Graham launches library, museum
Charlotte, North Carolina With self-deprecating jokes and a heartfelt call to never be “ashamed of the gospel,” the Rev. Billy Graham helped break ground Friday on a library and museum aimed at telling his story long after he is gone.
The library, scheduled to open in 2007, is being designed to look like a dairy barn similar to one around which Graham grew up near Charlotte.
Graham, 86, has said his June revival in New York City would be the last, and he gave no indication Friday that he changed his mind. Graham suffers from prostate cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
Georgia law requires photo ID at polls
Washington The Justice Department on Friday approved a controversial Georgia law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, and opponents immediately vowed to challenge the measure in federal court.
The measure would eliminate the use of several currently accepted forms of voter identification, such Social Security cards, birth certificates and utility bills, at the polls. Nineteen states require voters to show identification, but only five request photo ID, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Skakel’s attorneys will file for a new trial
Stamford, Conn. Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, convicted three years ago of bludgeoning his neighbor to death with a golf club in 1975, will seek a new trial based on a claim by a cousin of basketball star Kobe Bryant that implicates two other people in Martha Moxley’s murder.
Skakel’s attorneys plan to file the petition for a new trial Monday.
Gitano “Tony” Bryant’s allegation surfaced in 2003 after Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, was convicted of killing Moxley in their gated neighborhood in wealthy Greenwich when they were both 15. Skakel, now 44, is serving a term of 20 years to life in prison.
Bryant, who attended the private Brunswick School with Skakel, said he was with two friends from New York in Greenwich the night Moxley was killed, according to Skakel’s attorneys.
Swiss tourist town covered with mud
Brienz, Switzerland This small, tidy town at the foot of the picturesque Bernese Alps – normally packed with tourists and hikers this time of year – was covered instead by mud and debris Friday after days of devastating flooding.
Soldiers guarded against looting, large sections were cordoned off, and residents counted the cost of this week’s floods, which killed a mother and her daughter and destroyed homes. The death toll from flooding in Switzerland and other parts of Europe rose Friday to 43.
Jewish population growing in West Bank
Jerusalem As Israel basked in world admiration for pulling out of the Gaza Strip, new official figures released Friday showed the Jewish population of the West Bank is expanding rapidly, growing by more than 12,000 in the past year alone.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made no secret of his desire to expand large West Bank settlement blocs even while withdrawing from areas he says became untenable for Israel to hold.
According to Interior Ministry figures, the Jewish population of the West Bank in June stood at 246,000, an increase of 12,800, or 5 percent, in one year.