News

Herb Brooks, who coached the U.S. hockey team to the “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, died Monday in a car wreck, a state official said. He was 66.

Brooks was killed when his car rolled over at a highway intersection north of the Twin Cities, according to the state official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Weather didn’t appear to be a factor. [Boston Globe]

When the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen, took the podium of the new Walt Disney Concert Hall one morning in late June, anticipation hung in the air. Fewer than a dozen people were scattered about the 2,265-seat auditorium, including the architect, Frank Gehry.

OUTSIDE, THE GORGEOUS billowing curves and swoops of the nearly finished stainless-steel exterior—already an L.A. landmark—shimmered. Yet this stunning building will truly succeed only if the quality of its sound matches its physical beauty. That June day marked the first time the full orchestra had played in the new hall. Salonen led the musicians into the opening bars of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, but he soon tapped his baton, stopped and scanned the hall for Gehry. “Frank,” he said, “we’ll keep it.” Gehry started crying. [MSNBC]

LOS ANGELES, CA Tony Award winner Gregory Hines, the tap-dancing actor who started on Broadway and in movies including “White Nights” and “Running Scared,” has died, his publicist says. He was 57.

The dancer, among the best in his generation, won a 1993 Tony for the musical “Jelly’s Last Jam.” [Washington Post]

SEOUL, South Korea — A top official with the Hyundai group has committed suicide by jumping off a building that is part of the company’s headquarters, South Korean media reports.

Chung was being investigated in connection with an alleged payment of hundreds of millions of dollars to North Korea in exchange for its holding a summit between South and North Korean leaders. [MSNBC]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Aug. 3, 2003.  An audiotape purportedly from top al-Qaida official Ayman al-Zawahri warned the United States on Sunday it would pay a high price if it harmed any of the detainees at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

THE VOICE on the tape, broadcast by the Dubai-based Arabic television Al Arabiya, also told the United States that the “real battle” against it has not started yet.
       “America has announced it will start putting on trial in front of military tribunals the Muslim detainees at Guantanamo and might sentence them to death,” said the voice, which Al Arabiya television identified as that of Zawahri.
       “I swear in the name of God that the crusader America will pay a dear price for any harm it inflicts on any of the Muslim detainees.” [MSNBC]

Sam Phillips, who discovered Elvis Presley and helped usher in the rock íní roll revolution, died Wednesday. He was 80. [MSNBC]

The real question is.. if it is indeed the Saudi government that is fingered in the Congressional Report for supplying foreign support to Al-Qaeda, will Bush give it to them straight.

I suspect he will. But who knows.

Republicans and Democrats alike called on President Bush to declassify the entire congressional report on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Monday, joining Saudi officials incensed that the censoring of a section of the report was fueling speculation that the kingdom supported al-Qaida. U.S. officials told NBC News that the Saudi foreign minister was flying to Washington to press Bush personally Tuesday. [MSNBC]