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Marion Jones
Former track star Marion
Jones, who won five gold medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney,
Australia, recently admitted to being a steroid user. Days later,
Jones, 31, pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators,
and announced her retirement from her athletic career. Jones
returned her Olympic medals and she gave a tearful apology to
her fans and the public. "It is with a great amount of shame
that I stand before you and tell you I have betrayed your trust
...I have let my country down and I have let myself down,"
she said. Jones was considered one of the greatest female athletes
of her time and was once dubbed "the fastest woman on Earth."
Benazir Bhutto
Once one of the world's
most famous female leaders, Benazir Bhutto was born into an important
political family and was educated at Britain's Oxford University.
Her father was prime minister of Pakistan during the early 1970s.
Later her father was imprisoned after a military takeover and
eventually executed. The government also imprisoned Benazir Bhutto
for five years. Later she served twice as prime minister, starting
in the late 1980s, but each time the president removed her from
office on charges of corruption. She has been living abroad since
1999, but is seeking to return to a position of leadership in
Pakistan and has been trying to work out a power-sharing agreement
with President Pervez Musharraf.
Paris
Yet another investigation
into the 1997 death of Princess Diana is under way. This time
it is the official inquest into her death, a legal inquiry required
by British law when a British citizen dies in a foreign country.
The inquest has been delayed for 10 years while British and French
authorities completed their own investigations into the car crash
that claimed the lives of Diana, her friend Dodi Al Fayed, and
their driver. The 11 jurors for the inquest were recently flown
to Paris where they were to retrace the actions of Diana on the
last day of her life, including viewing the tunnel where the
fatal crash took place so they could get a better understanding
of the scene of the crash.
Costa Rica
This Central American
nation narrowly approved a new free trade deal with the U.S.,
in a vote that sharply divided the country and is a win for the
Bush administration. The week before the vote, about 100,000
Costa Ricans protested against the deal, known as CAFTA, or the
Central American Free Trade Agreement. Critics say it may cause
a flood of cheap U.S. produce that will damage the economy and
benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor. Coffee is the
bedrock of the economy of this nation, which has a history of
democracy unique in this region. This was the first time a country
has held such a vote on a trade agreement.
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FOR MORE
INFORMATION:
Sports Illustrated offers a timeline of the athletic
career of Marion Jones.
Read the BBC's profile of the extraordinary life
of Benazir Bhutto.
The Guardian covers the long-awaited inquest
into Princess Diana's death and the task facing the 11 jurors.
Read Reuters' coverage of Costa Rica's new
trade pact.
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