EAST

SCIENTISTS DECIPHER CHIMP DNA

What makes us human? In a step toward finding biological answers, scientists have deciphered the DNA of the chimpanzee, our closest living relative, and made comprehensive comparisons to the human genetic blueprint.

There are no firm answers yet about how humans picked up key traits such as walking upright and developing complex language. But the work has produced a long list of DNA differences with the chimp and some hints about which ones might be crucial.

“We’ve got the catalog, now we just have to figure it out,” said Dr. Robert Waterston of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

He is senior author of one of several related papers appearing in today’s issue of the journal Nature and being published online today by the journal Science.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON

POLL: MOST AMERICANS BELIEVE CREATIONISM SHOULD BE TAUGHT

Americans are divided over whether humans and other living things evolved over time or have existed in their present form since the beginning of time, according to a new poll.

People on both sides of that argument think students should hear about various theories, however.

Nearly two-thirds of those in a Pew Research Center poll, 64%, say they believe “creationism” should be taught alongside “evolution” – a finding likely to spark more controversy about what is taught in the schools.

That controversy could be related to the difficulty of measuring public sentiment about teaching evolution, creationism, or the more recent concept of “intelligent design,” a Pew official said.

“We acknowledge there may be some confusion about the meaning of these terms,” the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life’s director, Luis Lugo, said. But Mr. Lugo said the findings suggest widespread support for teaching students different ideas about how life began.

– Associated Press

BUSH ADMINISTRATION RENEWS PUSH FOR U.N. SANCTIONS ON TEHRAN

The Bush administration renewed its insistence yesterday that the United Nations Security Council take up the question of punitive censure or sanctions for Iran, saying Tehran must face international judgment over its disputed nuclear program.

America wants the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to take the first step toward sanctions this month, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said in an interview with the Associated Press. “We fully expect that the governments of the IAEA will exercise their responsibility,” Mr. Burns said.

The Bush administration is also aggressively lobbying other countries to end Tehran’s suspect nuclear activities, Mr. Burns said. America has long favored using the punitive power of the United Nations Security Council against Iran, but had said little about it recently in hopes that a European-led diplomatic outreach to Iran would bear fruit.

– Associated Press

SOUTH

SHEEHAN, PROTESTERS LE AVE CRAWFORD TO BEGIN TOUR

CRAWFORD, Texas – Cindy Sheehan packed up her campsite outside President Bush’s ranch yesterday and took her war protest on the road, ending a nearly month-long vigil that drew thousands and ignited an anti-war movement.

Rather than heading home to California, the grieving mother of a 24-year-old soldier who died in Iraq boarded one of three buses heading on tour to spreading her message.

“This is where I’m going to spend every August from now on,” Ms. Sheehan said as she smiled and waved through a bus window.

The group plans to stop in 25 states during the next three weeks, then take Ms. Sheehan’s “Bring Them Home Now Tour” to the nation’s capital for a September 24 anti-war march. Ms. Sheehan’s first stop was Austin for a rally later Wednesday. On Friday, protesters plan to go to U.S. House Majority Leader DeLay’s office in the Houston area.

– Associated Press

WEST

FOUR INDICTED FOR PLANNING TERRORIST ATTACKS

LOS ANGELES – The head of a militant Islamic prison gang and three others were indicted yesterday on federal charges of planning terrorist attacks against National Guard facilities, the Israeli Consulate, and other Los Angeles-area targets. The four conspired to wage war against the American government through terrorism, kill armed service members, and murder foreign officials, among other charges, according to the indictment. Named in the indictment were Levar Haley Washington, 25; Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21; Hammad Riaz Samana, 21, and Kevin James, 29. Prosecutors contend the plot was orchestrated by Washington, Patterson, and Samana at the behest of James, an inmate at the California State Prison-Sacramento who founded the radical group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh. Washington converted to Islam while serving three years in the prison for a robbery conviction.

– Associated Press

TACOMA MARINA ENGULFED IN FLAMES

GIG HARBOR, Wash. – A downtown marina was engulfed in flames early yesterday, spewing billowing black smoke as 50 boats burned to the waterline. No injuries were reported, but damage at the covered Harborview Marina was likely to run into the millions of dollars, a fire spokeswoman, Penny Hulse, said. One person living aboard a boat fled, but his boat was charred, she said. A fire boat was sent from nearby Tacoma to assist. The fire was reported by somebody on land, and 20 minutes later the marina was an inferno, authorities said. “The whole roof is down at the dock level right now, just a rumpled pile of blackened aluminum,” said a teacher, Ross Pomerenk, who has a boat at a nearby marina. “It’s really depressing. I feel sorry for those poor people.”

– Associated Press