|
|
- "New
Year's Eve security especially tight: New York security
at record level." ... "U.S. authorities from coast to coast were on heightened
alert Wednesday for signs of possible terrorist attacks at New Year's Eve
celebrations, as the nation's alert status remained at high, or Code Orange."
... "New York City officials are putting thousands of police officers in
place. Times Square will be cleared of traffic at 4 p.m., and all visitors
who want to attend the night's celebration will have to go through magnetometers
-- or metal detectors -- and have their bags checked in order to get to
viewing areas." -CNN
- "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
- 
- "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
- 
- "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
-
- 
- "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
- "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
-
- "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
- 
-
-
- "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
-
- 
- 
- 
- 
-
- 
- 
- "Iraq
arms hunt may hinder other U.S. aims." ... "In nine
months, not a single item has been found in Iraq from a long and classified
intelligence list of weapons of mass destruction which guided the work
of dozens of elite teams from Special Forces, the military, the CIA and
the Pentagon during the most secretive, expensive and fruitless weapons
hunt in history." ... "For U.S. allies, arms control experts and some involved
in the hunt, the lack of evidence in a war premised on the threat of proliferation
will have far reaching consequences in the coming year for the United States
in its efforts to curb Iran, North Korea, Syria and others." ... "While
some argue the Iraq war helped push open the doors of closed regimes such
as Libya and Iran, others say it has only strengthened convictions that
negotiations, U.N. inspections and sanctions work." -By
Dafna Linzer -AP
via -MercuryNews-BayArea
- "The
Growing Web." ... "When the Pew Internet and American
Life Project began chronicling the online medium in March 2000, 52 million
Americans logged onto the Internet each day. By this past August, that
figure had swelled 27 percent, to 66 million." -By
Lisa Napoli -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- 
- "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
- 
Sniper
- "Jury
sharply split in sparing sniper Malvo." ... "The
Virginia jury that spared the life of teen sniper Lee Boyd Malvo was apparently
sharply split, with five jurors favoring a death sentence but others saying
he was too young to be executed." ... "The jurors decided Tuesday -- after
nine hours of deliberation over two days -- to sentence the 18-year-old
to life without parole for his role in the Washington-area sniper slayings."
-CNN
- "U.S.
Reports First Case of Mad Cow Disease." ... "The
first U.S. case of the deadly mad cow disease, which devastated parts of
the European agriculture industry in the 1990s, was found in a sick animal
in Washington state, the Bush administration said on Tuesday." ... ""A
single Holstein cow from Washington state was tested as presumptive positive
for BSE or what is widely known as mad cow disease," U.S. Agriculture Secretary
Ann Veneman said at a news conference." (1, 2)
-By Randy Fabi and Richard Cowan-Reuters
-
- 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
- 
- 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
Christmas
News
- "Last
Christmas Shopping Weekend Disappoints." ... "The
critical last weekend before Christmas didn't deliver the sale bonanza
merchants were hoping for, with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT,
news)
announcing that last-minute buying showed "some improvement" but wasn't
enough to offset weak business in the early part of the month." ... "In
the past few years, the Saturday before Christmas has been the busiest
day of the season. Last year, the Monday before Christmas was the second-biggest
sales day." -AP
via -Quicken.com
- "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
-
-
- "[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
-
-
- Time
Magazine's Person of the Year: 2003:
"The
American Soldier: They swept across Iraq and conquered
it in 21 days. They
stand guard on streets pot-holed with skepticism and rancor. They caught
Saddam Hussein. They are the face of America, its might and good will,
in a region unused to democracy. The U.S. G.I. is TIME's Person of the
Year" ... "" -By Nancy Gibbs
-Vol.
162 No. 26 20031229-20040105
-TIME.com
-
- "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
- 
- "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
-
- 
- 
- 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
-
- 
- "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
- 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
-
-
- "Court:
President cannot detain U.S. citizen as enemy combatant."
... "In a setback to the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies,
a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the president does not have
the power to detain an American citizen seized on U.S. soil as an enemy
combatant." ... "In a 65-page decision, a three-judge panel of the 2nd
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 that the U.S. government must release
Jose Padilla from military custody within 30 days."
-CNN
- "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
-
-
- 
- 
- 
-
-
- "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
-
- "Ex-Ill.
Gov. Ryan Indicted on Corruption." ... "Former Gov.
George Ryan, who gained a worldwide reputation as a critic of the death
penalty, was indicted Wednesday on charges of taking payoffs in a corruption
scandal that shadowed his entire four years in office and cut short his
political career." ... "Prosecutors said the 69-year-old Republican and
his family took cash, gifts, vacations and other favors to steer state
business to friends and associates while he was governor and, before that,
Illinois secretary of state." -By Mike Robinson
-AP via-AJC
-
- 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
-
-
- "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
- 
-
- 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
- 
-
"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
-
-
-
-
-
- 
- "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
- 
- "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
-
-
-
- "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
-
- Consumer
News - "It's
not called 'Can' Spam for nothing." ... "After six
years of wrangling over legislative ways to stop spam, Congress was still
faced with a fundamental choice: Give consumers control over the growing
flood of unwanted spam e-mail that fills their in-boxes, or give in to
the powerful advertising and marketing industries who want to be the ones
filling consumer in-boxes." ... "In the end, consumers lost." ... "The
Can-Spam Act, signed
into law Tuesday, is being touted as relief for the millions of consumers
beset with unwanted e-mail. But careful readers will notice that the law
is not called the "Can't-Spam" Act. There's a good reason: The law is little
more than an instructional guide for how to keep pumping out millions of
e-mails per hour while avoiding legal liability." -By
Ray Everett-Church -CNET/News
-
- 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
-
-
-
- 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
-
-
- "Hussein's
Hovel Hideaway: Desposed Leader Told Captors He Wanted
to 'Negotiate'." ... "When the deposed Iraqi leader was pulled by U.S.
troops from a dank hole adjacent to the farmhouse Saturday, he told them
in English: "My name is Saddam Hussein. I am the president of Iraq and
I want to negotiate."" ... "A U.S. Special Forces soldier replied: "Regards
from President Bush."" -By Alexandar Vasovic
-AP via -WashingtonPost
-
-
- "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
-
-
- "Ace
in the Hole: Saddam Hussein Captured Near Tikrit By U.S. Forces."
... "Saddam was in a six-to-eight-foot-deep "spider hole" that had been
camouflaged with bricks and dirt. The soldiers saw the hole, investigated
and found him inside, armed with a pistol, said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno,
the commander of the 4th Infantry Division that assisted in capturing the
leader." ... "Forces from the 4th Infantry Division along with Special
Forces captured Saddam, the U.S. military said. There were no shots fired
or injuries in the raid, called "Operation Red Dawn," said Lt. Gen. Richardo
Sanchez." (1, 2,
3,
4)
-ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- "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
-
-
- 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
-
-
-
-
- "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
- 
-
-
- "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
- 
- 
- "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
- "Religious
upsurge brings culture clash to college campuses."
... "It's a rainy Thursday night, a few days before finals, and Northwestern
University's campus is deserted. But students can hear the raucous music
emanating from one old stone building long before they step inside." ...
"Religion on campus - particularly evangelical groups like this one - is
thriving these days, but it doesn't always find an easy home in the intellectual,
secular world of higher education. For instance, Campus Crusade for Christ,
which sponsors the Thursday gatherings, has butted heads with the administration
here over a questionnaire on religious interest that the group gives to
freshmen. Other schools are dropping the college chaplaincy, seeing it
as an outdated tradition." -By Amanda Paulson
-CSMonitor
-
-
-
-
-
-
- "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
- 
-
- "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
-
-
- 
- 
-
- "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
-
-
- "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
-
-
-
- "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
- 
- "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
-
- 
-
- "Effects
of Pennsylvania remap case may ripple to Texas: High
court to hear arguments on whether state's lines too partisan." ... "Along
the banks of the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, there's a street
called Lincoln Avenue in a town called Charleroi. And improbable as it
seems, the future of Texas politics could reside there." ... "On one side
is the home of Frank Mascara. On the other is the rest of the U.S. House
district he used to represent. Such craftsmanship cost Mr. Mascara and
three other Democratic congressmen their jobs last year." ... "The Supreme
Court has never thrown out a redistricting plan on the grounds of partisan
gerrymandering. But it will hear arguments Wednesday on the Pennsylvania
map, and the implications could be huge for Texas, whose own new districts
are under assault in federal court this week." -By
Todd J. Gillman -DallasNews.com
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
-
-
- "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
-
- "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
-
-
- "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
-
-
- "Bush
Whacked Online: Search Engine Trick Lists President
as ‘Miserable Failure’" ... "Type in "miserable failure" on the Google
Web site and the first Web link most likely to show up will take you directly
to the official online biography for the current occupant of the Oval Office.
(The trick will also sometimes work on Yahoo! and other search engines.)"
... ""This is not a political statement from Google, but rather a reflection
of a recent Web phenomenon," says a spokesman for Google in Mountain View,
Calif. "In this case, a select group of Web masters used the words [miserable
failure] to describe and link to George Bush's Web site."" ... "In other
words: the president has just been the latest victim of a "Google bomb,"
a crafty but simple manipulation of how the well-known online search engine
works." (1, 2,
3))
-By Paul Eng -ABCNEWS.com