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News
In-briefs
Academy Awards
The nominations for the 74th annual Academy
Awards were announced recently. "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship
of the Ring," "A Beautiful Mind," "Moulin Rouge," "In the Bedroom"
and "Gosford Park" all earned nominations for best picture.
Taking the lead with the most nominations, 13, was "Lord of the Rings,"
the film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's first book in the Lord of
the Rings trilogy.
Tying for second, "A Beautiful Mind" and "Moulin Rouge" each earned
eight Oscar nominations. Both earned nominations for their lead characters:
Russell Crowe for his performance in "A Beautiful Mind" and Nicole
Kidman for her role in "Moulin Rouge."
Other nominees for best actor are Sean Penn for "I Am Sam," Tom Wilkinson
for "In the Bedroom," Denzel Washington for "Training Day" and Will
Smith for "Ali." Best actress nominees are Sissy Spacek for "In the
Bedroom," Halle Berry for "Monster's Ball," Judi Dench for "Iris"
and Renee Zellweger for "Bridget Jones's Diary."
Arafat ships illegal arms
Yasser Arafat recently took responsibility for an illegal arms shipment
intended to supply PLO forces in their struggle against Israel. The
shipment, intercepted by Israel, contained 50 tons of arms and ammunition.
The U.S. demanded that Arafat give an explanation for the shipment,
citing sources which provided compelling evidence of PLO approval
of the smuggling attempt. The admission came as Israel intensified
their military action in the Gaza Strip and after calls from Britain
for Europe to work with the U.S. in its diplomatic initiatives.
Arafat promised not to buy more arms in the future. The U.S. government
commented that it was satisfied with Arafat's disclosure but "wanted
action to follow his words," as reported on BBC.com.
President Slobodan Milosevic tried on war crimes
In what is perhaps the most important trial of its kind since Nazi
leaders were tried at Nuremberg, former Yugoslavian President Slobodan
Milosevic is being tried on charges of genocide and war crimes.
The trial, which began Feb. 12, is being held in The Hague, Netherlands.
Chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte opened the trial by saying that Milosevic's
case was an excellent demonstration that "no one is above the law."
As a way of clarifying, though, she said collective guilt of a people
would play no part in the prosecution's case-directed at Serbia.
Milosevic has said that the trial is illegitimate, and he has declined
the lawyers appointed to defend him. One of Milosevic's legal advisors
commented that he would make a statement, however.
Observers allowed to oversee Zimbabwe elections
Zimbabwe has allowed 30 observers from the European Union to observe
elections in the country March 30. But only observers from countries
which Zimbabwe has not labeled biased or hostile gain access to the
elections.
The head of the EU observers, Pierre Schori, is from Sweden, one of
the countries blacklisted by Zimbabwe. Schori maintains that the elections
can still be monitored effectively, and he remains pragmatic about
the outcome.
This comes about after a long-standing dispute between the EU and
Zimbabwe over what many critics label a "climate of fear and terror"
in the country. The reigning president of 22 years, Robert Mugabe,
faces his toughest challenge ever. Some fear the country is heading
toward a dictatorship as Mugabe imposes strict limits on the media
and political assemblies.
Scientists map out the Milky Way's shape
Recently, scientists constructed the most detailed picture to date
of the Milky Way-from the outside. Astronomers analyzed half a billion
stars with the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) and successfully
provided a view of our galaxy never before seen.
The survey shows the Milky Way is shaped much as was previously thought-in
a flattened spiral with a cigar shaped bar toward its center, similar
to other spiral galaxies scientists have observed. Before completion
of the 2MASS project, researchers could not be sure of our galaxy's
shape. The earth is approximately 27,000 light years away from the
galaxy's center and much of our view is obscured by interstellar dust.
The 2MASS survey uses two telescopes-one in the U.S. and the other
in Chile-to scan the sky and record the position of all infrared objects.
The project has been going on for the past four years, observing carbon
stars that are slowly burning out. Even though the stars have no more
hydrogen, their main energy source, they become very bright for a
time, allowing scientists to determine their distances from earth
and reconstruct their locations in three-dimensional space.
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