Arnies new governor's finance director, Donna Arduin, is known for cutting billions in social services in Florida as budget director for Gov. Jeb Bush.

Chicago finished 2003 with 599 homicides, police said Thursday. That was down from 648 a year earlier and the first time since 1967 that the total dipped below 600.
Still, the nation's third-largest city outpaced all others for the second time in three years. New York, with about three times the population, ended the year with 596 homicides. Los Angeles, which had the most murders in 2002 at 658, wound up 2003 with an estimated total just under 500.
In New York, the unofficial murder tally of 596 compared with 584 in 2002. That was a 2 percent jump but still made 2003 the city's second straight year below 600 — dramatically less than the 2,245 homicides recorded in 1990.

PARIS - Six cases of mistaken identity were behind the pre-Christmas grounding of six Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles over terrorism fears, a police official said Friday. The names of six passengers sounded similar to those of terrorist suspects provided by the FBI
French police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said errors in spelling and transcribing Arabic names played a role.
But careful scrutiny of passenger manifests and the brief questioning of seven passengers failed to turn up evidence that a suicide hijacking was in the works.
mred - speechless

Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace twice over the New Year's holiday, the Lebanese army said Thursday.