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Religious Groups Push Climate Aid for Poor
Tweet Share on Facebook October 31, 2007 Comment (26)An alliance of religious groups is vowing a relentless push to restore a key provision to assist the international poor in America's Climate Security Act, the first greenhouse gas cap-and-trade bill with a realistic chance of passage in the Senate.
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Morning Buzz: Oct. 31, 2007
Tweet Share on Facebook October 31, 2007 Comment (22)In a preview of his Halloween schedule, Sen. Barack Obama said at last night's Democratic presidential debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia that he would accompany his two young daughters trick-or-treating wearing a Mitt Romney mask, which has "two sides to it; it goes in both directions." Viewers watched as Obama and former Sen. John Edwards challenged Sen. Hillary Clinton on her consistency and her front-runner status throughout the two-hour debate. Meanwhile, usnews.com is conducting a who's-the-scariest poll featuring our candidate bobbleheads.
A boy admitted to starting one of the 15 or so wildfires that consumed thousands of acres in Southern California last week. He was playing with matches. Los Angeles County officials are considering prosecuting the child whose name and age have not been released.
The Egyptian who said he masterminded the terrorist attacks in Madrid that killed 191 people in 2004 was acquitted; three other lead defendants in the case were convicted of murder and handed sentences that stretched into the tens of thousands of years.
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McCain Plans 'Comeback Kid' Surge
Tweet Share on Facebook October 30, 2007 CommentSen. John McCain's recent uptick in the polls shows that he is working on a classic "comeback kid" campaign aimed at moving ahead of the pack in the New Hampshire primary, according to advisers.
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U.S. Intelligence Budget: $43.5 Billion
Tweet Share on Facebook October 30, 2007 Comment (19)After years of trying to keep under wraps the amount of money the U.S. government spends on intelligence collection and analysis, the Director of National Intelligence was forced to reveal the budget figure this year. In 2007, the U.S. intelligence community budget was $43.5 billion.
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Morning Buzz: Oct. 30, 2007
Tweet Share on Facebook October 30, 2007 Comment (13)State Department officials granted immunity to the Blackwater USA guards involved in the September 16 incident in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed during an embassy convoy shooting, according to the Associated Press. This move could undermine any efforts to prosecute those involved in an incident that strained already tense relations between the United States and the Iraqi government. State Department officials will not confirm or deny that immunity was granted.
Democrats in Congress are divided over further funding of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are debating whether to approve $50 billion to $70 billion for Iraq, which is far less than the $196 billion that President Bush requested. This move upsets some Democrats because they don't want to suffocate the Pentagon and want to show support for the troops and maddens others who believe funding should be doled out only to bring the troops home.
A study came out yesterday that suggests AIDS invaded the United States when a Haitian immigrant originally from Africa entered the population around 1969. Researchers believe a single person arrived in a large city like Miami or New York and the virus spread for years before it was first recognized as a disease in 1981. Studies suggest the virus transferred to the human population around 1930 in central Africa, most likely when people slaughtered infected chimpanzees for meat.
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Congress Watch: Domestic Spending Tussle
Tweet Share on Facebook October 29, 2007 CommentIt's all about the Benjamins for Congress this week as Democratic leaders anticipate a veto showdown with President Bush over spending priorities.
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Morning Buzz: Oct. 29, 2007
Tweet Share on Facebook October 29, 2007 Comment (20)Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced today that he has prostate cancer but that it is not life-threatening. He said he would have surgery soon and would then be able to continue to perform his leadership duties.
Which 2008 presidential candidate is the spookiest? According to an Associated Press-Ipsos survey, 37 percent of those polled said Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton would make the scariest Halloween costume. In second place was Rudy Giuliani at 14 percent. Giuliani is leading the Republican candidates in national polls.
In Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., a beach house fire left seven college students dead. The students, six from the University of South Carolina and another from Clemson, were at the shore to enjoy the last bout of warm weather. Six other students survived the blaze. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.
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Mysterious Syrian Facility at Least 4 Years Old
Tweet Share on Facebook October 26, 2007 Comment (3)It turns out that the alleged Syrian nuclear facility destroyed by an Israeli airstrike last month has been around for a few years. An image taken by GeoEye's IKONOS satellite on Sept. 16, 2003, and provided to U.S. News shows the suspect facility in an advanced stage of construction.
Satellite image of the suspected Syrian
nuclear facility,taken in 2003.
Euphrates River is visible to the left.
(GeoEye/SIME)The entire Syrian saga has been shrouded in secrecy, with the U.S. and Israeli governments refusing to comment about the reported airstrike. But the suspected site was identified earlier this week by David Albright, a former weapons inspector with the Institute for Science and International Security. In the first of two reports, he showed a satellite image from Aug. 10, 2007, showing the completed facility, with a nearby pumping station located on the banks of the Euphrates River. In the 2003 image, construction equipment is visible around the main building, while the pumping station had not yet been constructed.
The main building of the suspected
Syriannuclear facility,as it appeared
in 2003. (GeoEye/SIME)"We don't know what happened in between," Albright says. "There is a real shortage of commercial imagery of that part of Syria."
In Albright's second report, he displayed an image taken on Wednesday that shows an empty site, scrubbed clean of any debris.
Even with these satellite images, it remains unclear whether the facility really was a nuclear reactor. It also remains unclear whether North Korea was involved, as some have alleged.
Albright says that he still cannot be certain that the building was a nuclear facility but that it does bear many of the correct hallmarks. As for explaining why the building had been around for four years before the Israelis decided to destroy it, he suggests that perhaps "it takes a while to build a reactor in a place like Syria."
— Kevin Whitelaw
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General Blasts Iraq on Police Hires
Tweet Share on Facebook October 26, 2007 CommentMaj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the commander of Iraq's Multinational Division North, whose area of responsibility includes the volatile Diyala province, told Pentagon reporters this morning that he has seen "foot-dragging" within the Ministry of the Interior in response to U.S. military efforts to increase the number of Sunni hires within the police force.
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U.S. News on the Air
Tweet Share on Facebook October 26, 2007 CommentSeveral U.S. News writers will be making TV appearances in coming days:
* Senior Editor Anna Mulrine will be interviewed on CNN's This Week at War on Sunday about her recent trip to Iraq. She will be on the air with CNN reporter Jim Clancy in Baghdad to discuss a new plan targeting Shiite militias as well as the turnaround in Diyala, which was a mess earlier this year.
* For readers in the Washington, D.C., area, U.S. News's Chief White House Correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh will be appearing on WJLA-TV's Capital Sunday between 9:30 and 10 a.m. He will discuss with host Leon Harris his recent trip to California and his exclusive interview with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as they toured the wildfire-ravaged areas in the southern part of the state.
* As the newest issue of U.S. News hits newsstands on Monday, Senior Writer Marianne Lavelle will appear on Fox Business Network with hosts Tom Sullivan and Cheryl Casone to discuss her cover story on Silicon Valley's investment in alternative energy technology.
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