"President Bush offered federal help and encouragement Thursday to some of the 25,000 firefighters working under a blazing sun to contain wildfires that make up the single largest fire event ever recorded in California," AP reports. "Since a huge lightning storm on June 21, about 2,010 separate fires have ignited across California, ravaging nearly 900,000 acres. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger [R] declared a state of emergency in 12 counties affected by the wildfires and has called in the California National Guard to help."
"Court rulings on Thursday cleared the way for the first trial at the American detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, opened in 2002 to hold suspects captured in the campaign against terrorism," the New York Times reports. "The trials have been delayed for years, in part by courts that found legal fault with the commissions created to try people designated by the government as 'unlawful enemy combatants.'"
"The Air Force's top leadership sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on 'comfort capsules' to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world, with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules' carpet and leather chairs, according to internal e-mails and budget documents," the Washington Post reports.
"Climate change will pose 'substantial' threats to human health in the coming decades, the Environmental Protection Agency said" Thursday, "issuing its warnings about heat waves, hurricanes and pathogens just days after the agency declined to regulate the pollutants blamed for warming," the Washington Post reports.
Congress: Pelosi Seeks $50 Billion More For Stimulus
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., "said on Thursday she is pushing for about $50 billion in a second election-year economic stimulus package being shaped by Democrats in Congress," Reuters reports. "Leaders in the House and Senate are discussing with key committee chairmen another emergency spending bill that would again aim to spur the economy and help those hurt by the economic slowdown."
"President Bush has been a 'total failure' in everything from the economy to the war to energy policy," Pelosi "said Thursday," AP reports. "In an interview on CNN, the California Democrat was asked to respond to video of the president criticizing the Democratic-led Congress for heading into the final 26 days of the legislative session without having passed a single government spending bill" and she "shot back in unusually personal terms."
"Former attorney general John D. Ashcroft defended his approach to forestalling terrorist attacks but told lawmakers" Thursday "that he moved quickly to respond to concerns that some Justice Department memos employed shoddy reasoning," the Washington Post reports. "In his first Capitol Hill appearance to address national security issues since leaving the Justice Department three years ago, Ashcroft batted away probing questions, blaming his memory and citing the still-classified status of memos and programs the Bush administration adopted after Sept. 11, 2001."
"The Treasury Department and top Democrats took an upbeat tone after meetings Thursday to ease lawmakers' concerns over an ambitious plan to boost investor confidence in the troubled mortgage finance giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," the Politico reports. "A central issue is how to find some comfort zone, giving Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson the discretion he needs for the rescue effort while also assuring Congress that it is not opening the gate for a 'runaway horse.'"
"House Republicans are reaching out to AARP in the hopes of arranging a meeting to discuss the impact of energy costs on older Americans," The Hill reports. "In a letter sent to AARP CEO William Novelli on Thursday, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) state they want a meeting to discuss the Republican 'all of the above' energy plan."
"Rep. Charles Rangel [D-N.Y.] asked the House Ethics Committee on Thursday to investigate his fundraising for a college research center named after him, saying a probe would prove he did nothing wrong," AP reports. "But Rangel said any inquiry shouldn't include another issue that has drawn scrutiny: His four rent-stabilized Harlem apartments, one used as a campaign office despite rules requiring such discounted apartments to be a tenant's primary residence."
"A House committee chairman asked the Pentagon on Thursday to declassify some documents about the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, saying the public and Tillman's family should get to see them," AP reports. "Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, made the request in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates."
Iraq: Kuwait Names First Ambassador Since '90 Invasion
"Kuwait on Thursday named its first ambassador to Iraq since Saddam Hussein's forces invaded the oil-rich country in 1990 and set off the 1991 Persian Gulf War," the Los Angeles Times reports. "The announcement came as Iraq's Shiite Muslim-led government is reaching out to its Sunni Arab neighbors in a bid to ease tensions and secure investment to rebuild the nation."
"Iraq's government hopes to bring the entire country under its security control by year's end," but "one critical area stands in the way: the western province of Anbar, where the Sunni insurgency was born and later received its first blows from a civil uprising," AP reports. "The transfer from U.S. military authority in Anbar has become stalled by worries that a hasty move could tempt unrest and reopen rivalries -- drawing in the same armed Sunni factions that the U.S. courted to help uproot al-Qaida in Iraq."
"Shoddy electrical work by private contractors on United States military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents. During just one six-month period -- August 2006 through January 2007 -- at least 283 electrical fires destroyed or damaged American military facilities in Iraq, including the military's largest dining hall in the country, documents obtained by The New York Times show."
"When it comes to hosting congressional delegations, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad likes to think of itself as the eHarmony of Iraq -- lawmakers outline what they're looking for, and officials try to set up the perfect date," the Washington Post reports.
Afghanistan: Troops Get More Protection From IEDs
"The Defense Department will send close to 800 more bomb-resistant vehicles to Afghanistan, where a resurgent Taliban has military leaders developing plans to add thousands of U.S. troop reinforcements," AP reports. "The hulking vehicles, known as MRAPs, protect U.S. personnel from the powerful blasts of roadside bombs, the No. 1 cause of combat deaths in injuries in Iraq."
"American Special Forces troops and Afghan commandos killed two influential tribal leaders and a number of their followers in western Afghanistan in a joint airborne operation on Wednesday night, military officials said Thursday," the New York Times reports. "But as with some previous operations, there were differing accounts over whether the strike also killed Afghan civilians."
"The war in Afghanistan has changed the way Canadians view war and their military -- and in some ways, themselves and the U.S., their mighty neighbor to the south," the Chicago Tribune reports. "After Canada declined to participate in the Iraq conflict, a decision to send up to 2,500 troops at a time to the bloodiest part of Afghanistan has transformed Canada from a nation proud of its peacekeeping missions to a nation figuring out how to be at war."
Nation: Texas To Go Ahead With Executions Of Five Mexicans
"Former vice president Al Gore" Thursday "called on Americans to convert all electricity generation to wind, solar and other renewable sources within 10 years and end their reliance on fossil fuels for the sake of the U.S. economy and the world's climate," the Washington Post reports.
"Despite pleas from the White House and the State Department, as well as an international court order to review their cases, Texas will execute five Mexicans on death row, a spokeswoman for the governor said Thursday," the New York Times reports. "The decision by Gov. Rick Perry [R] to allow the executions is the latest twist in a long-running battle between Mexico, which has no death penalty, and the United States over the fate of 51 Mexicans facing capital punishment in several states, including 14 in Texas."
"The land of oil and gas is staking a big chunk of its energy future on the Texas wind with Thursday's decision by utility regulators to build nearly $5 billion worth of transmission capacity," the Houston Chronicle reports. "A divided commission selected a plan that will eventually transmit 18,456 megawatts of wind power from West Texas and the Panhandle. That would be enough to power 3.7 million homes on a hot summer day, and more than 11 million in milder weather."
"As the doors opened Thursday to an era of legal handguns" in Washington, D.C., "gun rights advocates vowed another legal challenge, this time to the city's new firearms law," USA Today reports. "The D.C. Council passed the emergency law this week after the Supreme Court threw out its 32-year-old handgun ban -- the most restrictive in the nation -- last month. Handgun registration began at 7 a.m. Thursday, but only one D.C. resident submitted a gun for ballistics testing as required under the permitting process, Police Chief Cathy Lanier said."
"California has long had a reputation for soaking the rich, claiming a particularly large slice of their earnings to feed its growing government. Now, legislative Democrats want to push it further," the Los Angeles Times reports. "Their plan to balance the state budget would raise the wealthiest Californians' income taxes -- already the highest in the nation -- to a level not seen anywhere in the country in years."
"Undercover Maryland State Police officers conducted surveillance on war protesters and death penalty opponents... for more than a year while Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. [R] was governor, documents released" Thursday "show," the Washington Post reports. "Detailed intelligence reports logged by at least two agents in the police department's Homeland Security and Intelligence Division reveal close monitoring of the movements as the Iraq war and capital punishment were heatedly debated in 2005 and 2006."
"The Food and Drug Administration declared on Thursday that it is again safe to eat all tomatoes now on sale in the U.S., canceling its warning in June that some tomatoes were the cause of a still-unsolved outbreak of salmonella poisoning," the Chicago Tribune reports. "At the same time, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that those who are young, elderly or who suffer from weak immune systems should not eat fresh jalapeno or serrano peppers."
Economy: Wall Street Resisting Energy Legislation
"Financial industry executives are mustering on Capitol Hill to head off a Congressional effort to rewrite the rules for the nation's energy markets, saying it could unsettle already nervous markets and push more energy trading abroad, beyond the reach of domestic regulators," the New York Times reports. "The primary focus of Wall Street's concern is a bill entitled the Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act of 2008, introduced on Tuesday by a group of Democratic senators led by" Reid.
"Mortgage giant Freddie Mac -- emboldened by emergency regulatory actions that have triggered a two-day rebound in its battered stock -- is considering raising capital by selling as much as $10 billion in new shares to investors, according to people familiar with the matter," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The high-stakes maneuver would have the potential to avoid a full-blown government rescue for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, twin keystones of the U.S. housing market."
"Merrill Lynch on Thursday spoiled investors' appetite for financial stocks with larger-than-expected writedowns of $9.4bn that underlined banks' continuing struggles to emerge from the credit crunch," the Financial Times reports. "In an unusual move, Merrill waited until after the market closed to report a $4.6bn loss in the second quarter and announce asset sales aimed at raising $8bn in much-needed capital."
"Emerging economies must make the fight against inflation their 'top priority', the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday as it sharply raised its forecast for price increases in the developing world this year and next," the Financial Times reports. "Many emerging markets had to raise interest rates, cut government deficits and let currencies appreciate more to contain the inflation risk, the IMF said."
"The Dubai boom has been riding oil's ascent for years now," the New York Times reports. "But as the deepening bite of the credit crisis spreads from Wall Street and takes a global toll," Dubai "has recently become an even more powerful beacon for a swarm of deal makers looking to stake their claim in one of the world's last remaining bull markets."
World: More African Aid Dollars Switching To Military
"After years of escalating tensions and bloodshed, the talk in the Middle East is suddenly about talking," the New York Times reports. "The shift is still relatively subtle, but hints of a new approach in the waning months of the Bush administration are fueling hopes of at least short-term stability for the first time since the invasion of Iraq in 2003."
"With a fragile truce holding in Gaza, Israel has turned its attention to undercutting Hamas's charity work in the West Bank," the Washington Post reports. "The effort is needed there, Israel contends, to keep the group from seizing power from the more pragmatic Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, much as it did in Gaza last year."
"U.S. aid to Africa is becoming increasingly militarized, resulting in skewed priorities and less attention to longer-term development projects that could lead to greater stability across the continent, according to a report released Thursday by the advocacy group Refugees International," the Washington Post reports. "The report warns that the planned U.S. Africa Command, designed to boost America's image and prevent terrorism, is allowing the Defense Department to usurp funds traditionally directed by the State Department and U.S. aid agencies."
"Leaders of Pakistan's four-party governing coalition will meet next week to develop a strategy to deal with foreign extremists in the tribal areas where, Prime Minister Yousaf Reza Gilani said, their numbers are increasing by the day," the Washington Times reports. "Mr. Gilani told reporters that the militants could precipitate a Sept. 11-type attack again unless strong action is taken against them."
"A Spanish court overturned the convictions of four men and upheld the acquittal of a fifth on Thursday in the convoluted legal proceedings relating to the 2004 Madrid commuter train bombings that killed 191 people in the deadliest attacks by Islamic militants on European soil," the New York Times reports. "The rulings followed appeals of some of the 21 convictions by a lower court after a five-month trial that ended in October."
"With an arrest warrant pending against Sudan's president, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said Thursday he was focusing on another war crime case in Darfur involving two suspected rebel commanders allegedly directing attacks against peacekeepers," AP reports.
"With the largest petroleum reserves outside the Middle East," Latin America "has been on a roll in recent years. Record exports of crude and grain fueled economic growth not seen since the 1970s" and "about 26 million Latin Americans climbed out of poverty between 2002 and 2006, United Nations figures show," the Los Angeles Times reports. "But the same forces behind that prosperity are now, paradoxically, creating misery in the midst of bounty. Surging fuel prices have ignited inflation throughout the region, driving up the cost of food."
"The farm crisis that has divided the agricultural powerhouse of Argentina for months took a dramatic turn Thursday, when the Senate voted against the government's incendiary new tax on grain exports," the Los Angeles Times reports. "The decisive vote was cast by the government's own vice president after an 18-hour Senate debate, stunning observers and igniting a political crisis."
