National Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

SOUTH
FLORIDA KEYS LIKELY SPARED A DIRECT HIT FROM IVAN
KEY WEST, Fla. – The only whooshing sound Hurricane Ivan stirred in the Keys and populous South Florida yesterday was a sigh of relief from residents no longer fearful the 150-mph storm would make a direct hit.
But even as Ivan veered west on a course that would take it away from the 120-mile island chain and Florida’s east coast, forecasters warned that the state, already slammed by two powerful hurricanes in a month, was not out of the woods yet.
Ivan’s forecast track across the eastern Gulf of Mexico could take it ashore on the Florida Panhandle, which took a glancing blow from Hurricane Frances, or parts of the state’s west coast that are recovering from Hurricane Charley.
Ivan, blamed for at least 60 deaths and hundreds of injuries as it roared across Caribbean island nations, was expected to pass near or over the western tip of Cuba – possibly as an intensified category 5 storm – sometime today.
– Associated Press
WASHINGTON
BUSH VISITS RUSSIAN EMBASSY
President Bush made an unexpected visit to the Russian Embassy yesterday, where he signed a book of condolences for victims of the school hostage seizure and expressed outrage at the actions of “evil terrorists.” “The atrocities that took place in the school were beyond comprehension,” the president told reporters after writing a one-page note in the book.
“Many in America and, I know, many Russians cannot conceive the heart of a person who could mow down innocent children. The killers once again remind us of the duties we have as free people to work in concert, to work in unity, to make this world a better place,” Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Bush said America stands “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Russia in the war on terrorism, a central theme of his re-election campaign.
– Associated Press
CONDOLEEZZA RICE DENIES GUANTANAMO ALLEGATIONS
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice yesterday denied assertions in a new book that she and other administration officials ignored warnings about the abuse of prisoners at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. New Yorker writer Seymour Hersh, discussing the book, set for release today, said senior military and national security officials received warnings from subordinates in 2002 and 2003 about such mistreatment.
Mr. Hersh said Ms. Rice held meetings on the issue and it was brought to the attention of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld before it “disappeared.”
Ms. Rice told CNN’s “Late Edition” that in the fall of 2002 the White House “was made aware that there were some concerns that people might have been held at Guantanamo who didn’t meet the definition of unlawful combatant.
“There were also early on…some concerns about conditions of overcrowding. But nothing that suggested, to my recollection, that there were abuses…going on at Guantanamo, and certainly nothing that would suggest the kind of thing that went on in Abu Ghraib,” she said, referring to the infamous Iraqi prison.
– Associated Press
CRIME RATE LOW FOR SECOND YEAR The nation’s crime rate last year held steady at the lowest levels since the government began surveying crime victims in 1973, the Justice Department reported yesterday.
The study was the latest contribution to a decade-long trend in which violent crime as measured by victim surveys has fallen by 55% and property crime by 49%.That has included a 14% drop in violent crime from 2000-01 to 2002-03.
The 2003 violent crime rate – assault, sexual assault, and armed robbery – stood at 22.6 victims for every 1,000 people age 12 and older. That amounts to about one violent crime victim for every 44 American residents.
– Associated Press