Michigan: Random checkpoints set up for terrorists, immigrants

Federal agents in Michigan began stopping people Tuesday at surprise checkpoints near the Canadian border to look for illegal immigrants, potential terrorists and drug and weapons smugglers.

FBI agent Dawn Clenney said counterterrorism work was especially important in Michigan, where three men have been charged with supporting terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks.

“There are strands of al-Qaida and Hezbollah and Hamas here in Michigan. I don’t want to narrow it down any further than that,” Clenney said.

The Border Patrol checkpoints were set up near Port Huron and Trenton, areas officials say are among the state’s busiest for smuggling. The checkpoints will rotate and be unannounced.

Florida: More holiday travel expected

About 35.9 million travelers will hit the roads, rails and air during Thanksgiving this year, a slight increase from 2001, AAA predicted Tuesday.

The number of Thanksgiving travelers had been dropping in recent years, from 37.4 million in 1999 to 36.8 million people in 2000 to 35.3 million last year.

The association expects the percentage of people traveling by motor vehicle to drop slightly, to 86 percent from last year’s 87 percent :quot; a record high brought on by fears of flying after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Meanwhile, the number of travelers reaching their Thanksgiving dinners by air is expected to rise from 4.8 million to about 5.1 million.

The AAA projections were based on a national survey of 1,300 adults by the Travel Industry Assn. in Orlando.

Chile: Nations approve ivory sale

Moving to ease a 13-year-old international ban on the ivory trade, a U.N. convention agreed Tuesday to a one-time sale of 60 tons of elephant tusks by three African nations.

Over the objections of conservationists, the 160 nations attending the U.N. Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species in Santiago backed the requests by Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to sell ivory culled in wildlife population management programs.

If the vote is finalized Friday, as expected, the three nations would be authorized to sell their $5 million worth of ivory under international supervision in 2004.

Delegates rejected similar requests by Zambia and Zimbabwe, deciding the governments have not demonstrated they can protect their herds.