Tuesday marked the execution of a record 38th death row inmate, Garry Miller, in Texas this year. Miller was convicted of brutally raping and killing a seven-year-old in 1988. However, Miller's historical footnote is unlikely to last long with two more executions of condemned killers scheduled for later this week. This year's potential total of 40 would break the previous record of 37 set in 1997. With seven state-sanctioned killings already scheduled for 2001, the Texas death chambers will remain busy. Later this week Daniel Joe Hittle and Claude Howard Jones will be executed for the killings of a police officer and liquor store owner, respectively.

Election Chaos Rocks Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo declared a state of emergency following a day of violence and protests by the supporters of opposition party leader Alassane Ouattara, who has been excluded from upcoming parliamentary elections based on the disputed grounds that one of his parents is not Ivorian. Ouattara's supporters paralyzed commerce on Monday in Abidjan, the nation's capital, and yesterday the violence spread to the suburbs, with the death toll climbing past 30, according to The New York Times. The United Nations announced the suspension of electoral aid to the Ivory Coast because of Ouattara's exclusion.

FBI Carnivore Concerns Continue

Privacy concerns relating to the FBI's Carnivore Internet wiretap system are still pouring in from panels of computer security experts, despite winning favorable review from the Illinois Institute of Technology's Research Institute. Carnivore is a modified version of a packet sniffer-a utility used to monitor network traffic-which can skim the flow of Internet data for specific information. However, the program has not been thoroughly checked for security loopholes. The Department of Justice is seeking to use Carnivore more widely and with less legal interference. One dissenting report filed yesterday by "some of the best-known names in computer security," according to The Times, cited that the Illinois report, although a commendable starting point in analyzing the potential risks of Carnivore, could not conclude based on its limited analysis that the system is correct, safe or legal.

EU Tries To Quell Mad Cow Concern

In an effort to allay growing concern over the spread of mad cow disease throughout Europe, the European Union held a special emergency session early this week and voted to ban the use of feed laced with animal products for all farm animals for at least six months. In addition, all cattle older than 30 months are to be removed from the food chain-potentially leading to the slaughter of as many as two million cattle. The costly measures are in response to a nearly 50 percent drop in demand for beef and are expected to cost nearly five billion dollars. The unusable feed will be incinerated or used as fuel in cement factories.