 By MARY DEIBEL Scripps Howard News Service July 08, 2005
Terror abroad More than 50 people died and hundreds more were injured when terrorist bombs ripped through London's Underground and a double-decker bus in the worst attack on the city since World War II. Shadowed summit The Group of Eight summit, shaken by terrorism, ended with world leaders agreeing to aid for Africa and the Palestinian Authority and a promise to address global climate change. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, host of the Scotland summit, told a closing news conference: "We speak today in the shadow of terrorism, but it will not obscure what we came here to achieve." Iraq tolls rise The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since March 2003 rose to 1,747. Iraq's interior minister said the number of Iraqi civilian deaths surpassed 6,000 this year so far. Al Qaeda's Iraq wing claimed it executed Egypt's envoy to Iraq. Afghan violence A Navy SEAL who belonged to an elite four-man commando team missing since June was found alive, but the bodies of two others were discovered near the Afghan-Pakistani border, and the Taliban are threatening to kill the fourth. Afghan President Hamid Karzai rebuked the U.S. military for killing up to 17 civilians in an air strike. INTERSTELLAR Dead-on The NASA probe Deep Impact scored, hitting comet Tempel 1 six months and 83 million miles after launch. NATIONAL Stormy weather The Gulf Coast is landfall for Tropical Storm Cindy and Hurricane Dennis - the first time on record that four named storms spawned in the Atlantic this early in the season. The latest storms sent oil spiking above $60 a barrel. Jobs up, joblessness down The economy added a weaker-than-expected 146,000 jobs in June as the unemployment rate fell to 5 percent. Manufacturing lost another 24,000 jobs - and 96,000 since August 2004 - offsetting earlier gains. Missing children Idaho authorities continued to hunt for 9-year-old Dylan Groene after Denny's staffers alerted police that his sister, Shasta, 8, was in their restaurant with a man who was later arrested on kidnapping charges. The youngsters had been missing since the bodies of their mother, brother and mother's boyfriend were found May 16. WASHINGTON Vigilance, commuters Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff raised the terror alert level to orange for U.S. mass-transit systems and President Bush urged Americans to be "extra vigilant" in the wake of the London bombings. He stands with his friends President Bush rebuked conservative critics of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as a possible replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. "I don't like it when a friend gets criticized," Bush said. "I'm loyal to my friends." Jailed reporter New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed for not divulging sources in an investigation of the administration leak of a CIA officer's identity. But Time reporter Matt Cooper was not incarcerated. He agreed to testify after receiving permission to reveal a source's identity. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald appears to be focusing on Cooper's conversations with Bush deputy chief of staff Karl Rove. Columnist Robert Novak, who first published operative Valerie Plame's name, isn't talking except to say: "It's ridiculous to think that I'm the cause of their going to jail." ENTERTAINMENT All's Wells that ends Wells Aliens seized the box office as Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" debuted with $77.1 million over the three-day July Fourth weekend. Pokey-bound Rap diva Lil' Kim was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $50,000 for lying to a federal grand jury about a Manhattan shootout. SPORTS Not New York The day before the bombings, Londoners celebrated being awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics, beating out Madrid, Moscow, Paris and the Big Apple. Tennis hat tricks Swiss hard-baller Roger Federer captured his third straight Wimbledon championship, this time vanquishing Andy Roddick. Venus Williams rebounded from two off-years, defeating top-seed Lindsay Davenport in women's singles. DEATHS L. Patrick Gray The one-time acting FBI director, whose yearlong tenure was marked by the Watergate break-in and resulting scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation, died at age 88. After 32 years of silence, Gray told ABC's "This Week" in June that he reacted with "total shock" to the announcement that his former deputy at the bureau, Mark Felt, was the famous Watergate source Deep Throat. Retired Vice Adm. James Stockdale The Medal of Honor winner and Vietnam POW died at age 81 of Alzheimer's disease. He was introduced to the American public as Ross Perot's 1992 running mate and remembered for opening the vice-presidential debate that year by asking: "Who am I? Why am I here?" A/k/a "Ed McBain" Salvatore Lombino, the best-selling crime novelist who wrote as Ed McBain, Evan Hunter and other pseudonyms, died at age 78. June Haver The blond Hollywood musical star and widow of popular TV dad Fred MacMurray died at age 79.
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