News Headlines
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by Joe Frawley
News Editor |
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US expels 50 Russian diplomats, Russia retaliates
The United States expelled four Russian diplomats implicated in the case of accused spy Robert Hanssen. The State Department also said that 46 Russians who are not tied to the spying case must leave this summer. The Russians announced on Friday that four American diplomats accused of espionage would have to leave Russia immediately, with more being expelled in the future to match the US action.
The US has alleged that the four expelled diplomats were actually Russian intelligence agents who collected various classified documents that Hanssen is said to have dropped off in parks around the Washington area. This explusion will be the biggest diplomatic expulsion since President Ronald Reagan ordered approximately 100 Soviet diplomats to leave the United States.
Russia was angered by the US expulsion, which has been fully backed by President George W. Bush. Sergei Ivanov, chief of Russia's Security Council, speaking during a visit to Poland, said that, "We have time to think, to carefully pick from among more than 1,000 U.S. diplomats in Russia, to choose those who are most precious to the Americans."
Two Coast Guardsmen die on Lake Ontario
A Coast Guard boat capsized while patrolling the Niagara River on Friday night. Two of the four crewmen died Saturday morning. The other two were treated for hypothermia after being rescued.
"A 4-foot wave hit the bow of the boat, swamping it and flipping it over," said Adam Wine, chief petty officer at the Coast Guard's Buffalo station. Scott Chism, 25, a boatswain mate from Lakeside, Calif., and Seaman Chris Ferreby, 23, a native of Morristown, N.J., were both in cardiac arrest and suffering from hypothermia when they were pulled out of the water about two miles east of the mouth of the lower Niagara River, near Niagara Falls. They were listed in critical condition through the night but both died Saturday morning, Wine said. Chism was married with two children and Ferreby and his wife had an infant.
Animator William Hanna dies at 90
According to a spokesman for Warner Brothers Studios, William Hanna died Thursday at the age of 90. Hanna is the co-founder and co-chairman of Hanna-Barbara Studios. Hanna and his partner, Joseph Barbera, created hundreds of now-famous cartoon characters, including Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear.
Hanna was born in Melrose, New Mexico on July 14, 1910. In 1937, Hanna was hired by MGM and met Barbera. The cartoon "Tom and Jerry" was created while at MGM. In 1957 they founded Hanna-Barbara after MGM closed their cartoon division. The duo received a star on the Hollywood walk of fame in 1976 and were inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1993.
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