13 athletes' bodies found in Iraq
RAMADI, Iraq, June 16 (UPI) -- The bodies of 13 members of an Iraqi Olympic martial arts team have been recovered near Ramadi, it was reported Saturday.
The Washington Post said that while the remains of the 13 Iraqi tae kwon do team members were found, two of the athletes remain unaccounted for.
The team was abducted in May 2006 while driving to a training camp in Jordan.
CNN reported the decomposed bodies were found near a highway in Anbar Province Thursday. Ramadi Police Col. Tareq al-Thibawi said a highway patrol found the bodies and that their IDs were discovered nearby.
Iraqi Tae Kwon Do Association President Jamal Abdul Karim, who was kidnapped two months later, is still missing, CNN said.
Panel votes to disbar Nifong
RALEIGH, N.C., June 16 (UPI) -- A North Carolina disciplinary panel found Saturday that prosecutor Mike Nifong should be disbarred for his handling of the Duke University rape case.
Before the panel began its deliberations, Nifong's lawyer said the prosecutor himself believed that stripping him of his license to practice law would be appropriate, National Public Radio reported. Earlier in the afternoon, the North Carolina State Bar grievance committee found Nifong guilty of most of the 19 ethics and professional misconduct counts brought against him by the State Bar.
Nifong, who announced Friday that he was stepping down as prosecutor whatever the verdict, sat stoically in the Raleigh courtroom as the verdicts were read.
The prosecuting attorney from Durham, N.C., was found to have withheld evidence favorable to the defense in the Duke lacrosse case and then lying about it. He also was found to have repeatedly and intentionally misled the media and, therefore, the public about the case.
The Duke lacrosse players were exonerated by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper in April.
Episcopal Church rejects demands on gays
NEW YORK, June 16 (UPI) -- Leaders of the Episcopal Church in the United States have rejected demands they adopt a stronger stand against homosexuality.
The church Executive Council ended a four-day meeting Friday, issuing a statement refusing to pledge to refrain from ordaining gay bishops or blessing same-sex relationships, The Guardian reported. The council also said it would not allow conservative Episcopalians to have a separate organization, the British newspaper said.
The decision brings a split in the Anglican Communion closer. The communion, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is a loose grouping of Anglican churches around the world.
Williams, now on sabbatical in the United States, plans to meet with U.S. bishops in September in New Orleans in an effort to heal the breach. A meeting of African bishops in February set the end of September as a deadline for U.S. compliance.
"My fear is people are starting to behave less like a world communion and it is becoming more like ecclesiastical chaos," said Canon Gregory Cameron, deputy secretary general of the Anglican Communion.
President calls Democrats big spenders
WICHITA, Kan., June 16 (UPI) -- President Bush, in his weekly radio address Saturday, accused congressional Democrats of adopting a budget requiring U.S. taxpayers to pay more.
"For months, I've warned the Democrats in Congress that I will not accept an irresponsible tax-and-spend budget," Bush said, speaking from Wichita, Kan. "I put Democratic leaders on notice that I will veto bills with excessive levels of spending."
Bush said the 147 Republican members of the House of Representatives who have "pledged fiscal discipline" are enough to sustain a veto.
The president also said Democrats have tried to sabotage reform on earmarks -- spending items benefiting a single district and often thrown into the budget at the last minute. Bush supported a bill that would have ended anonymous earmarks, and the administration also created a Web site to provide information on earmarks in the budget.
