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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Top Story

Hastert clings to power as scandal swirls
House Speaker Dennis Hastert was fighting for his political life Wednesday after new disclosures surfaced that his office knew that Rep. Mark Foley was sending sexually provocative messages to congressional pages as long as three years ago.

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Mike Keefe, Denver Post

The World

Military Hones a New Strategy on Insurgency
WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 — The United States Army and Marines are finishing work on a new counterinsurgency doctrine that draws on the hard-learned lessons from Iraq and makes the welfare and protection of civilians a bedrock element of military strategy.

Death Squads In Iraqi Hospitals
Halting sectarian violence in Iraq has proven nearly impossible. In the most vivid evidence yet of how bad it's become, Lara Logan has exclusive details about a report that claims Baghdad hospitals have become killing zones.

Abbas, hosting Rice, hints at new government
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, bolstered by a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said on Wednesday unity talks with Hamas were dead and he might dissolve the Hamas-led government.

Report: Turkey to deploy troops in Lebanon
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey will send its first deployment of peacekeepers to Lebanon next week by dispatching about 260 soldiers to join the international force, private NTV television reported on Thursday.

Iran: Sanctions won't derail enrichment
HASHTGERD, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Wednesday that sanctions will not stop Iran from enriching uranium after a European negotiator conceded "endless hours" of talks had made little progress and suggested the dispute could wind up at the U.N. soon.

Two rockets found near Pakistani parliament
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani police found two rockets and launchers on Thursday near parliament house in the capital Islamabad, a day after a blast in a park near President Pervez Musharraf's residence in an adjoining city.

Fighting flares despite Sri Lanka peace talk pledges
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sporadic shelling continued in Sri Lanka's north on Thursday and suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed a soldier with a roadside bomb, just hours after the government agreed to crunch talks aimed at halting renewed civil war.

Thai coup leader to hold talks with rebels
BANGKOK, Thailand - The Thai army chief who staged last month's coup said Thursday that he has agreed to hold talks with rebel leaders in the restive south, an abrupt policy change from the administration of the ousted prime minister.

Asia Confronts North Korea on Nuke Test
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea's neighbors scrambled Wednesday to forge a common front against Pyongyang's threatened nuclear test, with South Korea warning of a regional atomic arms race that could upend the regional balance of power.

Panel: IRA No Longer A Threat
The Independent Monitoring Commission reported that the paramilitary, and crucially, the recruitment activities of the Irish Republican Army have ceased, and that the group no longer poses a threat to Northern Ireland.

How did they do it? NEGOTIATION, not bullying. —Caro

The Nation

US Republicans face widening sex scandal
A senior Capitol Hill aide resigned his post as a widening sex scandal pummelled President George W. Bush's Republican party one month before national congressional elections. Charges continued to fly over how long Republican leaders in the House of Representatives knew about the inappropriate behavior of Mark Foley, who quit his House seat over revelations that he had a history of making sexual overtures to underage male congressional aides.

Ethics committee ready to probe Foley case
WASHINGTON - Speaker Dennis Hastert's job is on the line as members of the House ethics committee decide how to launch a credible investigation of former Rep. Mark Foley's salacious computer messages to teenage pages.

Gingrich: Dems' sex scandals are worse
GREENVILLE, S.C. - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that Democratic sex scandals have been far worse than the suggestive Internet messages sent to teenage congressional pages by former Rep. Mark Foley.

Keep throwing each other anvils, Republicans. We’re loving it. —Caro

GOP forced off issues it wants to run on
Republican House members, scattered across the USA for their first week of full-time campaigning, want to talk to voters about the reasons they believe they should be re-elected. Instead, they are dealing with issues they would prefer to avoid.

Pelosi emphasizes economic proposals
WASHINGTON - Pointing toward midterm elections, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi promises to raise the minimum wage while cutting taxes to spur economic growth and help the middle class.

Um, Nancy, maybe it’s not a good idea to HELP them change the subject. —Caro

Bush ties campaign to national security
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - President Bush tried to drown out political anxieties about war and sex Wednesday by sounding alarm bells on national security and urging people to "vote Republican for the safety" of the country.

Bush signs homeland security bill
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - President Bush on Wednesday signed a homeland security bill that includes an overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $1.2 billion for fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration.

Feds: Canadian Drugs Allowed Into U.S.
The federal government will stop seizing small amounts of lower-priced prescription medications mailed from Canada, officials said. The new policy, which takes effect Oct. 9, was announced in an e-mail from the Department of Homeland Security.

Pandering to seniors, just before the election? —Caro

Court temporarily OKs domestic spying
CINCINNATI - The Bush administration can continue its warrantless surveillance program while it appeals a judge's ruling that the program is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

Economy & Business

Dow hits 2nd straight record-high close
NEW YORK - Wall Street barreled higher Wednesday, propelling the Dow Jones industrials to their second straight record high close as investors shrugged off lackluster economic news and grew more optimistic that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates as the economy cools.

Economy shows signs of losing momentum
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. economy lost steam in September, data showed on Wednesday, bolstering the view that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to raise interest rates again and could lower them next year to re-energize the economy.

Housing correction "substantial," Bernanke urges
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve remains worried inflation is too high, but is also watching to see how much a "substantial correction" in housing markets will slow economic growth, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday.

Science & Technology

Get ready for freak weather, world's polluters told
MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - The world's top polluting nations were told on Wednesday to prepare for decades of weather turmoil, even if they act now to curb emissions and pursue green energy sources.

Plans Unveiled for State-Financed Stem Cell Work in California
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine issued a plan for how it would spend the $3 billion assigned by the states voters to finance stem cell research.

Chemo has long-term impact on brain function: study
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chemotherapy causes changes in the brain's metabolism and blood flow that can last as long as 10 years, a discovery that may explain the mental fog and confusion that affect many cancer survivors, researchers said on Thursday.

So if I seem fuzzy headed from time to time... —Caro

Tomorrow's robots could have whiskers
Taking tips from both land and sea animals, researchers have crafted arrays of robotic whiskers that can create accurate, 3D images of objects.

New Planets Astound Astronomers in Speed and Distance
Among a batch of new planets, found by the Hubble telescope on a small patch of sky in Sagittarius, are as many as five that orbit their home stars in less than a day.