Good grief! Charlie Brown to lead Macy's parade
Good grief, Charlie Brown, you're leading the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! The beloved Peanuts character -- along with 13 other balloon characters -- will be featured in today's 76th annual holiday march.
( By Ralph R. Ortega, New York Daily News, 11/28/2002 03:01 AM EST)

Turkey prices lowest in a decade
If you were a savvy shopper this Thanksgiving, you probably paid less for your turkey than your grocer. Wholesale turkey prices were the lowest in a decade -- 62 cents a pound -- inspiring many supermarkets to use turkeys as a loss leader to lure customers. Prices below wholesale were common nationwide, said Sherrie Rosenblatt, a spokeswoman for the National Turkey Federation, based in Washington. In many Mid-Atlantic and Southern supermarkets, shoppers paid 19 cents a pound.
( By Ben Finley, Knight Ridder Newspapers, 11/28/2002 03:01 AM EST)

Thanksgiving in Afghanistan is 'one day closer to going home'
First Sgt. Betty Jones will celebrate Thanksgiving away from her family for the first time in 20 years. Though she admits celebration might be too generous a description: At Bagram Air Base, headquarters of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, she and the other members of the Cincinnati-based 377th Military Police Company will have to settle for chow hall turkey and potatoes, and maybe a phone call home.
( By Mike Eckel, The Associated Press, 11/28/2002 03:01 AM EST)

U.N. teams start weapons inspections
Digging into Iraqi computers, surveying scenes with detectives' eyes, U.N. specialists finally got down to the business of weapons inspection Wednesday at the start of a demanding, months-long job that could make or break peace in the Mideast.
( By Charles J. Hanley, The Associated Press, 11/28/2002 03:01 AM EST)

Witness: Terror chief told followers to destroy U.S.
Osama bin Laden told followers in the months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that they must "strike at America and destroy it," a witness testified Wednesday at the trial of a Moroccan accused of aiding the suicide hijackers.
( By David Rising, The Associated Press, 11/28/2002 03:01 AM EST)

Physician admits to treating bin Laden
A prominent Pakistani doctor who admitted treating Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders before and after Sept. 11, 2001, said Wednesday that the terrorist mastermind was in excellent health and showed no signs of kidney failure.
( By Paul Haven, The Associated Press, 11/28/2002 03:01 AM EST)

Boy Scouts to check volunteers' histories
The Boy Scouts of America will require criminal background checks of new adult volunteers beginning next year, it announced Wednesday. "New volunteers to the Boy Scouts will have to submit for criminal background checks as of this spring," spokesman Gregg Shields said. The checks will be based on new application forms in which the applicant gives permission for the checks to be done, he said. The forms must be filled out by adult volunteers for scouting's varied arms, including Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts...
( By Ira Dreyfuss, The Associated Press, 11/28/2002 03:01 AM EST)