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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

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Britons wary of Bush more than Kim Jong-il: poll
LONDON (Reuters) - The United States is seen as a threat to world peace by its closest neighbors and allies, with Britons saying President George W. Bush poses a greater danger than North Korea's Kim Jong-il, a survey found on Friday.

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And speaking of scary,
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The World

U.S. announces death of 4 troops in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military on Friday announced the deaths of three soldiers in Baghdad and a Marine in the western province of Anbar.

November off to bloody start in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A blood-drenched October has passed into a violent early November as a motorcycle rigged with explosives ripped through a crowded Shiite market in Sadr City on Thursday and suspected Sunni insurgent gunmen killed a Shiite dean of Baghdad University.

Iran test-fires longer range missile
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran test-fired dozens of missiles, including the Shahab-3 that can reach Israel, in military maneuvers Thursday that it said were aimed at putting a stop to the role of world powers in the Persian Gulf region.

Afghan success vs. Taliban seen hanging on reform
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defeating the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan will require President Hamid Karzai to lead a new anti-corruption campaign that can stop disillusioned Afghans from turning to extremism, a report released on Thursday said.

Sri Lankan rebels accused of strike plan, as Tiger targets hit
COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lankan war planes pounded suspected Tamil Tiger targets for a third straight day after the defence ministry charged that the guerrillas were preparing for a major offensive.

Nuclear freeze pushed to check North Korean weapon advances
WASHINGTON (AFP) - North Korea may not be capable yet of arming a missile with a nuclear warhead even though it would aim for such competence following its atomic weapons test, US experts say.

Nicaraguan vote links past, present U.S. foes
Daniel Ortega, the former Marxist leader of Nicaragua, could join a wave of leftists coming to power in Latin America if he wins his country's presidential election Sunday.

Sudan's Beshir says UN troops would create Iraq-style debacle
BEIJING (AFP) - Deploying UN peacekeepers in Sudan's troubled Darfur region would lead to a debacle similar to Iraq, Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has said as he thanked China for helping block a US-led push for troops.

The Nation

2006 House Ratings
Current Rothenberg Political Report projection: Democratic gain of 34-40 seats.

Delays loom in counting ballots
As the battle for control of Congress enters its final weekend, election experts warn that the number of voters forced to cast provisional ballots Tuesday because of eligibility questions could delay some results in tight races for days or weeks.

The bigger the delays, the more hooplah the Republicans can cause over the vote counting. —Caro

Dems optimistic over congressional races
WASHINGTON - Democrats were starting to taste what they hope will be victory in one if not both chambers of Congress. Republicans, meanwhile, were playing down indications that many of their incumbents were in trouble.

In Kansas, 9 former Republicans run as Democrats
MISSION, Kansas (Reuters)- Former Kansas legislator David Adkins may be a self-described "washed-up white male Republican politician," but come election night he and many others in the longtime Republican stronghold state of Kansas are placing their hopes, and votes, on Democrats.

Ranks of independent voters rising
WASHINGTON - The number of independent voters continues to rise, and that should give pause to Republicans trying to keep control of the House and Senate, an analysis of registration and turnout suggests.

Amid allegations, Haggard steps aside
The Rev. Ted Haggard stepped aside as senior pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church and resigned today as president of the National Association of Evangelicals amid allegations by a former gay male escort that the two had a three-year sexual relationship.

Pa. Rep. Sherwood's Ex-Mistress Gave Silence for $500,000
Sources tell the Associated Press that Rep. Don Sherwood, R-Pa., agreed to pay his ex-mistress $500,000 in exchange for her silence up to Election Day. Sherwood, accused by the woman of abuse, is in a tight race.

Judge rules against Libby
WASHINGTON - Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will not be allowed to use a memory expert at his perjury and obstruction trial, a federal judge ruled Thursday, blocking a key tactic in Libby's defense strategy.

Ex-diplomat faults policy on N. Korea
WASHINGTON - A former State Department official who maintains contact with North Korea said Thursday U.S. dealings with that country have been hampered by missteps and lack of a coherent policy.

U.S. Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Primer
A federal government Web site, set up to make public Iraqi documents, included some that may constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.

Congress Tells Auditor in Iraq to Close Office
Investigations led by a Republican lawyer named Stuart W. Bowen Jr. in Iraq have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces. And tucked away in a huge military authorization bill that President Bush signed two weeks ago is what some of Mr. Bowen’s supporters believe is his reward for repeatedly embarrassing the administration: a pink slip.

New Orleans council approves watchdog
NEW ORLEANS - The City Council voted unanimously Thursday to create a government watchdog office to oversee the spending of billions of dollars in federal aid to rebuild the city after Hurricane Katrina.

Good for New Orleans. If the feds won’t police themselves, the city will do it for them. —Caro

Medicaid Wants Citizenship Proof for Infant Care
Under a new federal policy, children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants will no longer be entitled to Medicaid.

Here’s another boneheaded Republican idea. Let’s stop well baby care for these children so that we’ll have to pay much more for their illnesses when they get sick. It’s either that or let them die in the streets. —Caro

Senators criticize IRS filing program
WASHINGTON - Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee say a deal between the Internal Revenue Service and private tax preparers that allows people to submit returns by computer is too restrictive and discourages electronic filing.

You bet. The reason I don’t file electronically is that my tax preparer doesn’t have the capability, and I refuse to pay another preparer to do it for me. I don’t know why the IRS won’t let me do it myself. Oh, right, privatization is all the rage. Whether it works or not. —Caro

Economy & Business

Stalling US productivity growth likely to trouble Fed
US productivity growth stalled in the third quarter, while unit labour costs continued to rise at a strong clip, heightening the dilemma for the Federal Reserve as it seeks to balance the risks from a slowdown in growth and stubbornly high inflation.

Dow down 12 on flat productivity report
NEW YORK - Wall Street extended its decline Thursday, dipping lower after the Labor Department said productivity was flat in the third quarter while wages rose nearly 4 percent. The data touched off concerns that the Federal Reserve will continue to wrestle with inflation, possibly raising interest rates again.

Science & Technology

Political-genetic theory is studied
Politics could be in the genes. That's the theory a team of political scientists and geneticists is trying to prove with extensive studies of twins, genes and brain scans. Genetic researchers are trying to prove that social attitudes can be inherited, and have discovered strong correlations between the two.

Study: 90% of the ocean's edible species may be gone by 2048
Ninety percent of the fish and shellfish species that are hauled from the ocean to feed people worldwide may be gone by 2048, according to a report in Friday's edition of the journal Science. Overfishing is a big part of the problem. When marine ecosystems are protected, the trend can be reversed.

Scientists: Cooler mice live longer
Mice genetically altered to literally live a cooler life also lived longer, scientists now report. These findings could help untangle the baffling mechanisms underlying aging and help lead to novel therapies against aging-related disease, experts added.

U.S. Air Force prepares to fight in cyberspace
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force said Thursday it was setting up what could become a new four-star command to fight in cyberspace, where officials say the United States has already come under attack from China among others.