In The News - Oct-18

Report: Teaching Iraqis may take years - 18 Oct 2007 at 10:01am - WASHINGTON -- It will take the U.S. "years of steady engagement" in Iraq to teach local and provincial officials to govern themselves and provide their citizens with basic services, investigators said Thursday.

Putin Slams U.S. For "Pointless" Iraq War - 18 Oct 2007 at 9:59am - Russian leader Vladimir Putin has slammed President Bush's foreign policy, accusing the U.S. of fighting a "pointless" war in Iraq aimed at controlling the country's oil reserves. He also gave a new warning against U.S. missile defense plans.

U.S. Accused of Poor Help for Iraqi Refugees - 18 Oct 2007 at 11:09am - The flow of refugees from the war in Iraq is becoming a humanitarian crisis. Thousands have applied for refugee status in the U.S., but only a trickle has arrived. Critics weigh the moral obligations the United States may have toward displaced Iraqis, especially those who worked with the invading force.

Army to keep extending troops' service - 18 Oct 2007 at 12:06pm - WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Army will continue to rely on an unpopular program that forces some soldiers to stay on beyond their retirement or re-enlistment dates, despite repeated pressure from Defense Secretary Robert Gates to reduce and eventually eliminate the practice.

AG nominee reticent on waterboarding - 18 Oct 2007 at 1:47pm - WASHINGTON -- In an intense exchange Thursday with three Democrats, President Bush's nominee for attorney general left the door open for allowing a terrorism-era interrogation technique that simulates drowning.

US lawmakers apologize in torture case - 18 Oct 2007 at 2:48pm - WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers apologized Thursday to a Canadian engineer for his detention by U.S. officials, who took him to Syria where the man says he was tortured and held for nearly a year without charges.

Bill would cap global warming gases - 18 Oct 2007 at 3:12pm - WASHINGTON -- A Senate blueprint for tackling global warming would require power plants and vehicles to reduce their greenhouse gases by 70 percent. A chief sponsor said President Bush's approach of voluntary action will not meet the goal.

Report warns of new ethnic cleansing in Iraq - 18 Oct 2007 at 2:58pm - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials in Baghdad fear a new outbreak of "ethnic cleansing" between Sunnis and Shi'ites next year after the U.S. security crackdown ends, a government watchdog said on Thursday.

Intel bill includes telecom immunity - 18 Oct 2007 at 2:57pm - WASHINGTON -- Telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on domestic phone and computer lines between 2001 and 2007 without court orders can escape civil lawsuits if the government certifies they acted with the president's authorization, under a draft Senate bill.

Bill to protect gay workers advances - 18 Oct 2007 at 2:54pm - WASHINGTON -- Democrats on Thursday sent to the full House legislation that would prohibit workplace discrimination against gays, lesbians and bisexuals, despite bitter complaints from some because transgendered workers would not be protected under the bill.

Thought for the day:
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth. -Umberto Eco (1932 - )