The Morning News

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to explain whether the private security group, which protects US diplomats in Baghdad under a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars, had been offered protection from prosecution when the State Department investigated the September 16 shooting.

On Tuesday US media reported that the Blackwater guards were promised immunity during the department’s inquiry.

The proposed changes emerged from a review triggered by a shooting incident in Baghdad last month in which security guards from U.S. security firm Blackwater, working for the State Department, are accused of having killed 17 Iraqis.

Efforts to prosecute guards involved in the incident could be complicated by a grant of limited immunity offered by State Department investigators, U.S. officials also said on Tuesday.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to discuss specifics of the agency’s role in the investigation, but said any immunity deals should not stop the Justice Department from prosecuting.

“It’s up to the investigators and prosecutors to determine what kind of case they have … and ultimately whether to bring prosecution,” McCormack told reporters.

Officials said the attacker detonated his explosives among police at a checkpoint in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, just south of the capital, Islamabad.

Musharraf was safely inside Army House, about a quarter-mile away, where the blast was clearly heard, said presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi. The checkpoint guards a road leading to the president’s compound and the residences of several top generals.

Such a move would satisfy party members who want to spare the Pentagon from a painful budget dance and show support for the troops as Congress considers its next major step on Iraq.

But it also would irritate scores of other Democrats, who want to pay only to bring troops home and who say their leadership is not doing enough to end the war.

The officials, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the matter in public, said they expected the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany to meet toward the end of the week.

Washington and other Western countries suspect Tehran is developing nuclear weapons under the cover of its civilian nuclear program. Iran says its nuclear program is to generate electricity so it can export more of its valuable oil and gas.

Bush’s objection is over the Democrats’ desire to spend about $9 billion more than he wants for various domestic social programs, from cancer research and early childhood education to helping the poor heat their homes this winter.

Democrats were considering coupling the domestic funding bill with money for the Pentagon and veterans that Bush wants, but final decisions had not yet been made, according to congressional aides.

Clean hands can only go so far in protecting patients from infection if doorknobs, bed rails and even sheets are covered with bacteria and viruses, Dr. Stephanie Dancer of South General Hospital in Glasgow writes in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

But other infection experts differed on whether clean equipment and telephones affect a patient’s biggest risk of acquiring a “superbug” such as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

“The team is meeting right now to look at these many pictures and try to decide what exactly is causing the problem,” said Mike Suffredini, the manager of the orbiting space station.

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The edge of one of the 31 panels on the solar antenna tore just as the operation to redeploy the device — directed by mission control back on Earth — was almost complete, images carried live on NASA television showed.

Only a couple comets each decade are this easy to see.

Holmes is actually an old comet. First seen in November 1892 by British observer Edwin Holmes, it has since made 16 circuits around the Sun and should have fizzled out a long time ago. It made its closest approach to the Sun last May, yet never came closer to it than 191 million miles (307 million kilometers).  The comet is actually moving away from the sun now, almost midway between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Not exactly a recipe for an outbust, since solar heating is typically what triggers comets to brighten.

But sometime late last Tuesday, Oct. 23, this comet underwent an explosive outburst and within just 24-hours increased its brightness almost a million-fold. Since then, Holmes has been putting on a unique display, looking very different than any other comet of our generation: It has yet to sprout a noticeable tail, while its head-called the coma-appears like a round, yellowish fuzz ball in the constellation Perseus, and is visible for most of the night.

Researchers found the imprints in sandstone rocks collected in eastern Pennsylvania decades ago and stored in the museum in Reading, Pa. The body impressions of the salamander-like creatures are estimated to be 330 million years old, or about 100 million years before the first dinosaurs appeared.

Many ancient footprints have been found, but a full-body animal impression is unusual. The three impressions show the foot-long temnospondyls had webbed feet and smooth skin similar to modern-day amphibians, rather than armored bodies.

The downtown Atlanta attraction has drained a lake in an atrium, turned off a waterfall and nearly emptied a moat at an exhibit, refilling it with sand. The aquarium isn’t alone: A water salute to retiring pilots at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport also has been put on hold.

The efforts are some of the most unusual as the state contends with one of the worst droughts in its history. Georgia already has banned virtually all outdoor water use and ordered public water utilities to cut back water use by 10 percent.

The legislation could have a chilling effect on security companies operating in Iraq, though the vast sums they and their guards are paid are likely to weigh more heavily than the possibility of legal jeopardy.

The draft law, expected to be passed overwhelmingly by parliament, is also certain to deepen tensions between the Bush administration and the Iraqi government.

Turkish helicopters pounded rebel positions near the border with rockets for a second day and Turkey brought in troops by the truckload in an operation against mountainside emplacements.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told members of his party in parliament “it is now unavoidable that Turkey will have to go through a more intensive military process.”

The Navy also confirmed that other American warships sank two pirate skiffs late Sunday after answering a distress call from a hijacked Japanese chemical tanker and said U.S. ships were still monitoring that vessel.

In Tuesday’s incident, a helicopter flew from the destroyer USS James E. Williams to investigate a phoned-in tip of a hijacked ship and demanded by radio that the pirates give up their weapons, the military said in a statement.

The crew of the Dai Hong Dan then overwhelmed the hijackers, leaving two pirates dead, according to preliminary reports, and five captured, the military said.

Protesters calling for the reopening of a corruption inquiry into a multi-billion dollar arms deal jeered at Abdullah as he rode in a gilded carriage. Britain’s third party, the Liberal Democrats, boycotted official events over human rights.

“The relationship between our two kingdoms is one of mutual benefit, learning and understanding. So, King Abdullah, custodian of the two holy mosques, I warmly welcome you to this country,” Elizabeth said in a speech at the banquet in Buckingham Palace, her London residence.

Ten bombs ripped through four commuter trains early on March 11, 2004, strewing the tracks with bodies. The Islamist bombings killed 191 people and injured 1,800 when mobile phones set off homemade bombs packed into sports bags.

The bombings also reshaped Spanish politics as voters spurned a conservative government that at first blamed the blasts on Basque separatists ETA.

Mukasey’s (and the White House’s) problems began during his Oct. 18 Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing to replace Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. At the hearing veteran Illinois Senator Dick Durbin asked Mukasey a deceptively simple question: is waterboarding torture? Waterboarding simulates drowning, and involves constraining a person, restricting their breathing and pouring water on all or part of their face. Some version of it is widely reported to have been used by U.S. interrogators in an attempt to extract information from high-level terrorism suspects in the wake of 9/11.

It is also widely labeled as a form of torture by current and former U.S. military leaders, human rights organizations worldwide and prominent Republicans, including Presidential candidate John McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham. Torture is illegal in the United States, and Bush and the administration have repeatedly asserted that they have not and do not torture. But Bush has declined to define torture, and Durbin’s question cut to the core of that obfuscation.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi led her colleagues from the Democratic Party in calling on Nancy Nord, the chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), to quit amid more discoveries of tainted toys.

“I call on the president of the United States to ask for the resignation,” Pelosi told a news conference at Capitol Hill with other lawmakers by her side.

A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) said the project has failed to improve the Mosul Dam’s grouting system by providing the Iraqi government with equipment needed for the project.

“SIGIR’s inspection concludes that the project, now 2 years old, has yet to significantly improve the basic grouting capability of the Ministry of Water and Resources at the dam,” the report said.

The Washington Post, citing a draft Army Corps of Engineers report, said the Mosul dam was in danger of imminent collapse and could flood two large Iraqi cities and kill thousands.

Giuliani told small-business owners he would not punish them for unwittingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Federal officials are “trying to put the responsibility for this on employers, on city government, on state government,” the former New York mayor said during a conference call arranged by the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

Romney, who is credited with rescuing the scandal-plagued 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, also said he would work to make sure there is ample federal support for security and transportation during the games.

“I’m going to work hard to make sure that’s part of my budget … that we provide the necessary support for the Olympics that will enhance the probability of winning the game bid,” the former Massachusetts governor said before a fundraiser in suburban Chicago.

Huckabee had once spoken in favor of releasing the man but told reporters the decision to do so was made by parole board members appointed by his Democratic predecessors, Jim Guy Tucker and Bill Clinton.

Huckabee said he could not remember all the details of a meeting he had with parole board members during which the case of Wayne DuMond came up. But he asserted, “I didn’t try to, you know, push anybody’s buttons on it.”

Michael Mukasey’s four-page letter did not satisfy Democrats, many of whom said their vote hinges on whether he’s willing to say that the technique, which simulates drowning and is banned by the military, is illegal. Mukasey was widely expected to be confirmed by the full Senate, if by a narrower margin than the White House expected.

Mukasey, a retired federal judge, called the technique “repugnant to me” and pledged to study its legality if confirmed.

The two 30-second spots are part of a $1.1 million series of five ads that the Republican congressman intends to air in the state in November and December.

One ad, called “Catching On,” features New Hampshire residents voicing their support, including a self-described undeclared voter who says he will vote in the Republican primary simply to cast a ballot for Paul.

Civil unions will become legal in New Hampshire on Jan. 1, allowing gays to apply for the same rights as married people. Same-sex unions from other states also will be recognized in New Hampshire if they were legal in the state where they were performed.

Questioned about civil unions after a speech at a dental benefits company, Thompson said, “I would not be in support of that.”

“Disclosure of the amount of the budget is a good first step toward accountability,” said Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, which has campaigned for publication of the annual intelligence budget.

The figure, which is roughly equal to the entire economy of Croatia or Qatar, dwarfs the estimated intelligence budgets of any other country including the closest U.S. ally, Britain, which spends about 10 percent of the amount, he said.

“Senator Clinton is still reviewing the agreement,” Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said in an e-mail.

Congress is nearing final action on the agreement, which the Bush administration concluded nearly two years ago.

The bank said it was on course for a return to profit in this quarter but new chief executive Marcel Rohner voiced caution about the fragile state of the mortgage backed securities market into the beginning of next year.

UBS said in a statement that its third quarter net loss of 830 million Swiss francs (495 million euros, 713 million dollars) compared with a net profit of 2.20 billion Swiss francs during the same period last year.

Most economists expect the Fed to announce Wednesday a cut of a quarter of a percentage point in its federal funds short-term interest rate to 4.50 percent.

However, some analysts in recent days have questioned whether the central bank will trim rates at all, while other Fed watchers believe the Fed may implement a deeper cut of half a percentage point.

The announcement of his departure Tuesday came after the world’s largest brokerage posted a $2.24 billion quarterly loss, its biggest since being founded 93 years ago. Merrill Lynch did not name a replacement for O’Neal, whose ouster had been expected, and who leaves the company with benefits worth $161.5 million.

Laurence Fink, the chief executive of investment manager BlackRock Inc., turned down an initial overture from Merrill’s board but is in active negotiations, according to a person with direct knowledge of the offer who was not authorized to speak publicly. With the presumed front-runner out of contention, filling the top spot at Merrill Lynch is not expected to be easy given the remaining unknowns from the global credit crisis.

The remains have enabled scientists to reconstruct the lives and habits of the seafaring Lapita people, who settled Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa from Melanesian islands scattered to the west.

“We’ve got the archaeological record, but until now the actual people have been missing from the story,” researcher Stuart Bedford, from the Australian National University, told Reuters.

I find it unsettling that I even have to consider the question.

That most Americans oppose the war in Iraq is well established. The latest CBS News poll, in mid-October, found 26 percent of those polled approved of the way the president is handling the war and 67 percent disapproved. It found that 45 percent said they’d only be willing to keep large numbers of US troops in Iraq “for less than a year.” And an ABC News-Washington Post poll in late September found that 55 percent felt Democrats in Congress had not gone far enough in opposing the war.