In The News - Jan. 29

Pentagon Can Now Fund Foreign Militaries - 29 Jan 2006 at 12:00am - Congress has granted unusual authority for the Pentagon to spend as much as $200 million of its own budget to aid foreign militaries, a break with the traditional practice of channeling foreign military assistance through the State Department.


Blair and Bush 'conspired to go to war regardless of United Nations' - 29 January 2006 - Tony Blair knew that George Bush was only "going through the motions" of offering support for a second UN resolution in the run-up to the Iraq war, it was claimed last night.


Britain's Blair to hand over power within two years, ally says - 29 Jan 2006 at 7:00am - LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair has reached a "new understanding" to hand over power to his finance minister Gordon Brown within two years, a close ally and former minister has said.


ABC's Woodruff injured in Iraq - 29 Jan 2006 at 1:31pm - ABC news anchor Bob Woodruff and camera operator Doug Vogt were seriously injured in a bomb attack in Iraq on Sunday, the U.S. television network said.

Tragic. But at least it can be said that Woodruff & Vogt chose to take that assignment. The service members with whom they were embedded have no choice of assignment; they cannot even choose a different job:

Army forces 50,000 soldiers into extended duty - 29 Jan 2006 at 10:56am - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has forced about 50,000 soldiers to continue serving after their voluntary stints ended under a policy called "stop-loss," but while some dispute its fairness, court challenges have fallen flat.


Frist: Schiavo case taught lesson - 29 Jan 2006 at 1:21pm - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who took a leading role in the Terry Schiavo case, said Sunday it taught him that Americans do not want the government involved in such end-of-life decisions.


Audit: U.S.-Led Occupation Squandered Aid - 29 Jan 2006 at 1:43pm - Iraqi money gambled away in the Philippines. Thousands spent on a swimming pool that was never used. An elevator repaired so poorly that it crashed, killing people.


CIA unlikely to back off al Qaeda attacks in Pakistan - 29 Jan 2006 at 1:35pm - WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Bush administration is unlikely to shy away from using Predator missile attacks on al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, despite the risk of political backlash for U.S. ally, President Pervez Musharraf, officials and intelligence experts say.

Have Pakistani authorities identified the four "terrorists" they say were killed in the Damadola airstrike? Were the four originally misidentified, and counted among the 14 "civilians" killed? Or was the original victim count short by four?