U.S. officials doubt that Al Qaeda had nuclear capabilities

The U.S. government's analysis of suspicious canisters, computer discs and documents confiscated from Osama bin Laden's numerous camps in Afghanistan have found nothing to corroborate the speculation that bin Laden acquired materials for a nuclear bomb. However, there is some evidence that al Qaeda may have been duped by black market weapons swindlers selling crude containers hand-painted with skulls and crossbones and dipped, perhaps, in medical waste to fool a Geiger counter, according to The New York Times. "We did not find any type of serious radiological material," one Pentagon official said. "The stuff we found in Afghanistan was not the real stuff. They were swindled, like a lot of other people." The search for weapons of mass destruction in Afghanistan provided evidence of how hard it is to acquire sufficient fissionable materials for a small atomic weapon, or even enough radioactive material for a "dirty bomb" in which laboratory waste or civilian nuclear fuel rods would be wrapped around a conventional explosive and detonated, spreading poison and contamination.

Washington, D.C.

Supreme Court considers 11th Amendment, state immunity

In an attempt to further clarify the interpretation of the 11th Amendment, the Supreme Court heard arguments Monday as to whether the Constitution shields states not only from lawsuits but also from proceedings before federal agencies. The case being heard relates to an effort by the Federal Maritime Commission to investigate complaints against the Port of Charleston, S.C. The 11th Amendment, phrased as a limit on "the judicial power of the United States," provides that the federal courts shall not be open to suits against a state by "citizens of another state." The Supreme Court has long interpreted this principle as barring suits by a state's own citizens as well. In the 1999 decision, Alden v. Maine, the high court held 5-4 that states could not be subject to private lawsuits in their own courts, without their consent, for violations of federal law. In the current case, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., went further, pushing the boundary of state immunity beyond lawsuits to encompass proceedings initiated by private parties before federal agencies like the maritime commission.

Lowell, Massachusetts

Priest protests church policy to suspend upon accusation

Rev. D. George Spagnolia, a priest suspended under Cardinal Bernard Law's new policy of suspending accused priest before they are even given a chance to defend themselves, railed out against Law on Monday, saying that the archdiocese's pursuit of pedophiles is fostering fear and injustice, according to The Daily Hampshire Gazette. Spagnolia denied any misconduct in a 1971 accusation of sexual misconduct involving a 14-year-old boy while he was parochial vicar at St. Francis de Sales church in the Boston section of Roxbury. He went on to criticize Law's new policy of suspending accused priests before they're given a chance of defending themselves and reporting to authorities the names of all current and former priests who have been accused. That process denies the accused the right to due process, he said. "As evil as the abuse of a child is, do we respond to that with another evil?" Spagnolia asked his parish at St. Patrick Parish in Lowell.