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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

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Iran defies U.N.; sanctions possible
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran defied a U.N. deadline Thursday to stop enriching uranium, opening the door for sanctions, but U.S. and other officials said no action would be sought before a key European diplomat meets with Tehran's atomic chief next week to seek a compromise.

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Randy Bish, Tribune-Review

The World

Highly Enriched Uranium Found at Iranian Plant
The origin of the uranium was unclear, but the finding raises questions about whether Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.

Excuse me if I’m being impolite, but I just have to point out that The New York Times doesn’t have such a great record for accurately reporting possible WMDs in countries the Bush administration wants to bomb the hell out of. —Caro

Rapid-Fire Attacks in Iraq Kill 47
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A barrage of coordinated bomb and rocket attacks on eastern Baghdad neighborhoods killed at least 47 people and wounded more than 200 within half an hour on Thursday, police and hospital officials said.

Symbolic transfer underway in Lebanon
JERUSALEM - The Israeli army turned over a small border area in south Lebanon to Lebanese and foreign troops Thursday, a symbolic move paving the way for U.N. peacekeepers to go into the volatile area.

Lebanon receives $940 million in pledges
The United States, Europe and the Gulf states pledged nearly $1 billion Thursday to help Lebanon recover from a crippling war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, doubling the amount sought by an international donors' conference.

Annan meets Assad over U.N. demands
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday to seek his help in bolstering a truce between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah group, whose chief allies are Syria and Iran.

UN to announce 'significant increase' in Afghan opium crops: US
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United Nations is expected to declare a "significant increase" in the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan stemming from weak eradication, alternative income and interdiction programs, the US State Department said.

Mexico Protesters Vow to Stop Fox Address
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Riot police, steel barriers, and water cannons surrounded Mexico's Congress as protesters vowed to stop President Vicente Fox from delivering his final state-of-the-nation address Friday, fueling fears the country's electoral crisis could turn violent.

U.N. votes for force in Darfur; Sudan says "no"
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Thursday voted to create a United Nations peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region to avert a new humanitarian disaster, but the Khartoum government rejected the resolution as "illegal."

The Nation

Bush says U.S. must win in Iraq
SALT LAKE CITY - President Bush said Thursday the war against Islamic militants was like last century's fight against Nazis and communists and that a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would lead to its conquest by America's worst enemies.

Education Department assisted FBI in terror search
A little-known federal program created days after Sept. 11, 2001, examined financial aid records of college students targeted by the FBI in terrorism investigations, but it's unclear whether it netted any terrorists, according to U.S. Education Department documents.

Republicans tense as voter disillusionment sets in
The buzzing of 150 friends and neighbors quieted as Kathleen Miller told them about her older son, a Marine who was injured in Iraq, and her younger son, who is in the Army and has orders to go there in October.

GOP lags in key races for Senate
As the Labor Day weekend launches a final nine weeks of campaigning, USA TODAY/Gallup Polls in five key states show Democrats poised to gain Senate seats but facing an uphill battle to regain control.

Federal agents raid legislative offices
Federal agents swarmed legislative offices around the state Thursday, executing search warrants in a coordinated series of raids that appeared to target the longstanding relationship between the oil-field service company Veco and leading lawmakers.

A Vote to Quit the Electoral College
Legislators pass a bill that could launch a national movement to elect the president by popular vote.

Ohio to Delay Destruction of Presidential Ballots
With paper ballots from the 2004 presidential election in Ohio scheduled to be destroyed next week, the secretary of state in Columbus, under pressure from critics, said yesterday that he would move to delay the destruction at least for several months.

Activists Want Ohio Election Chief Out
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Activists filed a civil-rights lawsuit Thursday claiming Secretary of State Ken Blackwell deprived people of their voting rights during the 2004 presidential election and seeking to have him removed from overseeing the general election in November.

Blackwell was an admitted Bush partisan in 2004, but supervised the Ohio election anyway. He’s a candidate for governor this November, but he’s supposed to supervise the election anyway. If we cared anything about our elections, we wouldn’t have partisan hacks in charge of them. —Caro

Economy & Business

Stocks end August higher
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rounded out their best month since January while the Dow posted its biggest monthly gain since April, with all three indexes ending flat on Thursday as investors hesitated to make big bets before Friday's closely watched jobs report.

Healthy rise in July consumer spending
WASHINGTON - Consumers increased their spending in July by the largest amount in six months and the back-to-school shopping season got off to a strong start in August, boosting hopes that the economy will not stumble into a recession this year.

Bernanke sees US productivity gains extending
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The boom in US productivity that began a decade ago is likely to continue, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said, while arguing for improved education and job training.

Media

CBS unit launches sports channels online featuring live games
Football and other sporting events from dozens of colleges and universities will be available live over the Internet through a service launching Friday. Notre Dame games will be free, while other schools will charge $4.95 to $9.95 a month each for an "All-Access" broadband channel.

As the interactive world turns
CBS is using its venerated "As the World Turns" to try an initiative that blends broadcast and broadband. InTurn is a competition for actors vying for an actual role on the show, which culminates this week with each of three finalists starring in an entire episode being shown only on the network's Innertube broadband channel where fans can vote and share opinions.

Netflix: From movies in the mail to movies on demand?
As all of Hollywood warms up for what everyone agrees is the next big thing -- digital delivery of home entertainment -- ironically, the little Los Gatos Internet upstart called Netflix that relies on the first-class postage stamp to deliver its discs has become the player to beat.

Science & Technology

Mass. governor says stem-cell research "Orwellian"
BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a 2008 Republican presidential hopeful, said on Thursday his administration's new restrictions on stem cell research are aimed at heading off an "Orwellian" future.

Melanoma Halted in Two Men
Gene therapy shows progress in results of study to manipulate human immune system to fight cancer.

Do you think these two men are worried about an Orwellian future?

Brain Gene May Help Make Us Human
Humans have more copies of a possibly important brain gene in their genomes than other apes, a new study finds. Called MGC8902, the gene is implicated in the function of the neocortex, the region of the brain that, in humans, is responsible for consciousness, language, and other higher cognitive functions.

India state to dump Windows for Linux
COCHIN, India - A southern Indian state plans to switch all school computers from Microsoft Windows to the free Linux operating system, an official said Thursday.

This is bound to happen more and more. Governments and businesses will have a more and more difficult time justifying the high cost of Microsoft products compared to the low cost of open source systems. —Caro