: Giuliani gives address at Syracuse commencement

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told graduating Syracuse University seniors Sunday to have strong convictions and said student protesters never gave him second thoughts about speaking.

Several students have said they object to Giuliani’s treatment of minorities and the homeless while he was mayor. He said Chancellor Kenneth Shaw had asked whether they would dissuade him from speaking.

“I said actually, ‘No, I would feel at home,”‘ Giuliani said, drawing applause from the audience.

About three dozen students protested Giuliani’s appearance at the commencement attended by more than 16,000 students.

Giuliani talked about people he met after the Sept. 11 attacks to make points about conviction and courage.

“You need to know what you believe in, you need to believe in it strongly… then you have to have the courage to act on those beliefs,” he said.

Washington, D.C.: Jordan’s king warns on Iraq

Imminent military action by the United States against Iraq would lead to widespread turmoil in the Middle East, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Sunday.

“If there’s any sensitivity to what’s going on between Israelis and Palestinians now, moving on Iraq at this stage would be tremendous instability in the area and one that I don’t think the Arab world could handle,” the king said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

President Bush has declared Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein a menace and pledged to remove him from power, although the administration says it has not decided how or when that goal will be achieved.

Any U.S. move “would really create massive disturbances throughout all Arab countries,” Abdullah said. “It would threaten a lot of countries.”

Washington, D.C.: Police departments respond to domestic violence issue

The 1990s saw dramatic increases in the share of police departments in the largest cities with officers working full time on domestic violence, victim assistance and bicycle patrols, the government reported Sunday.

In 1990, half of the 62 police departments serving cities with more than 250,000 people had domestic violence units. By 2000, 81 percent of them did, according to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The share with victim-assistance units went from a third to nearly half.

By 2000, all the departments reported they had full-time community policing officers and met at least quarterly with local citizen groups on crime issues. Those using bicycle patrols went from a third to nearly all, the report said.

Cincinnati: Airport terminal evacuated

The main terminal at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport was evacuated for three hours on Sunday after a security incident involving a passenger waiting to board an airliner.

Airport Police Chief Chuck Melville said the man passed the main checkpoint, but during a random search at the gate, Comair employees found marijuana.

“He alleged he had a penknife, but no penknife was found,” Melville said.

The statement alone prompted the evacuation, Melville said. “He said he had one, so we have to take it as if he had one,” he said.