2003 NEWS HISTORY ARCHIVE

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"NY Mayor Hits Times Square Celebration Critics." ... "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg accused the head of a House of Representatives panel on terrorism of lacking courage on Wednesday for shunning the traditional Times Square New Year's eve celebration because of security worries."  -Reuters

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"Ashcroft steps aside from CIA leak probe." ... "John Ashcroft, US attorney-general, on Tuesday stepped aside from a politically charged investigation into the leak of the identity of an undercover Central Intelligence Agency officer." ... "Patrick Fitzgerald, the US attorney in Chicago, will take over the inquiry and report to James Comey, Mr Ashcroft's deputy at the Department of Justice, which is running the investigation, and Christopher Wray, assistant attorney-general." -By Marianne Brun-Rovet -FT.com

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"New restrictions ban ill cattle in food supply." ... "The Agriculture Department dramatically upgraded the country's defenses against mad cow disease Tuesday, banning meat from all so-called downer cows and promising to create a nationwide animal tracking system, steps long advocated by critics." ... "These are ``very aggressive actions,'' Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Tuesday, one week after the first case of mad cow disease surfaced on U.S. soil in a Washington state Holstein slaughtered on Dec. 9." -AP via -StarTribune.com

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"FedEx to expand with $2.4bn Kinko's deal." ... "FedEx is to acquire Kinko's, the print services chain, for $2.4bn in an effort to expand both its US package delivery business and its ability to serve as a "one-stop" shop for corporate customers." ... "The acquisition, expected to close in the first quarter of 2004, takes FedEx into a new line of business beyond shipping packages and supply chain management. Kinko's, 75 per cent-owned by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the New York-based private equity firm, is best known for offering photocopying and printing services at 1,200 stores." -By Betty Liu -FT.com

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"Iran quake relief effort shifts focus to plight of survivors." ... "Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, and President Mohammad Khatami yesterday visited Bam, the south-eastern city devastated by an earthquake on Friday." ... "A spokesman for the provincial government said that more than 21,000 bodies had been recovered and that "many, many more people" were still buried." ... "President Khatami said the tragedy was so deep that relief aid could not hope to meet "the demands of the victims"." -By Mohsen Asgari and Gareth Smyth -FT.com

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"Iran asks 'Why are our earthquakes so deadly?'" ... "Poor design, primitive materials and widely ignored building codes were prime causes of the high death rate in the Bam earthquake, Iranian officials and foreign experts said on Tuesday." ... "In stark contrast to a tremor of similar strength last week in California that killed just two people, the toll in Friday's Iranian quake could reach about 50,000." ... "Iran's building codes have been tightened after quakes in recent decades killed tens of thousands. But officials and independent scientists say enforcement is woefully inadequate." -By Erik Kirschbaum -Reuters via -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk

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"FDA Expected to Ban Herbal Weight-Loss Treatment Ephedra." ... "After years of debate, federal health officials are expected today to announce they will act to remove the herbal weight-loss treatment Ephedra from the marketplace, the first time the Food and Drug Administration has moved to ban a dietary supplement, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reported." ... "Ephedra, once widely taken to enhance athletic performance and as a weight- loss aid, has been linked to heart problems and strokes and was fingered in the death earlier this year of 23-year-old Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler." -Contributions by Sarah Lueck, Anna Wilde Mathews and Stefan Fatsis -WSJ.com -DJ via -Quicken.com

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"Iran quake toll may hit 50,000." ... "The death toll in Iran's earthquake could jump to 50,000, officials say, as relief workers plead for more aid for survivors of one of the deadliest natural disasters of modern times." ... ""If we consider that, on average, five people lived in each house we can say the death toll will reach 50,000," a senior Interior Ministry official said on Tuesday, sharply raising the projected tally from the nearly 30,000 already buried." ... "Aid agencies say around 100,000 people are homeless and are appealing for warm clothing and blankets." -By Edmund Blair and Parisa Hafezi -Reuters via -Reuters.co.uk

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"Ridge: U.S. tightens security for New Year's." ... "With New Year's on the way, security efforts across the United States have been "ramped up in an unprecedented way" through the end of the week, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Tuesday." ... "The U.S. government will keep the terror threat alert level at orange -- the second-highest on the five-tiered, color-coded scale -- for the rest of the week as officials remain concerned about airline security, Ridge said." -CNN

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"Parmalat slipped past loosened laws: After U.S. scandals, accommodation trumped regulation." ... "After the scandals that erupted at Enron and other U.S. corporations, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley bill in an attempt to prevent such corporate abuses. In much of Europe, regulations have been tightened in hope of avoiding similar problems." ... "But Italy has reacted to its own business disasters in an entirely different way. Led by Silvio Berlusconi, the nation's prime minister and perhaps its leading business executive as well, Italy has acted to remove criminal penalties for accounting fraud and, in the past week, has rewritten its bankruptcy laws to accommodate the spectacular failure of Parmalat, the giant dairy and food-processing company controlled by the Tanzi family." -By John Tagliabue -NYTimes via -Google-News

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"US expands air marshal plan abroad: Foreign flights must comply if request issued." ... "The Department of Homeland Security announced yesterday that it will require all foreign air carriers to place an armed guard on any flight over United States airspace if counterterrorism officials ask them to do so." ... "The move, described as an "emergency" rules change that is effective immediately, reflects growing concern that the Al Qaeda terrorist network may try to exploit foreign carriers as a gap in US air security by hijacking their planes and flying them into populated areas or high-risk industrial sites." -By Charlie Savage -Boston/Globe

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"Prison terms for female offenders now common in U.S.." ... "Nowhere has there been more attention focused on that trend than in Oklahoma, where the incarceration rate for women is more than double the national average. The Legislature set up a task force this year to learn why. Nationally, from 1993 through 2002, while overall crime was falling, the number of women arrested rose 14.1 percent, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report. In the same period, the number of men arrested fell 5.9 percent." ... "Some individual crimes show even more striking disparities. While the number of men arrested on charges of aggravated assault fell 12.3 percent in the decade, the number of women arrested on the same charge rose 24.9 percent. Drug arrests rose 34.5 percent a year for men in this period, 50 percent for women. And the number of women arrested on embezzlement charges increased 80.5 percent, actually surpassing the number of men arrested on the same charges, the only crime for which that is true." -By Fox Butterfield -NYTimes via -IHT.com

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"Electronic voting firm acknowledges hacker break-in." ... "A Bellevue, Wash., company developing security technology for electronic voting suffered an embarrassing hacker break-in that executives think was tied to the rancorous debate over the safety of casting ballots online." ... "VoteHere confirmed Monday that U.S. authorities are investigating a break-in of its computers months ago, when someone roamed its internal computer network. The intruder accessed internal documents and may have copied sensitive software blueprints that the company planned eventually to disclose publicly." -By Ted Bridis -AP via -USATODAY

"Sick cow's meat may have gone to 8 states." ... "Meat from a Holstein sick with mad cow disease could have reached retail markets in eight states and one territory, but poses no health risk, Agriculture Department officials said yesterday." ... "Dr. Kenneth Petersen, an Agriculture Department veterinarian, said investigators have determined that some of the meat from the diseased dairy cow slaughtered Dec. 9 in Washington state could have gone to Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, and Guam. Earlier, officials had said most of the meat went to Washington and Oregon, with lesser amounts to California and Nevada, for distribution to consumers." -By Emily Gersema -AP via -Boston/Globe

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"S.Korea to Send 3,000 Troops to Iraq in April." ... "South Korea is to send 3,000 troops to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk in late April to help reconstruction efforts, cabinet and military officials said Tuesday." ... "South Korea's cabinet approved a motion for the dispatch of the troops at a special session Tuesday and would now send it to parliament for ratification, officials said." -Reuters via -ABCNEWS.com

-  -  - Christmas News
"Where Christmas trees will stay up until April: One Army town's bittersweet celebration." ... "The past nine months have been difficult for families of soldiers at Fort Carson, an Army post south of Colorado Springs. About 11,000 troops were deployed from Fort Carson to Iraq in April. Most aren't expected to return until spring." ... "In many homes, Christmas trees will stay up through the spring, with packages underneath for returning soldiers and their stockings full and dangling from mantles." -By Jeremy Meyer -CSMonitor

"Applicants Rush to Meet Deadline for Sept. 11 Fund." ... "After a last-minute surge, 95 percent of eligible relatives of Sept. 11 victims had applied to join the government's ambitious but much-criticized compensation effort as the deadline neared last night." ... "Officials with the federal Victim Compensation Fund, who worried just weeks ago that many eligible survivors would not sign up, said applications had come in by the hundreds as the hours to the midnight deadline wound down yesterday." ... "By day's end, a program that had been criticized as complicated, cold-hearted and ungenerous had achieved twin goals: offering billions of dollars in compensation to families for their pain and economic loss and to injured victims as well, while protecting the airlines whose planes were involved in the attacks from potentially ruinous litigation." (1, 2) -By David W. Chen -NYTimesvia -Google-News

-  -  - Christmas News
"China Cracks Down on Unofficial Worship: China Promotes Christmas Commerce While Cracking Down on Unofficial Worship, Detaining Activists." ... "The Christmas carol "Deck the Halls" blares over the speakers of the warehouse store as the toddler lunges for a plastic Santa. His mother grabs him by the seat of his pants and hauls him back." ... "It's a classic Christmas shopping moment in the unlikely setting of central China though one that is becoming more common as Chinese, few of whom are Christians, adopt the holiday as a festive time to shop." ... "But for members of China's unofficial Christian congregations, this is a season of fear as communist authorities crack down on unauthorized worship, detaining activists and bulldozing churches." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

-  -  -Anthrax News
"Judge Halts Military's Required Anthrax Shots." ... "A federal district judge ruled Monday that the Defense Department could not compel members of the armed forces to be vaccinated against anthrax without their consent." ... "The judge, Emmet G. Sullivan, issued a preliminary injunction that prohibits Pentagon officials from "inoculating service members without their consent."" ... "The judge found that the vaccine in question, intended to protect military personnel against the potentially deadly effects of inhaled anthrax, was "an investigational drug," being used for an unapproved purpose." -By Robert Pear with contributions by Thom Shanker -NYTimes via -Google-News

"Earthquake shakes central California coast; preliminary magnitude of 6.5." ... "A powerful earthquake rocked a wide swath of California on Monday, collapsing downtown buildings in one town not far from the Hearst Castle, causing some injuries and a widespread blackout in the remote area." ... "The quake struck at 11:16 a.m. It was felt as a sustained but gentle rolling motion in downtown Los Angeles. In San Francisco, it rocked the 20-story federal courthouse, with its upper floors swaying for about 30 seconds." -AP via -SFGate.com

"Americans Mostly Shrug Off Terrorism Alert: Americans Mostly Shrug Off Terror Warnings As Security Tightens Around Nation." ... "Commuters and holiday travelers alike encountered tighter security at the nation's airports, train stations, bridges and highways Monday, a day after the government raised the national threat level and said attacks were possible during the holidays." ... "Many people shrugged off the heightened alert, but some were nervous." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

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"Attacks possible during holidays; alert level raised to Orange." ... "The head of the Department of Homeland Security on Monday urged people to "just go about your business" despite the decision to raise the national terror-attack warning to its second-highest level." ... "After briefing President Bush on Monday, Ridge reiterated to reporters that the intelligence community considered the new threat "the most significant threat" to the country since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." ... ""The information we have indicates that extremists abroad are anticipating near-term attacks that they believe will either rival or exceed" the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Ridge had said in announcing the upgraded alert status on Sunday." -AP via -USATODAY

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"Last Lord of the Rings film sets a box office record." ... "The final instalment of the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy sold $246m worth of tickets worldwide between Wednesday and yesterday, the highest total takings over the first five days of any motion picture." ... "The strong box office performance of The Return of the King provides a welcome boost for Time Warner, the media conglomerate that owns New Line Cinema, the film's distributor, and raises hopes that it could become only the second film after Titanic to gross more than $1bn during its run." -By Simon London -FT.com

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"'Rings' Shows Trend Toward Global Premieres." ... "From Singapore to Stockholm to New York to Mexico City, fans lined up this weekend to see the final cinematic episode of the J. R. R. Tolkien trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," part of a growing global moviegoing phenomenon." ... "By opening in 28 countries in its first five days, "The Return of the King," made by New Line Cinema, raked in $246 million — an astonishing sum, nearly a quarter of a billion dollars — from fans eager to revisit the world of hobbits and orcs." -By Sharon Waxman -NYTimes via -Google-News

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"U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Agency Head to Travel to Libya: ElBaradei Will 'Kick Start a Process of Verification'." ... "Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told a press briefing in Vienna that he would lead an IAEA team to Libya to "kick start a process of verification" of Libya's arms program, wire services reported." ... "After years of denying the existence of a nuclear weapons program, Libya acknowledged last week that it had a program to develop nuclear and other unconventional weapons. In a surprise announcement, Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi said he will abandon unconventional weapons, freeze his nuclear program and allow international inspectors to test his word." -By Fred Barbash -WashingtonPost

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"[UK] Intelligence officers had role in [Libya] deal." ... "MI6 officers and senior Foreign Office officials held a series of secret meetings with Colonel Gadafy's closest advisers before agreement with Libya was announced by Tony Blair and - soon afterwards - by George Bush on Friday." ... "A key meeting took place at the Travellers Club in Pall Mall, a traditional haunt of the intelligence community, last Tuesday. It was attended by William Ehrman, director general of defence and intelligence at the FO, David Landsman, head of the FO's counter-proliferation department, and two MI6 officers." -By Richard Norton-Taylor -Guardian.co.uk

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"Libya to allow snap arms inspections." ... "Libya has agreed to allow snap U.N. nuclear arms inspections, just a day after declaring it was giving up plans to build an atomic bomb, a Western diplomat says." ... "Libya, widely praised for announcing on Friday that it was ditching efforts to build the bomb and other banned weapons, told the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Saturday that it was ready to sign up to inspections, the diplomat told Reuters." -By Louis Charbonneau -Reuters via -Reuters.co.uk

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"Nation's Threat Level Rising to Orange: Government Raising National Threat Warning From Yellow to Orange, Federal Official Says." ... "The government is raising the national threat warning from yellow, the midpoint on its five-color scale, to orange, a federal official said Sunday." ... "The warning was prompted in part by a raised level of ominous intercepted communications that has not quieted for months. The significance of the sustained level of intelligence "chatter" is unclear, the officials said." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

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"120,000 in S.F. lose power after substation fire: First attempt to restore some electricity falters." ... "Pacific Gas & Electric was struggling to restore electricity in San Francisco late Saturday after a fire at a major utility substation caused a massive power outage and left 120,000 residential and business customers in the dark." -By John Woolfolk -MercuryNews-BayArea

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"Justice Department endorses congressional redistricting by Texas Republicans." ... "The U.S. Department of Justice approved a Republican-backed congressional redistricting map Friday, disappointing Democrats who staged two legislative boycotts over redistricting and have sued over the new plan." ... "A federal court panel considering legal challenges to the new map also gave Republicans a victory Friday, ruling that that mid-decade redistricting is permissible under state law." -By April Castro -AP via -SFGate.com

-  -  - Brazil
"UN wants access to Brazil atomic enrichment plant." ... "The U.N. nuclear watchdog is negotiating with the Brazilian government to ensure that a new uranium enrichment facility due to begin operating next year is properly safeguarded, the agency said on Friday. Several Western diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity that Brazil was not considered a problem state and there were no concerns that it was developing nuclear weapons." ... "Brazil, which has the world's six-largest uranium reserves and the most sophisticated nuclear programme in Latin America, has said the new plant will begin enriching uranium next year to produce fuel for its atomic power plants." -By Louis Charbonneau -Reuters -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk

-  - Sniper
"Malvo found guilty of capital murder." ... "Lee Malvo was convicted Thursday of two counts of capital murder in the sniper attacks that killed 10 people and terrorized the Washington, D.C., area just more than a year ago." ... "Malvo was charged in the killing of Linda Franklin, 47, who was shot Oct. 14, 2002, in a Home Depot parking lot in Falls Church, Va. In the first charge, the jury had to find that Malvo killed Franklin and at least one other person within the past three years. Malvo also was charged under Virginia's new anti-terrorism law, which makes killing while committing a terrorist act a capital offense." -By Laura Parker -USATODAY

-  -  -  -  - Microsoft News
"Microsoft faces new antitrust battle." ... "A new front in the Microsoft antitrust wars was opened on Thursday as rival software maker RealNetworks accused the company of illegally trying to monopolise the market for digital media software and said it would seek damages of more than $1bn." -By Richard Waters and Scott Morrison -FT.com

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-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - "Iraq Debt Relief Backing Rises, Hard Work Remains." ... "The Paris Club of creditor states can agree a debt relief deal for Iraq quickly but the agreement can be signed only when the country has an internationally recognized leadership, the Paris Club's president said on Thursday." ... "Increasing hopes that a deal will be reached, Britain said during a European tour by U.S. special envoy James Baker that it backed the idea of a substantial reduction in debts estimated at $120 billion." ... "The British comment echoed similar political pledges made this week by France, Germany and Italy after talks with Baker, who was visiting Britain and Russia on Thursday." (1, 2) -By Brian Love -Reuters

-  - "Schwarzenegger to Declare Money Emergency: Calif. Gov. Schwarzenegger to Declare Financial Emergency, Bypass Legislature to Help Cities." ... "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to declare a financial emergency and bypass the Legislature to provide millions of dollars due cities and counties, administration sources said." ... "To make up for $4 billion lost when he cut the unpopular car tax, the governor will make a $40 million payment to local governments to keep them from closing facilities and laying off police officers and fire fighters, aides said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

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"Iran to sign nuclear treaty." ... "Iran has said that it will sign a treaty today giving the UN's nuclear watchdog the right to conduct snap nuclear inspections within its borders, a gesture one Western diplomat described as "long overdue"." ... "Iran's promise to sign the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a global pact aimed at reducing the spread of nuclear arsenals, comes after increasing international concerns that it is trying to produce nuclear weapons. Iran has repeatedly denied this." -Guardian.co.uk

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"France to Ban Religious Symbols from Schools." ... "French President Jacques Chirac has voiced support for a law which would ban the wearing of Muslim headscarves, Christian crosses and other religious symbols in public schools." ... "Chirac's announcement came in response to a report published last week by a government commission, which proposed the ban of religious symbols in the country's state-run schools. "In all conscience, I consider that the wearing of dress or symbols which conspicuously show religious affiliation should be banned in schools," Chirac said." ... "The decision comes after months of debate on the role of religion in French society and the difficulties the nation has encountered in the integration of its five million-strong Muslim population." -DW-World.de/english

-  -  -  - Christmas News
"Christmas boxes bring Afghan mob scene." ... "Attempts by Canadians to hand out almost 2,000 Christmas gift boxes to impoverished Afghan children Wednesday turned into a melee as some of their parents beat back the young people trying to reach the presents and soldiers had to stop them." ... "A Canadian Forces truck was quickly surrounded by hundreds of children as it arrived at a hillside camp in Kabul, where internally displaced people (IDPs, as they are known by the military) live destitute lives in makeshift housing." -GlobeAndMail

-  -  -  - Consumer News
"Calpers files lawsuit against NYSE." ... "The largest U.S. public pension fund is taking the unprecedented step of suing the New York Stock Exchange, alleging the embattled exchange condoned fraudulent practices by specialist trading firms that cost investors at least $155-million (U.S.)." ... "The California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers), which has assets of $148-billion (U.S.), filed the suit in U.S. court yesterday, and is asking other investors to join it in a class action." -By Shawn McCarthy -GlobeAndMail

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"Groups Around the Nation Re-enact the Wright Brothers' First Flight." ... "One hundred years ago, a telegram arrived in Dayton, Ohio, at the home of the Rev. Milton Wright." ... ""Success four flights thursday [sic] morning all against twenty one mile wind," it began. "longest 57 seconds inform Press home Christmas." It was signed with the misspelled name of Orville Wright." ... "It makes history's first airplane flight sound almost easy — as if the Wright Flyer had leapt into the air. But in fact, the Wrights crept forward. The first flight was only 120 feet, and the plane broke several struts when it landed." -By Ned Potter -ABCNEWS.com

-  - - ELECTION 2004
"As rivals sense a weak spot, Dean defends his stance on Iraq: Kerry, Lieberman sharpen attacks." ... "Democrats trailing Howard Dean in the presidential race said yesterday his statement that America is not made safer by the capture of Saddam Hussein raises questions about his political and national security judgment. The former Vermont governor responded by casting himself as the victim of unjustified attacks and said such criticism risks alienating the voters their party needs to win the White House in 2004." -By Glen Johnson -Boston/Globe

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"EU Agrees to Share Airline Passenger Data." ... "The European Union has agreed to share information about its airline passengers with the United States, in a deal announced yesterday that ends year-long negotiations over a new U.S. law intended to fight terrorism." ... "International airlines will turn over data about their U.S.-bound passengers, such as a traveler's name, e-mail address, telephone number and credit card number to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection unit." -By Sara Kehaulani Goo -WashingtonPost

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"US Airways pilots union wants CEO, CFO out." ... "Pilots union leaders at US Airways on Tuesday called for the removal of airline CEO David Siegel and Chief Financial Officer Neal Cohen. Management's "failed business strategies," not high labor costs, are behind the airline's continued losses since emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, union leaders charged." -By Daniel Reed -USATODAY

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"Explosion in Baghdad Kills at Least 10: Truck Loaded With Explosives Rams Into a Small Bus in Baghdad, Killing at Least 10 People." ... "A truck loaded with explosives rammed into a small bus near a police station Wednesday, killing at least 10 Iraqis, an Iraqi deputy minister said. He blamed the attack on Saddam Hussein loyalists angry over the former dictator's capture." ... "The explosion occurred before dawn in al-Bayaa, a poor district in southwest Baghdad, police said. Two cars nearby were destroyed. U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police secured the area after the explosion." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

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"Coalition fears confirmed as blasts kill eight." ... "Iraqi insurgents confirmed US and British government fears that the arrest of Saddam could galvanise them by mounting two attacks yesterday on police stations, killing eight and injuring 22." ... "The fatal explosion occurred at Husseiniya, north of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber sped through a fence protecting a police station in a four-wheel drive packed with explosives. It hit another car and detonated after guards opened fire. Six policemen were killed, as well as the driver; about 20 people were wounded." -By Ewen MacAskill and Richard Norton-Taylor -Guardian.co.uk

-  -  - ELECTION 2004
"Court to enter fray over energy-policy task force: Supreme Court will hear case alleging that industry leaders played a key role that must be disclosed." ... "The US Supreme Court delivered a victory to the White House Monday by agreeing to enter the long-running dispute over whether Vice President Dick Cheney must publicly disclose details about the Bush administration's energy policy task force." ... "The Supreme Court's decision to take up the case is important for both political and constitutional reasons. Even if a majority of justices rule against the White House, the Supreme Court action could help the administration keep the task force information under wraps for several more months and perhaps until after the 2004 election, analysts say." -By Warren Richey -CSMonitor

-  -ELECTION 2004
"Senator Breaux Won't Seek Re-election." ... "John B. Breaux, a moderate Democratic senator and one of the few bipartisan dealmakers left in Congress, announced Monday that he would not run for re-election next year, becoming the fifth Southern Democrat to abandon the Senate." ... "Mr. Breaux, who has represented Louisiana in Congress for 31 years, was often the senator Democrats and Republicans turned to when they needed to cut through partisan gridlock and broker compromises, as Mr. Breaux did on the recent Medicare legislation. His departure is seen not only as a crippling blow to Democratic efforts to regain control of the Senate but also as a setback to across-the-aisle cooperation, which is increasingly rare these days." -By Jeffrey Gettleman -NYTimes via -Google-News

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-  -  -  -  - Execution News
"Analysis: Putting Saddam on trial: The Iraqi Governing Council intends to put Saddam Hussein on trial by an Iraqi court." ... "It is determined to resist calls for an international tribunal. Saddam Hussein could face the death penalty. It has been suspended by the occupation authorities but could be reinstated by an Iraqi government." ... "That in itself would be controversial. Britain, as a coalition partner, objects to execution on principle. But Iraqis may want it." ... "The British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that Iraqis would "express a strong preference" for a trial in Iraq. International law, he said, also called for a domestic trial in such cases if possible." ... "The United States is firmly behind the Iraqi desire to try Saddam Hussein themselves" -By Paul Reynolds -BBC/News

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"A tip, high-tech surveillance and a GI with a shovel nab Saddam." ... "Perhaps a mile from his nearest palace, Saddam spent his final minutes of freedom in an underground chamber of hard-packed dirt, just wide enough to permit a man to recline. After decades as self-proclaimed heir to the iconic 12th-century warrior known in the West as Saladin, Saddam surrendered meekly without a shot from the pistol he clutched in his lap." ... "The clues that led to Saddam's capture emerged three weeks ago, officials said, when intelligence analysts and Special Operations forces shifted the focus of their hunt from Saddam's innermost circle to the more distant relatives and tribal allies who they suspected had been sheltering the deposed president." ... "The U.S. military and the CIA had formed a task force devoted exclusively to finding Saddam and his top allies. Called Task Force 121, it is an interagency team of CIA paramilitaries and "black," or unacknowledged, Special Operations forces." -By Barton Gellman and Dana Priest with contributions from Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Bradley Graham -WashingtonPost via -SeattleTimes.NWsource

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"Car bomb at police station in Iraq kills at least 17, police say." ... "A suspected suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside an Iraqi police station Sunday near Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and wounding 33 others, hours before the announcement of Saddam Hussein's capture, the U.S. military said." ... "The car bombing in Khaldiyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, killed police officers, city workers and civilian bystanders, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jeff Swisher said." -By Sameer N. Yacoub -AP via -SFGate.com

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"Saddam Captured Hiding in Hole Near Tikrit." ... "U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit in a major coup for Washington's beleaguered occupying force in Iraq." ... "Grubby, bearded and "very disorientated," the 66-year-old fallen dictator was dug out by troops from a cramped hiding pit during a raid on a farm in Ad-Dawr village late Saturday, U.S. Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno told a news conference in Tikrit." (1, 2, 3) -By Joseph Logan -Reuters

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"Martin takes over reins as 21st Prime Minister." ... "Paul Martin became Canada's 21st Prime Minister on Friday, ending his quest for the top job in the federal government and promising sweeping changes to the way the country is governed." ... "It was the final step in his journey to become prime minister after his election as Liberal Leader last month." ... "Mr. Martin ran for the Liberal leadership in 1990 and lost to former prime minister Jean Chretien. Mr. Martin officially took office Friday from Mr. Chretien, who resigned earlier in the day." -By Allison Dunfield -GlobeAndMail

-  -  -  - GENETICS
"DNA meets Death Row: Testing guilt and the system." ... "Inside a walk-in freezer in a Richmond, Calif., laboratory sits a tiny vial that holds one-fifth of one drop of a 20-year-old sperm sample. It is forensic DNA evidence extracted from the body of a brutally murdered young bride, evidence that no one is permitted by law to touch, evidence that-if tested-could determine whether an innocent man was executed in Virginia 11 years ago." ... "Since DNA “fingerprinting” began to revolutionize criminal forensics in the late 1980s with precise identifications, it has freed more than 130 convicts, 12 of whom have walked off death row. But in other cases, prosecutors have successfully blocked the testing of DNA before an execution and then fought posthumous tests just as vigorously." -By Lois Romano with contributions by researchers Lucy Shackelford and Alice Crites -WashingtonPost

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"Bush: Halliburton Must Pay for Overcharge: Bush Says U.S. Expects Halliburton to Repay Money if Company Overcharged for Gasoline in Iraq." ... "President Bush said Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney's former company should repay the government if it overcharged for gasoline delivered in Iraq under a controversial prewar contract." ... "Pentagon auditors say the company charged up to $61 million too much for delivering gasoline to Iraqi citizens under a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq's dilapidated oil industry. Halliburton denies overcharging." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

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- GENETICS

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"Prosecutors get delay in case against ex-chaplain." ... "The criminal proceedings against Captain James Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, charged with mishandling classified data, fell into confusion and stalled as prosecutors asked for extra time to determine whether documents found in Yee's luggage when he was leaving the base were, in fact, classified." ... "The hearing was postponed Tuesday until Jan. 19 to give the prosecutors time to review the documents that set off a major investigation into whether Yee was a spy, a contention from which the government has since distanced itself." -By Neil A. Lewis -NYTimes via -IHT.com

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"Annan rules out swift UN redeployment in Iraq." ... "Secretary General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that he had ruled out a swift renewal of a substantial UN presence in Iraq because of the danger there." ... ""I cannot compromise the security of our international and national staff," he said in a 26-page report to the Security Council that found the UN to be "a high-value, high-impact target for terrorist activity in Iraq for the foreseeable future."" -By Warren Hoge -NYTimes via -Google-News -IHT.com

-  -  - 
"US, China find a new middle way: Chinese premier's visit reflects a relationship characterized less by rivalry than moderation." ... "The welcome accorded Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Washington this week highlights how much US-Chinese relations have improved since the first months of the Bush administration." ... "This doesn't mean these two giants of the world economy have become strategic partners, as Clinton officials had hoped. From trade to Taiwan, there are too many differences between them for that. But neither have they become strategic competitors, as the Bush team once predicted they might." -By Peter Grier and Amelia Newcomb -CSMonitor

-  -  - 
"Man has been changing climate for 8,000 years: Agriculture may have released huge amounts of greenhouse gases into atmosphere." ... "Humans began altering the climate 8,000 years ago, long before the industrial revolution, claims a leading climate scientist¹." ... "Massive clearance and irrigation for agriculture released huge amounts greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, says William Ruddiman of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville." ... "By the time the industrial revolution got under way, we had already raised the global temperature by an average of 0.8ºC and by as much as 2 ºC at high latitudes, proposes - enough to deflect an impending ice age. Today's winters would be as much as 7 degrees cooler at high latitudes if it were not for the pre-industrial input of greenhouse gases, he says." -By Betsy Mason -Nature.com

-  -  - 
"War Crimes Court Established for Iraq." ... "Iraq's U.S.-appointed interim government established a war crimes tribunal Wednesday to try former members of Saddam Hussein's regime, and two U.S. soldiers were killed and four wounded in a northern city." ... "Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, president of Iraq's Governing Council, said the new tribunal will cover crimes committed from July 17, 1968 the day Saddam's Baath Party came to power until May 1, 2003 the day President Bush declared major hostilities over." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

- -  - 
"Supreme Court upholds 'soft money' ban." ... "A sharply divided Supreme Court upheld key features of the nation's new law intended to lessen the influence of money in politics, ruling Wednesday that the government may ban unlimited donations to political parties." ... "Those donations, called "soft money," had become a mainstay of modern political campaigns, used to rally voters to the polls and to pay for sharply worded television ads." ... "The new rules have been in force during the early stages of preparation for the 2004 elections for president and Congress." -AP via -CNN

-  - -ELECTION 2004
"Campaign Finance Law's Key Parts Upheld." ... "The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the two key parts of landmark campaign finance law designed to curb the influence of money in politics, a ruling affecting the 2004 and future presidential and congressional elections." -By James Vicini -Reuters via -Wired

-  -
"Koizumi commits SDF personnel to Iraq." ... "He says Japan has a crucial noncombat role to play in Iraq." ... "Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, emphasizing Japan's responsibility to promote peace, said Tuesday he will send the Self-Defense Forces to one of the most dangerous nations on the planet." ... "Prior to the Cabinet's approval of the basic plan, Koizumi met with Takenori Kanzaki, the head of coalition partner New Komeito who had raised concerns about sending ground troops to Iraq." ... "The two leaders agreed that the actual dispatch of Ground SDF to Iraq would come only after the government sufficiently determines the security situation in that country." ... "Under the basic plan, a maximum 600 GSDF members will be sent to Iraq, along with up to 200 vehicles. The Air SDF will dispatch up to eight transport planes, while the Maritime SDF will send two transport ships and two escort destroyers." -Asahi Shimbun>English

-  -  -  - -  -  - 
"Pentagon Bars Three Nations From Iraq Bids." ... "The Pentagon has barred French, German and Russian companies from competing for $18.6 billion in contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, saying it was acting to protect "the essential security interests of the United States."" ... "The directive, issued Friday by Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, represents the most substantive retaliation to date by the Bush administration against American allies who opposed its decision to go to war in Iraq." ... "Under the guidelines, only companies from the United States, Iraq and 61 countries designated "coalition partners" will be allowed to bid on the contracts. France, Germany and Russia are not on the list." (1, 2) -By Douglas Jehl -NYTimes via -Google-News

-  -  - Water
"High Court Rules For Va. Over Md. In Water Dispute: Potomac Battle Dates Back Centuries." ... "The Supreme Court yesterday settled a centuries-old dispute over control of the Potomac River in favor of Virginia, ruling that Maryland has no right to regulate the commonwealth's withdrawals of drinking water from the river." ... "By a vote of 7 to 2, the justices essentially affirmed what a court-appointed special master had already decided: that although an 1877 arbitration decision affirmed Maryland's sovereignty over the entire riverbed, it also preserved Virginia's rights to extend water-intake pipes into the middle of the stream -- and Virginia had not forfeited those rights by submitting to some Maryland regulation in recent years." (1, 2) -By Charles Lane and Maria Glod with contributions by  Craig Whitlock -WashingtonPost

-  -  -  - 
"Bush sides with China over Taiwan referendum." ... "President George W. Bush yesterday underlined the growing importance the US attaches to its relationship with China by bluntly telling Taiwan to drop plans for a referendum that would be interpreted as a unilateral move towards independence." ... "Mr Bush urged both sides to refrain from provocative actions and not to challenge the status quo of the "one China" policy." ... "But typically loyal neo-conservatives, who have long viewed China as the emerging strategic threat to the US, rounded on Mr Bush, accusing him of suppressing the democratic aspirations of the Taiwanese." -By Guy Dinmore -FT.com

-  -  -  -  -  - 
"Rigging election boundaries: When does it go too far? The Supreme Court Wednesday takes up a case on political gerrymandering that could affect districts across the US." ... "Now, for the first time in 17 years, the US Supreme Court has taken up a case to determine whether at some point political gerrymandering becomes so egregious as to violate safeguards in the Constitution." ... "There are alternatives to heavily partisan gerrymandering. Four states -Arizona, Iowa, New Jersey, and Washington - use commissions to draw congressional districts. But the combination of increasingly detailed census information and mapping software has made gerrymandering too attractive to party leaders." -By Warren Richey -CSMonitor

-  -  - 

- ELECTION 2004
"Transcript: Democratic Presidential Debate in Durham, N.H." (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)-WashingtonPost

- ELECTION 2004
"Al Gore endorses Howard Dean: Gore: 'One candidate clearly now stands out'." ... "Al Gore endorsed Howard Dean's bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on Tuesday, substantially deepening Dean's fast-developing drive for dominance in the nine-candidate field of would-be challengers to President Bush." ... ""I'm very proud and honored to endorse Howard Dean to be the next president of the United States of America," Gore said." -Contributed to by John King and Kelly Wallace -CNN

- 
"Deadly Explosion Near Kremlin Shuts Down Moscow." ... "A midday explosion Tuesday just hundreds of yards from the Kremlin left as many as six people dead and another 13 injured here in the Russian capital in what authorities called a terrorist attack." ... "The blast about 11 a.m. outside the prestigious National Hotel shut down the heart of Moscow and put the city on edge." -By Peter Baker -WashingtonPost

-  - 
"Inspired by a Movie, Brothers Win a National Science Contest." ... "In the 1999 movie "October Sky," the teenage sons of coal mine workers in rural West Virginia build rockets and improbably wind up winning a national science contest." ... "That movie inspired two brothers from Connecticut, the sons of a nuclear engineer and a special education teacher, who took top honors as a team in this year's Siemens Westinghouse Math, Science and Technology competition." -By David M. Herszenhorn -NYTimes via-Google-News

-  - 
"Car Bomb Injures 31 U.S. Troops in Iraq." ... "A car bomb attack on barracks near the northern city of Mosul early Tuesday wounded 31 American soldiers, mainly with flying debris and glass, the military said. The injuries were not life-threatening." ... "The attack came less than a day after insurgents shot and killed a soldier from the Army's 101st Airborne Division as he guarded a gas station in Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said in Baghdad." ... "A total of 448 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion on March 20. Of those, 308 died in hostile action." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

-  -  - 
"Japan Cabinet Approves Plan for Iraq Troop Dispatch." ... "Japan's cabinet approved a plan on Tuesday for the dispatch of non-combat troops to Iraq, a landmark decision that clears the way for what could be the biggest and most dangerous overseas mission by its military since World War II." -Reuters via -Boston/Globe

-  -  - 
"Iraq's students say, 'Welcome back, professor'." ... "In recent months, university presidents report that dozens of professors have returned from exile and are looking to get their jobs back. At the US-led Ministry of Higher Education, staffed by expatriate professors, hundreds more have e-mailed from England, the US, and the Netherlands to inquire about returning. They also want to offer donations and scholarships, and to start partnerships." -By Christina Asquith -CSMonitor

-  -  - 
"Exceptions to Miranda rule: Are they constitutional? The Supreme Court hears three cases this week that could clarify the scope of defendant rights." ... ""You have the right to remain silent. If you give up this right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law; you have a right to counsel ..."" ... "Although such warnings have become widely known, they have remained a source of controversy within the law-enforcement community ever since the US Supreme Court endorsed the practice in the 1966 landmark case Miranda v. Arizona. This week, the US Supreme Court takes up three cases all dealing with police attempts to bypass the Miranda warnings at crucial stages of an investigation." -By Warren Richey -CSMonitor

-  - 

-  - 
"Justices sympathetic to execution appeal: Criticize prosecutors in 1980 Texas trial." ... "Even conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a staunch death penalty supporter, couldn't help the lawyer for the state of Texas on Monday to defend the conduct of prosecutors during a 1980 capital murder trial." ... "In the end, it appeared to be a very good day for Delma Banks Jr., one of the country's longest-serving death row inmates and whose execution the high court halted with 10 minutes to spare earlier this year." ... "The justices will decide Banks' case by next summer." -By Patty Reinhart -HoustonChronicle.com

-  - 
"Major Afghan offensive launched." ... "The U.S. military has launched a major ground operation in Afghanistan in an effort to eliminate the remnants of al Qaeda and the Taliban regime overthrown in 2001." ... "Military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty described "Operation Avalanche", which began over the weekend, as the largest ground operation yet in Afghanistan." ... "Between 2,000 and 11,500 soldiers will be dispatched in east and south Afghanistan to go after Taliban and al Qaeda militants, he said." -CNN

-  -  - 
"More women aspiring to be doctors." ... "For the first time ever, women outnumbered men among people applying to U.S. medical schools for this fall -- a milestone in the slow but steady increase in the number of aspiring female doctors." ... "Women have yet to surpass the number of men actually entering medical school. Nationwide this fall, women were closer than ever to making up the majority of new students, constituting 49.7 percent of the entering class of more than 16,500." -AP via -CNN

-  - 
"Bush Signs $400B[illion] Medicare Overhaul Bill." ... "Overall, the new law will carry out the most extensive changes since Medicare's creation in 1965. It adds a prescription drug benefit beginning in 2006. At the same time, it encourages insurance companies to offer private plans to millions of older Americans who now receive health care benefits under terms fixed by the federal government. Leading Democrats have charged this would lead to the destruction of the Medicare program as it was designed at its inception during the Johnson administration." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

-  - 
"No Exams Required: Pharmacist Nailed for Online Drug Sales." ... "Francine Haight will never forget the day she found her son Ryan, a high school senior, lifeless, in his bed." ... "It turned out that some of the drugs that killed the La Mesa, Calif., teen on Feb. 12, 2001 came from nationpharmacy.com, a Norman, Okla.-based Internet drug store owned by pharmacist Clayton Fuchs, who also ran other similar Web sites." ... "In October, a federal jury convicted Fuchs, 33, on six felony offenses including conspiracy to dispense a controlled substance, operating a continuing criminal enterprise and money laundering. Prosecuted under the Drug Kingpin Statute, he faces 20 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 11." (1, 2, 3) -By Greg Hunter -ABCNEWS.com

-  -  - - Civil Liberties News
"Outkast Denied By U.S. Supreme Court In Rosa Parks Case." ... "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition by Outkast and their record labels asking the court to intervene in a lawsuit involving civil-rights icon Rosa Parks and the rap duo's Grammy-nominated single bearing her name. The move clears the way for Parks to sue Outkast for what she claims is false advertising." -MTV.com / News

-  -  -  -  -  -  - 
"North Korea guarantee may pave way to accord." ... "The Bush administration has agreed with South Korea and Japan to a broadly worded set of principles to end North Korea's nuclear program, calling for a ``coordinated'' set of steps in which five nations would offer North Korea a security guarantee as it begins a verifiable disassembly of its nuclear facilities, according to Bush administration and Asian officials." ... "The statement is being sent to China's leaders today, the officials said, in hopes that Beijing will pass them on this week to Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader. But officials said that North Korea may judge the offer far too vague, in part because it sets no timetable for energy or economic aid to the country, and because it would require inspections of suspect facilities that have never before been opened." -By David Sanger -NYTimes via -RegisterGuard

- 
"Pro-Putin parties dominate Russian parliamentary election." ... "Allies of President Vladimir Putin won a sweeping victory in parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results Monday, strengthening his hand as he plots strategy for the second term he is expected to win next year." ... "Europe's top security and human rights watchdog condemned the elections as a retreat from the democratic reforms Russia adopted after the fall of the Soviet Union, saying that fawning media coverage of the president's allies before the vote gave them an unfair advantage." -By Danica Kirka -AP via -SFGate.com

- 
"Kremlin likely to gain power in next parliament: Russians went to the polls Sunday to elect a Duma." ... "The Kremlin has tightened control over the nation's media. Critics also say that United Russia has bolstered its chances by forcing out opponents through court and election commission challenges. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is monitoring the election, last week criticized the Kremlin for helping United Russia with "administrative resources." It also noted a "clear bias" in state-owned media for pro-Kremlin parties, and cases of "selective" application of candidate registration criteria." -By Scott Peterson -CSMonitor

-  - 
"Commonwealth decides to extend year-old suspension of Zimbabwe." ... "The Commonwealth, whose nations represent one-third of the world's 6 billion people, banned Zimbabwe from its decision-making councils last year, after Mugabe was widely accused of rigging re-election to continue his 23-year rule." -By Glenn McKenzie -AP via -SFGate.com

-  -  - 
"Dirty Bomb Warheads Disappear: Stocks of Soviet-Era Arms For Sale on Black Market." ... "In the ethnic conflicts that surrounded the collapse of the Soviet Union, fighters in several countries seized upon an unlikely new weapon: a small, thin rocket known as the Alazan. Originally built for weather experiments, the Alazan rockets were packed with explosives and lobbed into cities. Military records show that at least 38 Alazan warheads were modified to carry radioactive material, effectively creating the world's first surface-to-surface dirty bomb." ... "The radioactive warheads are not known to have been used. But now, according to experts and officials, they have disappeared." ... "The last known repository was here, in a tiny separatist enclave known as Transdniester, which broke away from Moldova 12 years ago. The Transdniester Moldovan Republic is a sliver of land no bigger than Rhode Island located along Moldova's eastern border with Ukraine. Its government is recognized by no other nation. But its weapons stocks -- new, used and modified -- have attracted the attention of black-market arms dealers worldwide. And they're for sale, according to U.S. and Moldovan officials and weapons experts." (1, 2,3) -By Joby Warrick -WashingtonPost

-  -  -  - 
"Passing on the lessons from Pearl Harbor: Those who lived through the attack and WWII reflect on impact of war." ... "On Dec. 7, 1941, six Japanese aircraft carriers positioned 200 miles north of Oahu launched 181 attack planes toward the slowly waking port of Pearl Harbor and at U.S. military airfields elsewhere on the island. The two- stage attack killed 2,403 Americans, including 68 civilians -- men, women and children." ... "The attack destroyed or damaged 21 ships of the U.S. Pacific fleet and 347 airplanes. The Japanese lost 29 planes." -By Matthew B. Stannard -SFGate.com
Search Google: <Pearl Harbor -[News]>

-  - Christmas News - Water
"Powerful storm buries Northeast in foot of snow." ... "The finale of a powerful, two-day storm roared across the New York metropolitan area and played out over the Northeast yesterday, burying parts of the region in a foot of snow that set records, slowed travel, challenged Christmas shoppers and transformed the landscape into vistas as uncluttered as early maps of America." ... "The snowstorm, a 450-mile-wide galaxy swirling counterclockwise on satellite pictures and a thing of awesome beauty on the ground, was the biggest on record for early December in New York, and it packed the wallop of heavy-duty winter blows more typical of January and February." -NYTimes and -AP via -SeattleTimes.NWsource

-  -  -  -  - 
"Iraq delays hand Cheney firm $1bn: ·Key contract decisions postponed again. ·Blair drawn into row over lack of 'level playing fields'." ... "Halliburton, the engineering group formerly run by US vice-president Dick Cheney, has been given $1 billion worth of reconstruction work in Iraq by the US government without having to compete for it, thanks to repeated delays in opening up a key contract to competition." ... "The cost-plus contract means the amount spent by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which is running the work, is open-ended, rather than being fixed at the outset, because the scope of the damage was unknown. The USACE described the contract as a 'bridge to competition', but original plans to award the work competitively in August have repeatedly slipped. So far, $1.7bn has been made available to Halliburton for the work." -By Oliver Morgan -Observer.co.uk via -Guardian.co.uk

-  -  - 
"Tough New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns." ... "As the guerrilla war against Iraqi insurgents intensifies, American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in barbed wire." ... "In selective cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought to be used by Iraqi attackers. They have begun imprisoning the relatives of suspected guerrillas, in hopes of pressuring the insurgents to turn themselves in." ... "The Americans embarked on their get-tough strategy in early November, goaded by what proved to be the deadliest month yet for American forces in Iraq, with 81 soldiers killed by hostile fire. The response they chose is beginning to echo the Israeli counterinsurgency campaign in the occupied territories." (1, 2) -By Dexter Filkins -NYTimes via -Google-News

"White House is hoping to renew space intrigue: Manned lunar and Mars trips envisioned." ... "The Bush administration is developing a new strategy for the U.S. space program that would send American astronauts back to the moon for the first time in more than 30 years, according to administration and congressional officials who said the plan also included a manned mission to Mars." ... "A lunar mission - possibly establishing a permanent base there - is the focus of high-level White House discussions on how to reinvigorate the space program following the space shuttle Columbia accident this year, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity." -By Bryan Bender -Boston/Globe via -IHT.com

-  -  - 
"Spy Satellites Used to Look for Damage on Space Station." ... "NASA has enlisted U.S. spy satellites and taken other measures to inspect the exterior of the international space station for signs of any damage that might explain a strange metallic crunching noise that was heard by the two astronauts on board in the middle of the night of Nov. 26." ... NASA has also shifted steering control of the orbiting laboratory to Russian-built thrusters while engineers study a new problem in the ailing U.S.-built gyroscope system, spaceflight officials said yesterday." -By Kathy Sawyer -WashingtonPost

-  - 
"Iraq council wishes to stay on; Washington seen likely to grant extension." ... "Most members of Iraq's Governing Council want the U.S.-appointed body to stay beyond July 1, the date set for a provisional Iraqi government to take office." ... "The coalition agreement on handing sovereignty back to Iraqis says the 25-seat interim body must cease to exist. But the Bush administration, faced with mounting military casualties in Iraq and a re-election campaign, could consider granting the council members' wishes to stay as a small price to pay for the implementation of the political plan." -By Hamza Hendawi -AP via -Boston/Globe

- 
"Suicide bomber on Russian train kills 42." ... "A suspected suicide attacker set off a bomb that ripped through a crowded commuter train near the rebellious region of Chechnya in southern Russia yesterday, killing at least 42 people and injuring 170." ... "President Vladimir Putin immediately called the attack an attempt to destabilize the country before tomorrow's parliamentary elections." ... "Authorities said a man set off an explosive device packed with screws, bolts, and wire on a morning rush hour train jammed with students as it traveled through the spa town of Yessentuki on the way to nearby schools and universities." -By David Filipov -Boston/Globe

-  -  -  -  - 
"Rumsfeld Visits Georgia to Bind a Strategic Partnership." ... "The United States views Georgia as a strategic partner, in part for its location, along an arc of instability in a region thought to be a crossroads for terrorists. A pipeline set to open in 2005 linking Azerbaijan, which Mr. Rumsfeld visited Thursday, and Turkey, NATO's only Islamic member, runs across Georgia, as well." ... "Georgia's leaders, describing the desperate state of their temporary government, said the treasury was so empty that they had asked the United States to consider helping pay soldiers' salaries. Satisfying the armed forces is viewed as important to keeping the peace ahead of Jan. 4 elections." -By Thom Shanker -NYTimes via -Google-News

"Ohio Freeway Shooting Cases Rise to 14: Two More Shootings Are Reported Along Ohio Freeway [Interstate 270], Bringing Total Number of Cases to 14." ... "A woman driving along the interstate heard a thud and noticed a bullet hole in her car when she got home." ... "A day later, a second woman found a bullet hole in the front of her house about a quarter-mile from the same highway. She found the bullet on her living room floor." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

-  - 

-  - Georgia News
"Rumsfeld Offers U.S. Support for Georgia." ... "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld pledged full U.S. support Friday for this former Soviet republic and said Russia is obliged to withdraw its troops as promised." ... "Rumsfeld met with Georgia's interim leadership, including the acting president, Nino Burdzhanadze." ... "He was the first member of President Bush's cabinet to come here since election protests forced Eduard Shevardnadze to resign the presidency last month." -By Robert Burns -AP via -Guardian.co.uk

- 
"S Korea's Roh renews plan to relocate capital." ... "President Roh Moo-hyun on Friday renewed his pledge to relocate South Korea's administrative capital away from Seoul to encourage more balanced regional development of the heavily centralised country." ... "Mr Roh promised during his election campaign last year to build a new city in Chungcheong province, in the middle of South Korea, to replace Seoul as the seat of government." -By Andrew Ward -FT.com

-  - 
"Blast Near U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan: Explosion Occurred Near U.S. Embassy in Afghan Capital of Kabul; No Injuries Reported." ... "The blast occurred after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and held a news conference with him at the Presidential Palace in another part of the city. But it was not known if Rumsfeld was still in Kabul when the explosion occurred." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

- -  -  -  - 
"Guantanamo Bay Detainee Is First to Be Given a Lawyer: Move Is Sign That Australian Alleged Al Qaeda Fighter May Be Tried by Tribunal." ... "An Australian detainee at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba last night became the first prisoner there to be given a lawyer, a strong indication that he is on track to be the first alleged al Qaeda fighter in detention to go before a military tribunal, according to informed sources." ... "But a source said Muslim adventurer and former cowboy David Hicks may never be tried before one of the special military courts because the U.S. government is working on a plea bargain with him. He has been accused of associating with al Qaeda and other terrorist groups." -By John Mintz -WashingtonPost

-  - Tucson News

-  - 
"Iraqi 'big fish' eludes US forces." ... "US forces were conducting a big search and sweep operation last night in the town of Hawija, 30 miles west of Kirkuk. But they denied reports they had captured or killed Izzat Ibrahim, a longtime Saddam Hussein confidant who is No 6 on the US list of most wanted. A $10m (£5.78m) reward has been put up for his capture." ... ""He was definitely not captured in today's mission," said Major Doug Vincent of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Like Saddam, Ibrahim disappeared after the US invasion and since has been widely rumoured to be in hiding in the northern city of Mosul and Sunni areas north of Baghdad, coordinating guerrilla attacks against American soldiers and Iraqis working with the coalition authority." -By Michael Howard -Guardian.co.uk

-  -  -  -  - 
"White House Seeks to Soften Mercury Rules." ... "The Bush administration is working to undo regulations that would force power plants to sharply reduce mercury emissions and other toxic pollutants, according to a government document and interviews with officials." ... "The Nov. 26 document makes the case that the Environmental Protection Agency, under President Bill Clinton, misread the Clean Air Act's requirements and that there are less onerous ways to reduce the emissions." -By Eric Pianin -WashingtonPost

-  -  -  - 
"Bush Is Urged to Maintain Import Tariffs for Steel." ... "President Bush got a taste of the treacherous nature of trade politics on Tuesday, hearing last-ditch pleas from some of his own supporters not to proceed with plans to lift tariffs protecting the steel industry from international competition." ... "What was supposed to be a quick trip here, to a town once proudly known as Steel City, turned instead into a series of low-key but high-stakes confrontations over the prospect that Mr. Bush will soon announce a decision to cut off the tariffs, potentially hurting steel makers, their employees and suppliers in Pennsylvania and other industrial states like West Virginia and Ohio that are closely divided politically." -By Richard W. Stevenson contributions by Elizabeth Becker -NYTimes via -Google-News

- -  - 
"Pentagon freezes Boeing contract: The US military has put an $18bn deal to buy Boeing tanker aircraft on hold." ... "The Defence Department said the deal would be frozen pending an inquiry into Boeing's links with a former Pentagon procurement official." ... "The official, Darleen Druyun, discussed a possible job with Boeing before she had disqualified herself from government service." ... "Ms Druyun was involved in the Pentagon's decision to award the tanker contract to Boeing." -BBC/News

-  - 
"Google stops accepting ads from unlicensed pharmacies." ... "Google Inc. has stopped accepting advertisements from unlicensed pharmacies, joining other popular sites that have bowed to pressure to limit access to the drugs, such as Vicodin." ... "The crackdown on unlicensed pharmacies comes as regulators and Congress intensify their focus on third parties - Web sites, credit companies and shipping companies - that make it easier for illicit operators to sell potentially dangerous drugs." -By Michael Liedtke -AP via -Miami/Herald

-  - ELECTION 2004
"Economic news isn't so bright in key states." ... "When unexpectedly good job numbers suggested the long U.S. economic slump was finally over, it looked as if Democrats would lose one of the weapons they had planned to use to unseat President Bush next year. But persistently weak job markets in a handful of crucial states still pose a serious threat to Republicans." -By Peronet Despeignes -USATODAY

-  - 

-  -  - 
"Iraq council resists powerful cleric:  Majority backs U.S. plan for picking interim government." ... "A majority of Iraq’s U.S.-appointed Governing Council has decided to support an American plan to select a provisional government through regional caucuses despite objections from the country’s most powerful Shiite Muslim cleric, according to several council members." ... "The council's stance, the result of intense lobbying over the past few days by the U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, could result in a dramatic showdown with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who has insisted that a provisional government be chosen through a national election. If the council persists in supporting the American plan, many in Iraq’s Shiite majority, who regard the grand ayatollah as their supreme spiritual authority, may reject the provisional government as illegitimate." -By Rajiv Chandrasekaran -WashingtonPost via -MSNBC

-  - 
"China Releases 3 Internet Writers, but Convicts 1 Other." ... "China released three Internet essayists who were detained a year ago for criticizing the government, including a college student in Beijing whose arrest on subversion charges had attracted international attention, a human rights group based in Hong Kong reported Sunday." -By Philip P. Pan -WashingtonPost

-  - 
"Boeing CEO Condit resigns From Staff and wire reports." ... "Boeing (BA) Chairman and CEO Phil Condit resigned unexpectedly only days after the huge aerospace manufacturer fired two other Boeing officials for an alleged ethics breach." ... "The departure of Condit, 62, follows last week's firing of Chief Financial Officer Michael Sears for discussing job possibilities with Darleen Druyun while Druyun was still working as a top Air Force procurement official and was helping Boeing win support for a major Air Force contract." -USATODAY

-  -  - ELECTION 2004
"Colo. justices overturn voter districts: Redistricting case could influence 2004 national elections." ... "In a decision that could have national implications, the Colorado Supreme Court threw out the state’s new congressional districts Monday because the GOP-led Legislature redrew the maps in violation of the constitution. The General Assembly is required to redraw the maps only after each census and before the ensuing general election — not at any other time, the court said in a closely watched decision. A similar court battle is being waged in Texas." -AP via -MSNBC

-  -  -  - Free-Speech
"Texas court to rule: Can fiction be libel?" ... "Shortly after a Texas county judge had 13-year-old Christopher Beamon jailed for five days for writing a Halloween essay about the shooting of a teacher, the Dallas Observer parodied the news item with a fictional account of its own." ... "In a satirical piece, the same judge, Darlene Whitten, was portrayed jailing a 6-year-old girl for writing a book report on Maurice Sendak's children's classic "Where The Wild Things Are," said to contain "cannibalism, fanaticism, and disorderly conduct."" -By John C. Ryan -CSMonitor

-  - 
"U.S. Troops Kill 46 Iraqis But Allies Suffer Losses." ... "U.S. troops killed 46 Iraqis and captured eight they said tried to ambush U.S. convoys in central Iraq on Sunday, ending a weekend in which guerrillas killed a dozen people from four nations helping the U.S. military." ... "A U.S. military spokesman said U.S. troops killed the Iraqis when the 4th Infantry Division repelled several coordinated ambush attacks on U.S. convoys round Samarra, north of Baghdad." ... "Some attackers wore the uniform of the Fedayeen, a militia formed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein before U.S.-led forces toppled him in April, he [Lieutenant-Colonel William MacDonald] added." (1, 2, 3) -By Andrew Marshall with contributions from Luke Baker, Dean Yates, Emma Graham-Harrison, Lee Suwan, Linda Sieg, and Masayuki Kitano -Reuters

-  -  -  - 
"Web sites vanish so fast scientific papers just can't keep up: Disappearing links cause consternation -- it's not academic." ... "In research described in the journal Science last month, the team [dermatologist Robert Dellavalle and his co-workers] looked at footnotes from scientific articles in three major journals -- the New England Journal of Medicine, Science and Nature -- at three months, 15 months and 27 months after publication. The prevalence of inactive Internet references grew during those intervals from 3.8 percent to 10 percent to 13 percent." ... ""I think of it like the library burning in Alexandria," Dellavalle said, referring to the 48 B.C. sacking of the ancient world's greatest repository of knowledge. "We've had all these hundreds of years of stuff available by interlibrary loan, but now things just a few years old are disappearing right under our noses really quickly."" -By Rick Weiss-WashingtonPost via -SFGate.com

- ELECTION 2004
"Bush reelection team looking to register 3 million voters." ... "President Bush's reelection team, anticipating another close election, has begun to assemble one of the largest grass-roots organizations of any modern presidential campaign, using enormous financial resources and lack of primary opposition to seize an early advantage over the Democrats in the battle to mobilize voters in 2004." ... "Bush's campaign website already has signed up 6 million supporters, 10 times the number that Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has, and the Bush operation is in the middle of an unprecedented drive to register 3 million new Republican voters. The campaign has set county vote targets in some states and has begun training thousands of volunteers who will recruit an army of door-to-door canvassers for the final days of the election next November." -By Dan Balz and Mike Allen-WashingtonPost via -Boston/Globe

-  -  -  - 
"Officer charged with Guantanamo security breach." ... "Col. Jackie Duane Farr is the fourth man assigned to intelligence operations at Guantanamo Bay accused of mishandling classified information." ... "Until recently, Farr was director of the intelligence collection operation in the so-called Joint Interrogations Group, said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, a Guantanamo spokeswoman. The group has teams of interrogators and analysts who weekly question about half of the 660 prisoners being held at Camp Delta, a sprawling prison camp for captives taken in Afghanistan in the War on Terror." -By Carol Rosenberg-Miami/Herald

-  -  - 
"Battle lines are drawn in Chrysler's 'takeover' case." ... "When Kirk Kerkorian (pictured) steps into the witness box on Monday or Tuesday, the billionaire casino magnate will make an extraordinary claim: Daimler-Benz, Germany's oldest carmaker, tricked him into selling his stake in Chrysler, one of the biggest names in US automobile making, on the cheap." ... "He is seeking $1.2bn in damages, with a possibility of $3bn in punitive damages." -By James Mackintosh -FT.com

-  -  -  - -  - 
"Two U.S. Soldiers Among 12 Killed in Iraq This Weekend: Deadly Weekend Ends Deadliest Month Since March." ... "Guerrillas killed a dozen people from four nations helping the U.S. military in Iraq in weekend ambushes, sparking new concern among Washington's allies about the risks of getting involved in stabilizing the country." ... "Two South Koreans died on Sunday when their car was sprayed with bullets near Saddam Hussein's hometown, a day after ambushes killed seven Spanish intelligence agents, two Japanese diplomats and their Iraqi driver, and a Colombian contractor." (1, 2) -By Andrew Marshall-Reuters via -WashingtonPost

-  - 
"Editorial: Big spenders/Bush & Co. remortgage nation." ... "Someone recently called President Bush "the mother of all big spenders." It wasn't Howard Dean or any of the other Democratic presidential candidates. It wasn't a Democratic member of Congress. It was fiscal analysts for the conservative-libertarian Cato Institute." ... "Right now the total accumulated federal debt stands at $6.9 trillion. Over the next decade, Bush's policies, if not adjusted by either raising taxes or cutting spending, or both, will almost double that debt. Goldman Sachs, a prominent Wall Street"-StarTribune

-  - 
"USS Cole Heads Out for Overseas Deployment: USS Cole Heads Out for First Overseas Deployment Since 2000 Terrorist Bombing in Yemen Port." ... "The USS Cole and its crew of 340 pulled out of port Saturday for the destroyer's first overseas deployment since it was bombed by terrorists three years ago in Yemen's port of Aden." ... "A crowd of about 100 family members watched as the ship left the Naval Station Norfolk [Virgina] at 12:55 p.m." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

-  - 
"Bullet-riddled body that of missing exec in Colombia." ... "A bullet-riddled body found outside Bogota was positively identified Tuesday as 55-year-old Chikao Muramatsu, kidnapped in February 2001 and held by leftist guerrillas." ... "Muramatsu served as vice president of Yazaki-Ciemel Ltd., a joint venture of auto parts maker Yazaki Corp., based in Tokyo's Minato Ward." -By Satoshi Izumi -Asahi Shimbun>English

-  -  -  - Thanksgiving
"Bush Makes Secret Thanksgiving Visit to Iraq." ... "President Bush secretly traveled to Baghdad and paid a surprise Thanksgiving Day visit to U.S. troops on Thursday in a bid to boost the morale of forces in Iraq amid mounting casualties." ... "In an elaborate plan to ensure his security in the tense Iraqi capital, Bush slipped away from his Texas ranch on Wednesday night, arrived in Iraq on Thursday and spent 2-1/2 hours with the troops before flying back to the United States." -By Steve Holland -Reuters via -Wired

- - 
"Shift seen in target of Iraqi guerrillas: Attacks on troops ease;civilians bear the brunt" ... "Guerrillas thought loyal to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein are shifting away from attacks against American troops in favor of killing and terrorizing Iraqi civilians who cooperate with the US-led coalition occupying the country, the chief of US Central Command said yesterday." ... "General John Abizaid said that the aggressive American anti-insurgency campaign underway in Baghdad and in the "Sunni Triangle" region to the north and west has resulted in a sharp decline in attacks on US soldiers, although the soldiers from four Army divisions are still very much under the gun." -By Colin Nickerson -Boston/Globe

-  - 
"Iran Faces Censure for Nuclear Cover-Ups: Iran Faces Censure for Past Nuclear Cover-Ups Under Draft Resolution at U.N. Atomic Energy Meeting." ... "Iran faces censure for past nuclear cover-ups but escapes a direct threat of sanctions under a draft resolution to be presented at a U.N. atomic energy meeting." ... "A session of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors is set Wednesday to approve the draft, which papers over the dispute between the United States and France, Germany and Britain." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

-  -  -  - 
"Pakistan, Kashmir and India breathe easier with cease-fire." ... "Indian and Pakistani military commanders agreed yesterday to a cease-fire along their common border, including the volatile and heavily militarized front line in the disputed territory of Kashmir, officials in both countries said." ... "The truce, which was to take effect at midnight last night, is the first formal cease-fire between the nuclear-armed rivals since a separatist insurgency began in Indian-controlled portions of Kashmir 14 years ago." -By Hari Kumar -NYTimes via -SeattlePI.NWsource

-  - 
"Turkish Court Charges 9 in Bombings Probe: Turkish Court Charges Nine Suspected Accomplices in Suicide Bombings Probe, Defense Lawyer Says" ... "The charges came just five days after the bombings of the British consulate and a London-based bank in Istanbul. Fifty-seven people, including the bombers, died in those attacks and the bombings of two synagogues in the city on Nov. 15." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

- 
"Ex-Security Trust CEO faces charges: Federal regulators order that bank be shut down." ... "New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed felony charges Tuesday against the former chief executive of Security Trust and two other ex-executives, while U.S. regulators ordered that the company be shut down." ... "The complaint alleges that former CEO Grant Seeger as well as William Kenyon, Security Trust's former president, and Nicole McDermott, formerly senior vice president of corporate services, acted as middlemen and helped hedge funds engage in late trading of mutual funds." -By Luisa Beltran -CBSNews /MarketWatch

-  - 
"US regulators shoot to kill in fund probe." ... "Federal regulators are to close down Securities Trust, an Arizona-based company accused of mutual fund fraud, in the first action of its kind against a tainted institution."  -FT.com

-  - 
"Many Iraqis see little to celebrate as Ramadan ends." ... "For the first time in most of their lives, Iraqis celebrated the start of Eid al-Fitr on Monday without Saddam Hussein and under a U.S. occupation that some say is little better than the ousted dictator's rule." -By Joseph Logan -Reuters via -MSNBC

- 
"Rush Hour Returns in Force at Trade Center Rail Station." ... "Hundreds of commuters using the reopened PATH [Port Authority Trans-Hudson rail system] train station restored rush-hour chaos to the site of the former World Trade Center today for the first time since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." ... "The station was officially inaugurated on Sunday with a ceremonial train ride by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York; Gov. James E. McGreevey of New Jersey, and Senators Jon Corzine and Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey. Members of victims' families also made the trip, as the group rode aboard the last eight cars to leave the Trade Center station on Sept. 11, 2001. After the ceremonial ride, the link to New Jersey was opened to the public." (1, 2) -By Christine Hauser -NYTimes via -Google-News

- Georgia News
"Georgia leader quits in velvet coup:  Shevardnadze forced out in tense standoff." ... "Eduard Shevardnadze last night ended his 30-year domination of Georgia, stepping down as president after weeks of street protests, in what his opponents hailed as a velvet revolution." ... "The former Soviet foreign minister, lauded by the west for his role in ending the cold war but hated at home for a presidency that turned authoritarian and corrupt, looked exhausted after a weekend in which allies deserted him and opponents stormed parliament, driving him out." ... ""I have quit. I see that this [the political crisis] could not have ended bloodlessly and I would have had to exercise my power. I have never betrayed my people, and therefore I believe that, as president, I must resign," he said." -By Nick Paton Walsh -Guardian.co.uk

-  -  - 
"Seniors' drug bill survives in House:  GOP's late moves win changes in Medicare." ... "After an extraordinary overnight session of arm-twisting and parliamentary tricks, House Republican leaders narrowly staved off defeat yesterday and passed a Medicare prescription drug benefit that represented the most sweeping overhaul of the program in its 38-year history." ... "The measure would provide nearly $400 billion in prescription drug aid to seniors, and for the first time, allow private health care firms to offer Medicare services long guaranteed by the federal government. Its passage spared President Bush a political embarrassment over one of his top priorities as the administration fought to push through his agenda in the waning days of the legislative session." -By Susan Milligan -Boston/Globe

- 

-  -  - 

-

-  -  - 
"Turkey arrests bombing suspects." ... "Turkish investigators arrested a number of suspects Friday in the deadly suicide bombings on the British consulate and a London-based bank the day before that have been blamed on al-Qaida. Foreign governments warned that Turkey could be the target of still more terrorist attacks." ... "Foreign minister Abdullah Gul confirmed some arrests had been made in connection with Thursday’s attacks but declined to give details." ... "The daily newspaper Hurriyet reported that police had detained and were interrogating seven people." -AP & -Reuters via -MSNBC

-  -  - 

-  -  - 
"FirstEnergy Blamed for Blackout in Report: U.S.-Canadian Probe Blames Failures at Ohio-Based Utility FirstEnergy for August Blackout." ... "A computer malfunction at an Ohio utility played a major role in the nation's worst blackout, but a U.S.-Canadian task force said power grid operators still should have prevented the Aug. 14 outage from spreading through eight states and Canada.Energy Secretary Spencer"This blackout was largely preventable," [U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer] Abraham said. He lamented the federal government's limited ability to take punitive action for a blackout that put 50 million people in the dark, including all of New York City, Cleveland and Detroit, and knocked out more than 260 power plants." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

-  - 
"Series of Bombs Rocks Downtown Istanbul:  At Least 26 Killed, More Than 450 Injured." ... "Powerful car-bomb explosions, apparently synchronized, ripped through Istanbul Thursday, killing at least 26 and injuring more than 450, according to preliminary reports from health authorities. The targets included the British consulate and a British bank." ... "Among the dead was Britain's consul-general, Roger Short, according to Britain's foreign office." ... "Neighborhoods near the bank and consulate -- separated by about five miles -- were devastated, with whole blocks reduced to rubble and ashes." -By Molly Moore and Fred Barbash -WashingtonPost

-  - 
"12 Civilians Are Killed in a Car Bomb Attack in Kirkuk." ... "A car bomb killed 12 civilians today in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk in an explosion aimed at the headquarters compound of a leading Kurdish political party, an American military official said today." ... "Most of the blast was absorbed by the perimeter wall of the compound, which houses the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and the car bomb was not able to get close enough to the building to cause significant damage, the official, from the coalition joint task force, said by telephone from Baghdad." -By Terence Neilan -NYTimes via -Google-News

-  - 
"A new push to clean up the world's slums:  A recent United Nations report puts the number of urban poor at 1 billion." ... "Growing numbers of rural poor are migrating to cities around the developing world, giving aid experts a new cause for anxiety -beyond just the deplorable conditions of the burgeoning slums." ... "The concern goes like this: living in such close quarters with the urban rich exacerbates the disparities between the "haves" and the "have-nots," fueling a global explosion in crime, street violence, and extremism. The urbanization of poverty, say development experts, could become as much a world-security issue as the hunt for Osama bin Laden or weapons of mass destruction." -By Gretchen Peters -CSMonitor

-  -  - 
"China Warns Taiwan Against Independence." ... "In unusually strong language, China ratcheted up the rhetoric against Taiwan in remarks published Wednesday and threatened that "the use of force may become unavoidable" if the island's leaders pursue independence." ... "The warning from Beijing came as Taiwan prepares to elect a new leader in March. President Chen Shui-bian, running for office again, has won over more voters since he came up with plans for a new constitution and a law on referendums that could conceivably lead to citizens voting on Taiwanese independence." -By Audra An -AP via -MercuryNews-BayArea

-  -  -  - 
"US to review police body armor:  Justice Dept. to assess reliability of material that's used in vests." ... "One day after Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly of Massachusetts filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of a popular bulletproof vest, the United States Department of Justice has launched an intensive review of the reliability of police body armor, which officials say may lose strength over time and potentially put police officers' lives at risk." ... "The review will focus on vests made with the bullet-resistant material called Zylon, manufactured by the Japanese-based company Toyobo." -By Jared Stearns -Boston/Globe

-  -  -Paul Wellstone
"Pilot error caused Wellstone crash." ... "Pilots flying too slowly on a landing approach caused the charter-plane crash that killed Sen. Paul Wellstone, the pilots and five others last year, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded Tuesday." ... "By voice vote, the five-member board also adopted staff findings that the pilots lacked proper training in crew coordination and were probably so inattentive or distracted that they didn't react to the speed drop until too late." ... "Mild icing from a light snowfall did not affect the descent of the twin-prop King Air A100 before it crashed on Oct. 25, 2002, 2 miles southeast of the Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport, in northern Minnesota, the panel concluded." -By Greg Gordon -StarTribune.com

"Uproar in Sri Lankan parliament:  The speaker of the Sri Lankan parliament has said the move to suspend the house was illegal." ... "Parliament reopened two weeks after President Chandrika Kumaratunga suspended it, plunging the country into a constitutional crisis." ... "She is locked in dispute with Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe over how to bring peace with Tamil Tiger rebels." -BBC/News

- 
"Human testing for Ebola vaccine:  Testing has begun on humans for an experimental vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus, US researchers have said." ... "The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is administering the vaccine to 27 volunteers." ... "In August, the institute said the same vaccine had worked to protect monkeys from the virus in a single shot." ... "The virus for one of the world's most lethal diseases originated in Africa and the US has expressed fears that it could be used as a biological weapon." -BBC/News

-  -  - 
"14 states fight EPA maneuver that weakens Clean Air Act." ... "More than a dozen state attorneys general yesterday sought to block the federal government from implementing a rule change they argued would lead to more air pollution from the nation's power plants." ... "They want to block the EPA's loosening of Clean Air Act regulations that would allow older power plants, refineries, and factories to modernize without having to install expensive pollution controls. "If these rules go into effect even temporarily," said New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, "utilities will get the green light to spew forth pollution and violate the clear meaning of a statute that has for decades protected the quality of the air that we breathe."" -By Devlin Barrett -AP via -Boston/Globe

-  -  - 
"Taliban says killed UN woman." ... "Taliban guerrillas have claimed responsibility for the weekend murder of a French aid worker that has prompted the U.N. refugee agency to withdraw staff from the south and east of Afghanistan." ... "The attack on Sunday that killed 29-year-old U.N. refugee agency official Bettina Goislard raised pressure on the international community to send peacekeeping troops to provinces where resurgent Islamic militants and warlords hold sway." -By Saeed Ali Achakzai -Reuters

-  --  -  - 
"The Wal-Mart You Don't Know: The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way to the unemployment line?" ... "The retailer has a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after year. But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000 suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices. Wal-Mart has the power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products from overseas." ... "Of course, U.S. companies have been moving jobs offshore for decades, long before Wal-Mart was a retailing power. But there is no question that the chain is helping accelerate the loss of American jobs to low-wage countries such as China. Wal-Mart, which in the late 1980s and early 1990s trumpeted its claim to "Buy American," has doubled its imports from China in the past five years alone, buying some $12 billion in merchandise in 2002. That's nearly 10% of all Chinese exports to the United States." -By Charles Fishman 200312Issue 77 -FastCompany.com

- 
"Yahoo back in X-rated business." ... "Yahoo Inc., which removed adult products and banner ads from its U.S. Web portal in 2001 after protests by conservative groups, is back in the pornography business." ... "Yahoo isn't the only Internet company doing business with the adult industry. For example, Google features adult ads for certain searches while EBay has created an adult products category, accessible only after users enter their credit card information." -By Verne Kopytoff -SFGate.com

-  - 
"First woman to be elected Louisiana gov. moves past historic win, starts transition." ... "Kathleen Blanco, moving past the victory that made her Louisiana's first female governor, has begun sketching out her plans for health care, education and economic development." ... "Blanco, the state's Democratic lieutenant governor, defeated conservative Indian-American Bobby Jindal with 52 percent of the vote in a runoff election that dashed the Republican Party's hopes for a sweep of the Deep South." -By Melinda Deslatte -AP via -SFGate.com

-  - -  - 
"U.S. Carries Out Terror Drill in Arizona:  Terror Drill Along United States-Mexico Border in Arizona Tests Law Enforcement Readiness." ... "A mock suicide bomber and a quick succession of blasts were part of a terrorism drill designed to test the responsiveness of health and law enforcement officials along the U.S.-Mexico border." ... "The Arizona Office of Homeland Security said about 1,000 people took part in the drill Sunday morning, which started when a man walked into the Mariposa Port of Entry compound, shouted the name of a mythical terrorist group and set off an explosion. The man was actually a firefighter in a protective suit." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

-  - 
"Yemeni court frees 92 militants:  A court in Yemen has freed 92 Muslim militants, including some suspected of having links with al-Qaeda." ... "Yemeni judge Hammoud al-Hatar told the court the prisoners had repented and promised not to attack embassies in the capital, Sanaa." ... "Mr al-Hatar said the president had decided to release them "in light of the results of a dialogue through the committee of ulemas, [Islamic scholars]"." ... "A further 54 al-Qaeda suspects who surrendered to the authorities have been pardoned by the president, the agency said." -BBC/News

-  -  -  -  - Civil Liberties News
"U.S. calls him a Qaeda pawn; ex-deportee calls himself a victim." ... "Maher Arar has been back from Syria for five weeks now, with his wife and two children in their simple [Canadian] apartment, earnestly pleading to all who will listen that he is an innocent casualty of the Bush administration's war on terror." ... "As Arar tells it, U.S. officials detained him on circumstantial evidence during what was supposed to be a brief stopover at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Sept. 26, 2002. Within days, they packed him off to Syria, where, he says, he was locked in squalor and tortured for nearly a year. Though he holds dual Canadian and Syrian citizenship, he had not lived in Syria for 16 years." -By Clifford Krauss -NYTimes via -IHT.com

-  - 
"U.S. Army stages massive show of force in Saddam's hometown." ... "Hundreds of U.S. troops in tanks and assault vehicles marched through the crowded downtown area of Saddam Hussein's hometown on Monday in a show of force intended to deliver a stern warning that armed resistance would not be tolerated." ... "For nearly two hours, M-1 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees rumbled through the center of Tikrit, past shops and public markets, drawing crowds of onlookers and clogging traffic across the city of 120,000 people." -By Jim Gomez -AP via -MercuryNews-BayArea

- 
"Schwarzenegger has made deft moves, so far." ... "Through bipartisan appointments and overtures to politicians of both parties - in California and on Capitol Hill - he has cast himself as the moderate consensus-builder some say the Golden State has lacked since Ronald Reagan. Moreover, politicians themselves acknowledge that his open and friendly manner is no small relief after the Davis administration's legendary aloofness." ... "To be sure, Schwarzenegger has his critics, who wish for more substance amid the style and symbolism. But even among those who offer compliments grudgingly, there is a sense that he has maintained much of the momentum from his comprehensive Oct. 7 election, and that this position - as well as his moderate ideals - gives him a unique opportunity to reshape the state." -By Daniel B. Wood and Mark Sappenfeld -CSMonitor

-  -  - 
""Fortress London" readies for Bush visit." ... "Armed police have turned the capital into "Fortress London" amid heightened fears of a guerrilla attack on the eve of U.S. President George W. Bush's visit." ... "The White House, wary of an al Qaeda strike, has insisted on tight precautions. Traditional events such as a horse-drawn carriage ride with the Queen will not be staged." -By Paul Majendie -Reuters

"Non-melanoma skin cancers may indicate higher risk." ... "Non-melanoma skin cancer is so benign that many people don't even regard it as cancer." ... "But a growing body of evidence suggests that people who develop basal cell or squamous cell skin cancers might also have an elevated risk of more serious malignancies such as melanoma, which can spread and kill." ... "The latest research, published Monday in the journal Cancer, comes from the government-sponsored Women's Health Initiative, or WHI." -By Rita Rubin -USATODAY

-  - 
"U.S. to help pen Iraq constitution." ... "We will write into that constitution exactly the kinds of guarantees that were not in Saddam’s constitution.,” L. Paul Bremer told ABC’s “This Week” from Baghdad, the Iraqi capital." ... "“We’ll have a bill of rights. We’ll recognize equality for all citizens. We’ll recognize an independent judiciary. We’ll talk about a federal government."" ... "“All of these things will be in the interim constitution which will also provide in a limited time, probably two years, for a permanent constitution to be written that also embodies those American values.”" ... "Bremer said Americans will work with the Iraqi Governing Council in writing the interim constitution. There will also be a side agreement dealing with security and the presence of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, he said." ... "Bremer also said that the U.S. military presence would remain for some time." -AP and -Reuters via -MSNBC

-  -  -  - ELECTION 2004
"U.S. must catch Saddam and soon, Clark says." ... "Retired general Wesley Clark warned Sunday that the failure to capture Saddam Hussein was likely to undermine any new Iraqi government. And he said it was important to capture Saddam alive so he could be tried for war crimes." -By Susan Page -USATODAY

-  - 
"Trucks Investigated in Turkey Blasts:  At Least 23 Killed, 303 Wounded in Explosions Outside 2 Synagogues." ... "Security cameras recorded two pickup trucks slowing near separate synagogues before their drivers detonated up to 800 pounds of explosives camouflaged under packages of detergent, Turkish officials said Sunday." ... "The nearly simultanelous blasts during Saturday morning prayer services killed 23 people and injured another 303." -By Molly Moore -WashingtonPost

-  -  - 
"U.S. probes deadly helicopter crash." ... "The U.S. military on Sunday was investigating whether insurgent groundfire caused the crash of two U.S. helicopters, killing 17 American soldiers, the worst single loss of U.S. life since the start of the Iraq war." ... "All the casualties were from the 101st Airborne Division, which controls northern Iraq. Five soldiers were injured." -AP via -MSNBC

- ELECTION 2004 - Des_Moines

-  - ELECTION 2004 - Des_Moines
"For Iowa Party Boss, a Time of Little Rest and Much to Do." ... "Gordon R. Fischer, the Iowa Democratic Party chairman, hunched into the wind as he weaved through traffic on Fourth Street [Des Moines, Iowa] in early November, late for the first of two meetings he had scheduled at Java Joe's, a funky downtown coffeehouse that has become one of his offices-on-the-run." ... "The annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner on Nov. 15 was days away, bursting at the seams with politicos, campaign workers and the news media, and never enough seats to satisfy the well-connected. Soon after, the Democratic contenders will have a debate   yes, another debate   here on Nov. 24, which happens to be Mr. Fischer's 39th birthday. And in slightly more than two months, of course, Iowans will gather at 1,994 caucuses around the state to cast the first binding votes of the 2004 presidential race, all under the unforgiving gazes of campaign staffs and thousands of journalists." -By Rick Lyman -NYTimes via -Google-News

- Georgia News
"Protests escalate against government in Georgia." ... "A post-election standoff erupted into turmoil in Georgia on Friday as thousands of anti-government protesters filled the streets, forming a human chain outside the presidential compound and demanding the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze." ... "The protests, sparked by anger over the government's manipulation of a parliamentary vote on Nov. 2, have swelled into a condemnation of Shevardnadze's 12-year rule with its corruption, economic decline and breakdown in government services." -By Seth Mydans -NYTimes via -IHT.com

- ELECTION 2004

-  - 
"Guerrilla force could number 5,000." ... ""The force of people actively armed and operating against us does not exceed 5,000," [Army Gen. John] Abizaid said at a news conference at his headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla." ... ""People will say, well, that's a very small number. But when you understand that they're organized in cellular structure, that they have a brutal and determined cadre, that they know how to operate covertly, they have access to a lot of money and a lot of ammunition, you'll understand how dangerous they are."" -By Eric Schmitt and David E. Sanger -NYTimes via -SeattlePI.NWsource

-  -  - 
"US Struggles to Determine Who Is the Enemy in Iraq." ... "The Pentagon is struggling to figure out who the enemy is in Iraq, with officials saying they remain foggy about the leadership and organization of the insurgency and analysts decrying a huge intelligence lapse." ... "Military commanders and U.S. intelligence officials describe resistance forces in Iraq as some combination of loyalists of toppled President Saddam Hussein's government, criminals paid by those loyalists to carry out attacks, Islamic militants from outside Iraq, and isolated Shiite radicals." -By Will Dunham -Reuters via -Wired

- 
"IBM's builds TV-sized supercomputer:  Prototype of Blue Gene L supercomputer is capable of 2 trillion teraflops." ... "IBM Corp. has built a 512-node prototype of its Blue Gene L supercomputer that has been ranked as the 73rd most powerful computer in the world. The machine, which is capable of a peak performance of 2 trillion floating-point operations per second (teraflops), is about the size of a 30-inch TV." ... "The project's goal is to ultimately build a computer capable of a petaflop, or one thousand trillion operations per second, about 25 times as fast as the most powerful computer today, the 41-teraflop Earth Simulator supercomputer." -By Robert McMillan -IDG.net via -InfoWorld

- 
"Massive energy bill clears hurdle:  Billions in tax breaks for fossil fuel; ethanol also boosted." ... "Republicans on Friday finished a massive energy bill that would double Americans’ use of ethanol in their cars, reduce their susceptibility to power blackouts and aim tax breaks at oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear power providers. However, the measure would deny President Bush his top energy priority: oil drilling in the Arctic wildlife refuge." ... "The bill is expected to win easy approval in the House but will face a tough fight in the Senate, where Republicans need to muster 60 votes to end any Democratic filibuster." -MSNBC

-  -  -  -  - 
"New urgency, risks in ‘Iraqification’:  Some fear handover could look like abandonment." ... "At least four factors forced the administration to overhaul its military and political strategy in Iraq, despite the danger that a new approach might actually diminish U.S. control over the country’s future." ... "The foremost factor is security — from an Iraqi opposition that has become more intense, more effective, more sophisticated and more extensive. The other three are the failure of the Iraqi Governing Council to act, the looming U.N. deadline of Dec. 15 for an Iraqi plan of action and the U.S. elections just a year away, according to administration and congressional officials and U.S. analysts." -By Robin Wright and Thomas E. Ricks with contributions from Mike Allen -WashingtonPost via -MSNBC

-  -  - 
"IAEA at odds with US over Iran." ... "The UN's nuclear watchdog yesterday rejected US criticism of a crucial report on Iran's nuclear programme, which stated that no evidence had been found that Iran had been trying to build a nuclear bomb." ... "The report, which will be presented to the IAEA board on November 20, underlines that the IAEA itself remains uncertain of Iran's intentions." ... "While acknowledging the lack of evidence of nuclear weapons programmes, the report states: "Given Iran's past pattern of concealment, it will take some time before the agency is able to conclude that Iran's nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes."" -By Mark Huband and Bayan Rahman -FT.com

- 
"Scientists create a virus that reproduces." ... "It is the stuff of science fiction and bioethical debates: The creation of artificial life. Up until now, it's largely been just that." ... "But an important technical bridge towards the creation of such life was crossed Thursday when genomics pioneer Craig Venter announced that his research group created an artificial virus based on a real one in just two weeks' time." -By Elizabeth Weise -USATODAY

-  - 
"Camera-phones must 'click' in Korea." ... "The Korean government has ruled that by next year, domestic manufacturers must ensure that mobile phones emit a loud shutter-like click or noise when the camera is activated." ... "The move comes after a spate of reports in the country of camera users violating the privacy of others, especially in areas such as changing rooms and swimming pools. The image resolution of mobile phone cameras is also increasing rapidly, adding to the problem." -ZDNet.com.au

-  - 
"9/11 Victims' Relatives Want Deal Details: Relatives of 9/11 Victims Urge Commission to Disclose Details of Deal With White House." ... "Relatives of people who perished in the Sept. 11 terror attacks are urging a federal commission to disclose the fine print of its deal with the White House that gives the panel restricted access to sensitive intelligence documents." ... "The Family Steering Committee, a group of victims' relatives monitoring the work of the independent commission on Sept. 11, said the restrictions are unacceptable." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

- 
"New power source: wall vibrations." ... "Imagine using a computer that runs on energy generated from your building's wall and window vibrations. Masayuki Miyazaki, a senior researcher at Hitachi Co. Ltd.'s central lab in Tokyo, is trying to do just that." ... "He recently made a tiny generator that converts building movements into electricity, creating enough energy to run a temperature or light sensor once an hour. Though the output is small right now, only about 10 microwatts, scientists predict the generator's potential could be huge in coming decades - possibly used in battery-free computing systems." -By Lori Valigra -CSMonitor

- 
"Ala. chief justice ousted over 10 Commandments:  Roy Moore showed little reaction as the ethics court ruled that he had placed himself ‘above the law.’" ... "Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, whose refusal to obey a federal order to move a Ten Commandments monument from a state building fueled a national debate over the place of God in public life, was stripped of his office Thursday." -By Don Teague with Brian Mooar, -AP & -Reuters via -MS-NBC

-  -  - 
"Iran Warns IAEA, U.S. Condemnation May Backfire." ... "Tehran warned on Thursday of "unpredictable consequences" if the U.N. watchdog finds it in breach of a global pact against atomic weapons, as Washington accused the United Nations of playing down "evidence" Iran wants a bomb." ... ""The United States wants the board [the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors] to declare Iran in violation of its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which would require it to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions." -By Louis Charbonneau -Reuters via -Wired

-  - Water
"Freak storm drops 5 inches of rain, hail on SoCal commuters." ... ""It was just unbelievable," said National Weather Service meteorologist Curt Kaplan. He said five inches of rain was recorded in just two hours in southern Los Angeles [Wednesday night, 20031112], nearing the previous record for the area of 5.9 inches  "but that was in an entire day." Skies mostly cleared overnight." -AP via -USATODAY

-  -  - 
"Trade gap widens as imports at record high; jobless claims up." ... "Record imports widened the U.S. trade deficit in September and last week's jobless claims stayed at a level suggesting an improving labor market, according to government reports Thursday that offered more signs the economy has turned a corner." ... "The latest snapshot of the country's trade activity showed that the trade gap grew 4.4% to $41.3 billion in September, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. September's trade deficit was slightly larger than the $40.2 billion shortfall that economists were forecasting." -USATODAY

-  - 
"Dipping into books online: Is it stealing?  Amazon.com says its new 'Search Inside the Book' feature has boosted sales. But authors worry that people will read just what they need and not buy the book." ... "Late last month, Amazon.com opened a whole new portal to the world of books. The cyberretailer's new "Search Inside the Book" feature makes the entire content of books available -free - to anyone with a high-speed internet connection and a credit card." ... "Now, Web surfers can unearth, read, and even print recipes, travel tips, or anything else mentioned in the 120,000 books whose publishers have let Amazon make their texts fully searchable." -By John C. Ryan -CSMonitor

-  - 

-  -  - 
"Japan halts Iraq troop dispatch:  The attack on Italian forces in Iraq will force Japan to postpone its dispatch of troops to that country until sometime next year, a top government spokesman said Thursday." -AP via -CNN

-  -  - 
"CIA Report Says U.S. Losing Popular Support in Iraq." ... "A CIA report concludes that ordinary Iraqis increasingly are siding with the insurgency amid doubts about the U.S. ability to stamp it out, officials said on Wednesday, while the U.S. administrator in Iraq said it was hard to figure out where the Iraqi public stands." ... "The report, warning of possible failure for Bush's efforts to establish Iraq as a democracy if the situation is not fixed, said aggressive U.S. counter-insurgency measures were leaving many Iraqis disillusioned and pushing them to support the insurgency, one U.S. official said." -By Will Dunham -Reuters via -Wired

- ELECTION 2004
"Howard Dean's Unlikely Road To a Major Boost From Labor:  AFSCME and SEIU Set to Announce Joint Endorsement." ... "When Andrew L. Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), arrived at the Washington condominium of Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), on the morning of Nov. 3, he had no idea they were about to transform the battle for the Democratic nomination." ... "With today's endorsements will come not only more publicity for the Dean campaign, but the kind of institutional muscle his grass-roots campaign has so far been lacking. McEntee summed up the dividends this way: "We bring money, we bring boots on the ground, and we bring blood and treasure to the process."" (1, 2) -By Dan Balz-WashingtonPost

-  - 
"Experts say report shows Iran wants atom bomb." ... "Arms experts say a U.N. nuclear watchdog report on Iran supports U.S. claims that Tehran has a secret atomic weapons programme by detailing a two-decade cover-up of research possibly linked to bomb making." ... "Despite Iran's secretiveness and the array of activities possibly associated with weapons, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded there was no evidence to date Iran had a weapons programme. Iran has always denied the charge." -By Louis Charbonneau -Reuters -Reuters.co.uk

-  -  - 
"Explosion at Italian base in southern Iraq kills at least 14 Italians and eight Iraqis." ... "A truck bomb exploded at the headquarters of Italy's paramilitary police in this southern city on Wednesday, killing at least 14 Italians and possibly trapping others in the debris." ... "Italian officials said Iraqis also died; a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said at least eight Iraqis were also killed." ... "About 15 people were wounded, Italian officials said." -By Anja Niedringhaus -AP via -SFGate.com

-  - 

-  -  - -  - 
"Cheney’s Long Path to War:  The Hard Sell: He sifted intel. He brooded about threats. And he wanted Saddam gone. The inside story of how Vice President Cheney bought into shady assumptions and helped persuade a nation to invade Iraq." ... "Of all the president’s advisers, Cheney has consistently taken the most dire view of the terrorist threat. On Iraq, Bush was the decision maker. But more than any adviser, Cheney was the one to make the case to the president that war against Iraq was an urgent necessity. Beginning in the late summer of 2002, he persistently warned that Saddam was stocking up on chemical and biological weapons, and last March, on the eve of the invasion, he declared that “we believe that he [Saddam Hussein] has in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons.” (Cheney later said that he meant “program,” not “weapons.” He also said, a bit optimistically, “I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators.”) After seven months, investigators are still looking for that arsenal of WMD." (1, 2, 3) -By Mark Hosenball, Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas -MSNBC 20031117 -Newsweek

- Sniper
"Malvo pleads innocent." ... "Sniper supsect Lee Boyd Malvo pleaded innocent to murder Monday as his trial was opening in the slaying of an FBI analyst shot to death during the three-week sniper spree in the Washington, D.C., area last fall." ... "The 18-year-old responded, "Not guilty," in a clear voice each time when asked for his plea to two counts of capital murder and to one count of using a firearm in a felony." -By Adrienne Schwisow -AP via -SFGate.com

-  -  - 
"U.S. Had Warning of Attack, but No Details." ... "Only days before the bombing in Saudi Arabia on Saturday that killed at least 17 people, American intelligence agencies had been warned that such an attack by Al Qaeda was imminent but the warnings lacked sufficient detail to disrupt the plot, officials said Sunday." ... "The information, which came from several sources, prompted the closing of the United States Embassy in Riyadh, but did not provide specifics about the time or location of an attack, officials said. It did lead American officials to conclude that Qaeda cells were planning to go after "soft" targets "very soon," one official said." -By James Risen -NYTimes via -Google-News

-  - 
"Iranian official announces temporary suspension of uranium enrichment." ... "Iran has suspended its enrichment of uranium and sent a letter to the U.N. nuclear watchdog accepting additional inspections of its nuclear facilities, a top Iranian official said Monday." ... "The protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty allows IAEA experts to perform snap inspections and otherwise extend their probe of Iranian nuclear activities that previously were off-limits." -MSNBC

-  - 
"Turkey drops Iraq troops plan:  Turkey has decided not to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq, government officials have said." ... "It follows fierce opposition from the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and public opinion in Turkey." ... "Last month, the Turkish parliament approved a deployment motion, after the United States, a fellow Nato member, requested more foreign troops."-BBC/News

- 
"Palestinian Authority funds go to militants:  The Palestinian Authority, headed by Yasser Arafat, is paying members of a Palestinian militant organisation which has been responsible for carrying out suicide attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, a BBC investigation has found." ... "A total of up to $50,000 a month is being sent to members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed group that emerged shortly after the outbreak of the current Palestinian intifada, a BBC Correspondent programme reveals." -BBC/News

-  -  - 
"Federal judges in New York, San Francisco halt abortion ban." ... "With the ink barely dry on legislation banning a controversial abortion procedure, federal judges in San Francisco and New York yesterday put a halt to the measure and set the stage for the most important legal tussle over abortion rights in three decades." ... "The judges found that the congressional ban on the procedure — known medically as "intact dilation and extraction" but referred to by opponents as "partial-birth abortion" — is likely to be unconstitutional because it provides no exceptions for a woman's health, thus running afoul of a 2000 Supreme Court ruling that struck down a similar Nebraska statute. President Bush signed the latest ban into law Wednesday." -By Howard Mintz -Knight Ridder via -SeattleTimes.NWsource

-  -  -  - 
"POW Lynch was raped by Iraqi captors, biography says: Soldier has no memory of attack, but book cites medical records." ... "Jessica Lynch, the U.S. Army private whose capture and subsequent rescue made her the most famous soldier of the war in Iraq, was raped by her Iraqi captors, according to a family spokesman." ... "A new authorized biography of the soldier accurately cites medical records showing Lynch was sexually assaulted, said spokesman Stephen Goodwin. He said the 20-year-old former private had no recollection of the attack. The New York Daily News obtained a copy of the book, written by Rick Bragg and titled, "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story." The News published excerpts Thursday ahead of the scheduled Tuesday release." -By William Branigin-WashingtonPost via -SFGate.com

-  -  -
"6 Soldiers Die in Helicopter Crash in Iraq:  2 Others Killed in Separate Attacks in Mosul." ... "A U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed Friday morning near the Tigris River in northern Iraq after it was apparently struck by ground fire, killing all six soldiers on board, military officials and witnesses said." ... "It would be the second U.S. military helicopter shot down by Iraqis in less than a week and provided another example of the growing sophistication and lethality of guerrillas, who have escalated their campaign along an arc that stretches north and west of Baghdad."  -By Anthony Shadid and Vernon Loeb -WashingtonPost

-  -  - -  - 
"Bush signs $87B Iraq aid package." ... "President Bush on Thursday signed an $87.5 billion package approved by Congress for Iraq and Afghanistan, calling the money a financial commitment by the United States to the global war to defeat terrorism. " -USATODAY

- 
"Washington State Man Admits to 48 Murders." ... "A truck painter pleaded guilty on Wednesday to strangling 48 drug addicts and prostitutes to death -- in a killing spree known as the Green River murders -- and said in a confession, "I killed so many women I have a hard time keeping them straight."" ... "Gary Leon Ridgway, 54, said in a confession read by a prosecutor in open court that he murdered the women because he hated prostitutes and knew that they would not be missed." (1, 2) -By Chris Stetkiewicz-Reuters

-  - 
"Kremlin seemingly in disarray over Yukos: Putin undercuts aide who threatened oil exploration licenses." ... "A flurry of mixed signals and seeming disarray over the Yukos crisis continued to envelop the Russian government Wednesday, as President Vladimir Putin disavowed a suggestion by one of his top ministers that some of the company's coveted petroleum exploration licenses may be withdrawn." ... "If such steps were to be taken, the government could in theory seize the oil fields and devalue the stock of Yukos, whose chief executive, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is being held in jail on accusations of tax evasion and fraud." -By Seth Mydans and Erin E. Arvedlund -NYTimes via -IHT.com

-  -  - 
"Federal Judge Blocks New Abortion Law for Some Doctors." ... "A federal judge in Nebraska on Wednesday blocked a new anti-abortion law from being enforced against some doctors and their affiliates, minutes after it was signed by President Bush." ... "Citing constitutional concerns, U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf issued a temporary restraining order barring U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft and the Justice Department from enforcing the new law banning so-called partial birth abortions against four doctors who practice in or are affiliated with practices in more than a dozen states."-Reuters

-  - 
"Insurgents Attack U.S. Convoys in Iraq." ... "Insurgents attacked three American military convoys in this northern city with rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs Wednesday, killing three Iraqi civilians and wounding five Americans, the U.S. military and hospital officials said." ... "The attacks occurred in a city long considered relatively safe for U.S. troops, compared to Baghdad and the cities and towns in the ``Sunni Triangle'' to the south." -By Mariam Fam with contributions from Bassem Mroue -AP via -Guardian.co.uk

"GOP wins Ky., Miss. governor races." ... "With a presidential campaign only months away, Republicans picked up two governorships in the South, ousting Mississippi’s Democratic incumbent and seizing Kentucky’s top job for the first time in 32 years." ... "GOP Washington lobbyist Haley Barbour unseated one-term Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, while in Kentucky, three-term Republican Rep. Ernie Fletcher defeated Democratic Attorney General Ben Chandler." -AP via -MSNBC

-  - 
"3 Blasts Seem Aimed at U.S. Compound." ... "Three powerful explosions in rapid succession shook central Baghdad on Tuesday [20031104] evening in what apparently was a mortar attack on the headquarters of the American civilian authorities here." ... "Iraqi witnesses standing near the gates said the explosions hit the sprawling, walled-in American compound about 7:45 p.m." ... "The explosions followed the deaths of at least 15 American soldiers on Sunday, when their helicopter was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over the town of Falluja. (Early reports from the military indicated that 16 had been killed, but the Department of Defense is now confirming only 15.) Last week, suicide bombers struck targets across the capital, killing 34 people." -By Dexter Filkins -NYTimes via -Google-News

- 
"Plaque-reducing protein shows promise." ... "Taking their cue from nature, researchers have developed the first treatment shown to dramatically shrink the fatty plaques that clog arteries, a study [in JAMA] reports Wednesday." ... "The experimental drug is a synthetic version of a protein discovered in a handful of Italian villagers who had healthy arteries and lived long lives despite having low levels of good cholesterol, called HDL." -By Steve Sternberg -USATODAY

-  -  - 
"California's search for wildfire solutions:  Officials examine everything from role of the military in firefighting to retrofitting roofs to double-pane windows." ... "Even though the fires consumed 172,000 acres, relatively few homes in the county were destroyed. One reason: strict laws that order backcountry residents to clear brush from within 100 feet of homes." ... "As mundane as it sounds, strictures like this are part of a fundamental rethinking going on across California in the wake of the worst fires since the Yellowstone infernos in 1978. From forest- thinning practices to the role of the military, California officials are examining ways to prevent a repeat of the fires that cost the state more than $2 billion." -By Randy Dotinga -CSMonitor

- -  - 
"Missile hits U.S. helicopter in Iraq, killing 16 troops." ... "Guerrillas shot down an Army CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter packed with soldiers headed for a short-term break on Sunday morning, killing 16 and wounding 20 in the deadliest single attack to date on U.S. forces in Iraq, military officials and witnesses said." ... "A shoulder-fired missile streaked from a date palm grove through a clear blue sky and struck the dual-rotor helicopter in its rear about 9 a.m. as it was ferrying soldiers from bases in western Iraq to Baghdad's international airport." ... "The attack took place just southwest of Fallujah, a city 40 miles west of Baghdad where resistance to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq has been particularly intense." -By Theola Labbe and Rajiv Chandrasekaran-WashingtonPost via -StarTribune.com with contributions from -AP and -NYTimes

-  - 
"2 CIA Operatives Killed in Afghanistan." ... "The CIA said Tuesday that William Carlson, 43, of Southern Pines, N.C., and Christopher Glenn Mueller, 32, of San Diego were ambushed and killed Saturday near the village in Shkin in Paktika province while ``tracking terrorists.''" ... "Both were veterans of military special operations forces, the agency said, who were working for the CIA's Directorate of Operations that conducts clandestine intelligence-gathering and covert operations." -By Burt Herman -AP via  -AJC

-  - 
"President Decries General's Remarks:  Bush says comments about Muslims do not reflect his point of view. But firing doesn't seem to be an option." ... "President Bush said Tuesday that controversial remarks by Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin about Muslims and Islam do not "reflect my point of view, or the view of this administration" — sharp language from an administration that tends to circle the wagons when a member is under attack." ... "Bush's move to distance himself from the outspoken general was the strongest administration response to date to disclosures of Boykin's frequent appearances before religious groups at which he characterized the war on terrorism as a battle between Judeo-Christian tradition and "Satan."" -By John Hendren-LAtimes

-  -  - 
"Satellite knocked out by solar flare; more disruptions expected." ... "Another spectacular eruption on the surface of the Sun sent charged particles  hurling toward Earth today, and scientists said the cloud could significantly disrupt communications on Earth and may even hamper firefighting efforts in California." ... "The explosion of gas and charged particles into space from the corona, the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere, isn't harmful to people. But it can knock out satellite communications, which some emergency crews are relying on in battling California's wildfires." -By Joseph B. Verrengia -AP via  -StarTribune.com

-  - 
"Bush Won't Commit to Giving Classified Reports to 9/11 Panel." ... "President Bush declined today to commit the White House to turning over highly classified intelligence reports to the independent federal commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, despite public threats of a subpoena from the bipartisan panel." ... "The president said in a brief meeting with reporters that the documents were "very sensitive" and that the White House was still discussing the issue with the panel's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey." -By Philip Shenon -NYTimes via -Google-News

-  - 
"Bombings Plunge Iraqi Capital Into Chaos at Start of Ramadan." ... "A series of suicide bombings shook Baghdad early today, including an attack on the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross and blasts at four Iraqi police stations that punctuated two days of bloody violence in this capital city." ... "Iraq's police chief and deputy interior minister, Ahmad Ibrahim, said at a news conference that 34 people had been killed and 224 had been wounded in the attacks. He said 26 of the dead were civilians and 8 were police officers; 65 police officers and 159 civilians were wounded." -By Dexter Filkins and Alex Berenson -NYTimes via  -Google-News

- 
"Shaken Red Cross, other groups may scale back Iraq aid after deadly attacks." ... "Shaken by the attack on its Baghdad offices, the international Red Cross said Monday that it may follow other groups in scaling back aid to the Iraqi people because of the danger." ... "The neutral Swiss-run agency said it will decide within days whether to reduce its presence in the country following the suicide car bombing that killed two Iraqi Red Cross employees and as many as 10 other people outside the compound." -By Alexander G. Higgins -AP via  -Boston/Globe

- 
"More homes lost in Calif. wildfires." ... "Wildfires destroyed 25 more homes in Southern California overnight, and thousands more were under threat. Officials urged businesses to let employees stay home Monday as forecasters warned of hotter weather and strong, dry winds — perfect fuel for blazes that have been blamed for at least 13 deaths and the destruction of 850 homes since last week." ... "The fires have consumed more than 330,000 acres — the equivalent of 500 square miles. In many parts of the region, the fires kept growing despite the frantic efforts of more than 7,000 firefighters." -MS-NBC

"Merger to create US banking giant." ... "Bank of America today agreed to buy FleetBoston Financial in a $47bn (£27.7bn) deal that will create one of the world's biggest banking companies." ... "The second biggest bank merger in the US, after NationsBank bought BankAmerica for $57bn in 1998 to create Bank of America, the deal also marks the largest in any industry since drug giant Pfizer completed its acquisition of Pharmacia for $60bn in April." -Guardian.co.uk

-  -
"FACTBOX- Contributions to reconstruction in Iraq." ... "International donors pledged at least $33 billion in aid and loans over the next four years at a conference to raise funds for Iraqi reconstruction on Friday." ... "The United Nations and World Bank have estimated that Iraq needs about $56 billion to rebuild over that period."-Reuters via -Forbes

-  - 
"Google considers online auction of IPO shares." ... "Google is considering holding a massive online auction of shares early next year in an initial public offering that investment bankers predict could value the internet search-engine company at more than $15bn." ... "An electronic auction would be designed to prevent a recurrence of the sort of financial scandals that have engulfed Wall Street since the collapse of the dotcom bubble, according to a person close to the company." ... "It could also slash the underwriting fees paid to investment banks, the person added, and in the process help to break Wall Street's hold on the lucrative IPO business." -By Richard Waters -FT.com

-  - Tucson News - WEST NILE VIRUS
"Tucson woman contracts West Nile:  Victim near Downtown has severe form of disease." ... "The West Nile virus has now struck at the heart of Tucson, infecting an elderly woman near Downtown, who is struggling to recover from severe illness." ... "This is the second human in Arizona known to have contracted the disease in-state. Both cases have occurred in Pima County, with the first reported west of the city - in Sells on the Tohono O'odham Reservation - last week." -By Carla McClain and Joseph Barrios -DailyStar.com

-  - Israel Palestine Roadmap
"Israel plans new homes in Jewish settlements." ... "Israel has issued building tenders for 323 new homes in two Jewish settlements in the West Bank, defying a construction freeze called for in a U.S.-backed peace "road map"." ... "The independent Israeli settlement monitoring group Peace Now said the government had now published 1,627 tenders for new homes in the settlements since the beginning of the year."-Reuters -Reuters.co.uk

- 
"Patients given artificial blood:  Doctors have for the first time successfully used artificial blood to treat patients." ... "The product is a powder which can be stored for years, say scientists at Stockholm's Karolinska Hospital." ... "It is made from donated supplies of real blood, which normally has a shelf-life of just 42 days." ... "The powder can then be mixed into liquid form when needed, and used immediately regardless of the patient's blood type."-BBC/News

-  - ELECTION 2004
"Dean's New Iowa Ads Attack Rivals." ... "Former Vermont governor Howard Dean launched new ads in Iowa and New Hampshire attacking his major rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination on Iraq and health care. Those rivals say Dean is worried that his momentum has slowed and that he is in danger of slipping back." ... "New polls in Iowa show that Dean and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) are in a virtual tie for the lead there, after a period in which Dean had slipped ahead of the man who won the state in 1988. In New Hampshire, most new polls show Dean holding a double-digit lead over Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), although one showed his lead in single digits." -By Dan Balz -WashingtonPost

-  -  -  - 
"Iran Still Has Nuclear Deadline, U.S. Says." ... "The Bush administration intends to press Iran to comply with an Oct. 31 deadline for opening the books on its past nuclear activities, senior officials said yesterday, as U.S. skepticism grew toward this week's surprise agreement by Iran to stop enriching uranium." ... "Iran's ruling clerics hailed Tuesday's nuclear accord with France, Germany and Britain. But U.S. and U.N. officials awaited the handover of new documents from Iran spelling out how and why the oil-rich nation built a number of sophisticated nuclear factories and laboratories in a rugged area south and west of Tehran." -By Joby Warrick -WashingtonPost

-  - 
"Attacks on Troops on Rise, Commander Says." ... "Attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq have increased sharply over the past two weeks, reaching a high of 35 a day, the commanding American general here said on Wednesday." ... "Over much of the summer, military officials had said there were between 10 and 15 attacks on U.S. soldiers most days. Since early October, however, the number of daily attacks has fluctuated between 20 and 35, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said at a news conference." ... "A summary provided by the U.S. military to private contractors working in Iraq listed 30 so-called security incidents on Tuesday, including two mortar strikes on American bases, nine attacks with roadside bombs and several drive-by shootings." -By Rajiv Chandrasekaran with contributions from Anthony Shadid -WashingtonPost

-  -  -  - 
"Iran to curb nuclear program:  As Europe plays good cop to Washington's bad cop, Iran agreed Tuesday to a closer monitoring of its nuclear effort." ... "Iran pledged Tuesday to suspend uranium enrichment and allow tough international checks of its nuclear program, defusing a looming crisis and crowning European diplomatic efforts to avert a conflict between Washington and Tehran." ... "Iran's moves to assuage Western fears that it is building a nuclear bomb came after senior officials met with three European foreign ministers who pressed the authorities to comply with demands by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In return, the ministers promised technical help with Iran's civilian nuclear power project." -By Peter Ford with contributions by Michael Theodoulou and Faye Bowers -CSMonitor

-  - 

-  -  - 
"Vietnam atrocities revealed in report:  Elite unit said to kill hundreds of civilians." ... "An elite unit of American soldiers mutilated and killed hundreds of unarmed villagers over seven months in 1967 during the Vietnam War, and an Army investigation was closed with no charges filed, The Blade reported yesterday." ... "Soldiers of the Tiger Force unit of the Army's 101st Airborne Division dropped grenades into bunkers where villagers -- including women and children -- hid, and shot farmers without warning, the newspaper reported. Soldiers told The Blade that they severed ears from the dead and strung them on shoelaces to wear around their necks." ... "The Army's 4 1/2-year investigation, never before made public, was initiated by a soldier outraged at the killings. The probe substantiated 20 war crimes by 18 soldiers and reached the Pentagon and White House before it was closed in 1975, The Blade said." -AP via -Boston/Globe

-  - 
"Ambush kills 2 U.S. soldiers in Baghdad: Two U.S. soldiers on a routine patrol in Baghdad's Sadr City were ambushed and killed Thursday night, according to the Coalition Press Information Center." ... "Since the Iraq war began in March, 326 U.S. troops have been killed, 209 in hostile attacks."  -CNN

-  -  -  - 
"Six months after Saddam, eight die as bombers prolong violence." ... "A suicide car bomber killed at least eight people at a Baghdad police station yesterday as Iraq marked six months since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime with another day of bitterly familiar violence." ... "The latest attack killed three Iraqi policemen and five civilians who had crowded into the courtyard of the police station in the poor Shia Muslim district now known as Sadr City. The driver of the car also died and at least 45 people were injured in the blast." ... "In a separate incident in western Baghdad a few minutes earlier, a Spanish intelligence officer was assassinated in front of his house." -By Rory McCarthy and Giles Tremlett -Guardian.co.uk

-  - 
"A Young Hacker Buys Options, Borrowing an Investor's Identity." ... "A Pennsylvania youth has been accused of a complex scheme to unload worthless stock options by hacking into another investment account and using it to buy the securities from him." ... "According to court filings yesterday by the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors in Boston, Van Dinh, 19, a college student, used a singular blend of computer crime, securities fraud and identity theft to dump stock options in Cisco Systems last July, about a week before they were scheduled to expire and cost Mr. Dinh as much as $100,000." -By John Schwartz -NYTimes via -Google-News

-  -  -  - 

- 
"Koizumi orders lower house of parliament be dissolved, paving way for elections." ... "Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi ordered the lower house of Japan's parliament dissolved Friday, paving the way for national elections that he's counting on to strengthen his party." ... "The dissolution places the 480 seats of the powerful lower house up for grabs. Koizumi is expected to set Nov. 9 as the date for the balloting." -By Kenji Hall -AP via -SFGate.com

-  - 
"UN nuclear agency warns Iran 'time is running out'." ... "The chief United Nations nuclear inspector on Thursday called on Iran to accelerate its co-operation with his agency. He warned that time was running out for Tehran to comply with an end of October deadline and provide full transparency to allay international concerns over its nuclear programme." ... "Tehran insists its nuclear programme is aimed at peaceful energy production, but the US maintains it is a front for developing nuclear weapons." -By Roula Khalaf -FT.com

- 
"Lots in space:  Orbiting junk, from old satellites to space gloves, has scientists worried for spacecraft - and engineers working on ways to clean it up." ... "If you want to get rid of an old fridge or an obsolete TV, you could call for curbside pickup. But an obsolete satellite? Or a spent rocket?" ... "Increasingly, the space about Earth is getting cluttered with such junk. And it's not just messy, it's dangerous. Full-size rocket bodies can destroy. Even smaller pieces - such as a 1965 space glove that zipped around for a month at 17,000 miles per hour - amount to more than a smack in the face. They can puncture space suits and cripple satellites." -By Peter N. Spotts -CSMonitor

-  - 
"Arnie warns of challenges ahead:  Film star Arnold Schwarzenegger has admitted huge challenges lie ahead after his election as governor of California." ... "Republican activists had triggered the recall vote - the first in 82 years - following frustration at the budget deficit, high levels of unemployment and struggling schools." ... "Only one other governor has been recalled in United States history - North Dakota's Lynn Frazier, in 1921." ... "Mr Schwarzenegger won with 48.7% support. His closest rival, Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat, garnered 31.7%." -BBC/News

-  -  -  -
"House unit votes for sanctions on Syria:  As White House ends opposition, test for Arab ties is seen." ... "The House International Relations Committee voted 33-2 for the Syria Accountability Act, which demands that Damascus halt support for terrorism, end any programs to develop weapons of mass destruction and withdraw its troops from Lebanon." ... "The full House, where 275 of 435 members co-sponsored the bill, is expected to pass the measure next week. The bill also has strong bipartisan support in the Senate, where the Foreign Relations Committee is planning to examine the measure this month." -By Brian Knowlton -IHT.com

-  -  -  -  - Tucson News
"Limits of disability act tested:  The high court considers Wednesday whether a former addict should be afforded employment protections." ... "Would a company that refuses to rehire somebody who says he's overcome his drug and alcohol addiction be guilty of violating the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)?" ... "That is the question the US Supreme Court takes up Wednesday in an Arizona case with major implications for companies with zero-tolerance hiring and firing policies." ... "The case stems from a lawsuit filed by Joel Hernandez, a 25-year employee of the Hughes Missile Systems Company in Tucson." -By Warren Richey -CSMonitor

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"Voters back Arnold, oust Davis." ... "Californians staged a historic revolt Tuesday by voting to throw Gov. Gray Davis out of office and electing action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger — a Hollywood ending to one of the most extraordinary political melodramas in the nation's history." ... "Davis, 60, banished from office less than a year after being elected to a second term, becomes only the second governor in the nation's history to be recalled." -By Kathy Kiely -USATODAY

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"White House stops blocking Syria bill." ... "Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the chief author of the Syria Accountability Act, says he was told on Friday that the legislation had been put on the calendar for a vote Wednesday by the House International Relations Committee. The measure has support from a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate." ... "The legislation had been blocked by the White House in the run-up to the Iraq war while the administration sought to blunt Syrian opposition to overturning Saddam Hussein's regime." -By Barbara Slavin -USATODAY

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"Bush Unsure if Name Leaker Will Be Caught:  Bush Expresses Doubt That Leaker of CIA Official's Name Will Be Caught." ... "Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, urged some 2,000 White House employees to turn over any relevant documents by Tuesday night. White House lawyers will screen the materials and decide which ones to send to the Justice Department as part of a criminal inquiry into the leak, Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said." ... "Investigators are trying to determine who leaked to columnist Robert Novak and two Newsday journalists the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA operations officer who has served overseas. She is married to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who publicly accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

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"Appeals Court OKs Do Not Call Registry:  Federal Appeals Court OKs Do Not Call Registry Pending Court Challenge." ... "The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham's order barring the FTC from enforcing the law." -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

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"Sharon Threatens to Hit Israel's Enemies Anywhere." ... "Speaking at a memorial service marking the anniversary of the 1973 Middle East war, Sharon took a tough line but made no specific threats after Sunday's strike on what Israel said was a training camp for Palestinian militants." ... "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, breaking his silence on the attack near Damascus, accused Israel of trying to drag Syria and the rest of the Middle East into a wider conflict. Syria said Israeli warplanes hit a civilian site." ... "It was Israel's deepest air raid in Syria in three decades and followed a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed 19 people in a restaurant in the Israeli port city of Haifa a day earlier." -By Matt Spetalnick -Reuters

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"ITV merger gets go-ahead:  Granada and Carlton can keep their advertising sales divisions." ... "The £4bn merger between Granada and Carlton TV, effectively creating a single ITV company, has been given the go-ahead by the government." ... "The merged ITV will control more than half of the commercial TV advertising market, but will have to sell airtime at guaranteed price levels to allay advertisers' fears that an ITV giant that controls 11 of the 15 regional companies would fix prices." ... "Creating a single ITV across England and Wales is a landmark in the 48-year history of the network, and will allow it to take on the BBC and commercial rivals such as BSkyB." -By Chris Tryhorn -Guardian.co.uk/media

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"Amid uncertainty, controversy, Calif. heads to the polls." ... "In the campaign's closing hours, Schwarzenegger insisted that allegations that he had groped as many as 15 women had not affected his popularity -- and yet was forced to confront one more allegation of misconduct late yesterday. Many of his supporters contended the negative stories were part of a political smear campaign." ... "The election today caps a recall effort that started almost as soon as Davis was sworn in for his second term as governor earlier this year, following a close and bitter reelection campaign last fall. After struggling with the state's energy crisis and a deficit that ballooned to $38 billion this year, Davis bore the brunt of the anger of the electorate: More than 1 million voters signed the required petition to launch the recall effort." -By Anne E. Kornblut -Boston/Globe