responsibilities to Afghan elders. That deal was criticized by U.S. officials behind the scenes as surrendering to the Taliban. NATO commanders had long said they would take back Musa Qala at a time of the Afghan government's choosing, but NATO and Afghan forces will now have to work to hold the town in a region - Helmand province - that has seen the fiercest fighting in Afghanistan this year. Lt. Col. Richard Eaton, a British military spokesman, said the military wasn't going to take Musa Qala without a plant to hold it. He said a unit of predominantly Afghan soldiers would be stationed in town. (AP Photo/Stefan Rousseau/Pool)Brown, seen at left visiting British troops in Helmand province, said he had "no doubt" the Musa Qala operation would be successful and that social and economic progress would follow military action. "In Musa Qala the action has been taken, and I think we will see in the next few days in Musa Qala that the action will be effective, that it will work and it will bring long-term and lasting results," Brown said. During a stop at Camp Bastion in Helmand province, Brown thanked about 150 British troops for their "patriotic service." "It is one of the most difficult of tasks. It is the most testing of times and it is one of the most important of missions because to win here and to defeat the Taliban and make sure we can give strength to the new democracy of Afghanistan is important to defeating terrorism all around the world," he said. Brown's visit to Iraq on Sunday signaled the start of what Britain hopes will be the transition from a military mission there to one aimed at aiding Iraq's economy and providing jobs. His speech was met with enthusiastic applause and cheers by British troops stationed there. His speech in southern Afghanistan, by contrast, was more subdued, as was the resulting applause, perhaps reflecting the serious fight that British soldiers find themselves in. "We have an operation ongoing in Musa Qala, we've just had people die, so it's a different tempo," said Lt. Andy McLachlan, from Exeter in southwest England. At least 40 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year and 86 have died in the country since 2001. This year has been the deadliest since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. More than 6,200 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence, according to an AP tally of figures from Western and Afghan officials. Elsewhere, an Afghan army helicopter crashed in central Afghanistan Monday because of bad weather, killing four people, the Defense Ministry said. The Mi-17 helicopter went down in Salar district of Wardak province. In neighboring Sangin district, Afghan police clashed Monday with a group of Taliban militants, killing 15 militants, said district police chief Mohammad Ali. © MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Share & Save: Find Related: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments [ + Post Your Own ] Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not CBS News stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement. Page 1 of 2 | First | 1 2 | Last Forgot one place where Bush did the Bonaparte''s Retreat. It was in Saudi Arabia. I used to visit the Dhahran Air Base, home of the 2nd Air Division, where military aircraft from our East coast bases and West coast bases met. They even built a $2mil passenger terminal there around 1960, I believe with US funds, as oil was cheap. Sheikh Osama Ben Laden, an American ally in the insurgency against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980''s, repeated warned the US against kafrs (infidels) staying in their holy land(Saudi Arabia.) He was ignored. After the first Gulf War, the US continued to station their troops in the kingdom, as they had for decades. The comeuppance was the NYC world tower bombing, mostly by Saudi jihadis. The US packed up and left, and are now in Doha, Qatar. Not that we are out of the woods. Read "The Day of Islam" by Dr. Paul Williams. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by Vet1971 at 11:30 AM : Dec 11, 2007 + report abuse Then the US will lose Anbar province and retake it, and Fallujah and retake it, and Diyala or wherever else and retake it--and more people will be killed and more corners will be turned and more surges will be needed and more money and lives will be lost and more puppets and lying politicians will get rich. yeah, yeah we know--been watching this really, really lousy movie for 7 years now. And everytime we flip the channel--the same bad movie is playing on every station--now matter what color their tie or scarf or pin is. Posted by b-easy63 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ They won a battle--but ask the troops if they want to live there permanently to maintain the "victory." Unlike the wider wars, WWI and WW2, which ended in victory and defeat, the whole world is finding out that the "World''s Only Superpower" is just a paper tiger with a broken Army of One, only capable of bombing civilian housing from air strikes and running away, without any hint of it ending in a victory. President Reagan was smart. After 246 Marines were killed in Lebanon, he retreated. President Nixon was the same. Sound retreat and pull everyone out of Viet Nam. Bush, the writing is, and has been on the wall. Can you read? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by Vet1971 at 11:05 AM : Dec 11, 2007 + report abuse Nothing has changed on Afghanistan & Iran. The administrations interest in Iran & nukes is a smoke screen for their real agenda. Their true interests are Cheney''s energy policy.Condi Rice is a former board member of Chevron Oil and mouthpiece for the administrations energy policy. Part of that policy is the The Caspian Sea pipeline which will go through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan,Pakistan,India & Nepal.It will be cheaper to construct if they can go through Iran, but regime change is necessary first. The Caspian sea area holds one third of the world''s oil and south asian oil markets are their target market. This pipeline was also the reason for the Afghanistan invasion. Cheney''s energy policy is the root of all these middle east wars, a federal court judge sealed all documents associated with it for the administration, and the national media are not allowed to discuss or comment on it. More troops are needed in Afghanistan to protect the contractors building the pipeline. Iran stands in the way of total control of global oil with direct sales of oil to China and is now in the crosshairs. China said there would be dire consequences if the US interfered with there direct oil contracts with Iran. Both parties in the Congress should be very concerned with China''s growing war machine and need for oil. They are the real threat & the administration doesn''t care they are in control!!! All that matters to them is BIG OIL and their corporate stock portfolios -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by samsel3 at 08:01 AM : Dec 11, 2007 + report abuse US troops are not allowed to touch the poppy fields. They are allowed to pass through them, but thats it. Top brass will not interfere with poppy production. As for the Taliban, they were wined & dined in Texas by members of BIG OIL prior to the Afghan invasion. They agreed to let the Caspian Sea pipeline be built through their territory,but changed their minds once back in Afghanistan. The result, they were bombed for regime change. Nothing stops BIG OIL, the power is in Cheney''s office. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by samsel3 at 06:32 AM : Dec 11, 2007 + report abuse Some unpatriotic comments here, look what your country has given you. What have you given your country? Instead of compounding the problem why not do something positive to help solve it, like become a congressman or a senator show us all how you could solve this dilema with your political genius and rigorous honesty. It''s a dangerous world my friend, and a lot of good men have died to ensure you don''t have to see the ugly side of it. Hundreds of thousands have died protecting our freedom. Thank your country for that. Amen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by DDouville at 01:43 AM : Dec 11, 2007 + report abuse Why don''t you bomb the poppy fields instead of innicent civilians? Because you''re a creep, you''re a weirdo.... what the hell are you doing here? You don''t belong here.... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by zootallures2 at 07:36 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse You have to think outside the box. Yeah. Leave. It was Pakisatn that built the Taliban to defeat the War Lords, and the Allies have allowed the War Lords to return. That box of yours is our coffins. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by Nancy_Naive at 06:01 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse Now that they''ve taken the area again, they should just start buying the poppy crops. We can outbid the Taliban easily, and the villagers would have a reason to turn in Taliban militants. As many of you know the poppy can be used for more than just heroin. Legal medicine is made from it too. Whatever is left can be burned "after" purchasing it. You have to think outside the box. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by modemmack at 04:24 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse Re: "A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said militant fighters left Musa Qala as a strategic decision to avoid Taliban and civilian casualties." Not much of a victory, considering that the Taliban simply initiated a planned retreat. At least the Taliban seems to be concerned about avoiding civilian casualties; something that U.S.-led forces cannot credibly claim. Re: "This year has been the deadliest since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001." Deadliest year in Afghanistan, and the dealiest year in Iraq, yet the usual dupes still try to claim that we are winning something. What a farce. Canoeist Appears In British Court Ordered To Remain In Jail On Charges of Bilking Insurance And Using False Passport Comments 6 HARTLEPOOL, England, Dec. 10, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VideosPhotos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5John Darwin leaves Hartlepool Magistrates court. Today he was charged with insurance fraud and lying to obtain a false passport. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell) Faked Death Uncovered John Darwin faked his death to escape debt, but his plan backfired when he was spotted online looking at real estate with his wife in Panama. Elizabeth Palmer reports. | Share » More Videos Related Stories "Dead" Man's Wife Arrested On Fraud Charge "Dead" Brit Charged In Insurance Fraud (CBS/AP) A Briton who turned up alive - years after being declared dead in a canoe accident - appeared in court Monday on fraud charges for allegedly faking his own death in an insurance scam. John Darwin, 57, was ordered by Hartlepool Magistrates' Court to be held in jail until Friday, when he is to appear again via video link. Dressed in a maroon sweat shirt and red track trousers, Darwin, a former prison officer, appeared disheveled and confused. He spoke twice during the four-minute hearing, responding "That's correct" when the court read him his full name and saying his date of birth. Darwin did not enter a plea on the two charges he faces: dishonestly obtaining an insurance claim of 25,000 pounds - now worth about $50,000 - in May 2003 by falsely claiming he had been killed, and obtaining a passport under a false name in October 2003. His wife, Anne, 55, was arrested on suspicion of fraud after her flight from Atlanta, Georgia, touched down at Manchester's airport Sunday. She had been living in Panama in recent months, but left the Central American country Wednesday after her husband turned up in Britain on Dec. 1. On Sunday, Mrs. Darwin was transferred to Cleveland, a region 250 miles north of London, where the Hartlepool court is located. For a few hours Monday, the Darwins were in same compound. Mrs. Darwin was being questioned by detectives about how her husband allegedly hid himself for five years, whether the couple maintained contact after his reported death, and how they apparently came to be photographed together in Panama. John said there was only one way out of the situation, and that was to fake his death. Anne DarwinTracked down in Panama City, she confessed her husband had faked his death because he was deeply in debt, reports CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer. "John said there was only one way out of the situation, and that was to fake his death. I pleaded with him not to do it. I said it was the wrong thing to do," British newspapers quoted her as saying. Mrs. Darwin said she had not expected her husband to go through with the plan, and genuinely thought he was dead when he disappeared, according to the papers. But a year later, he came knocking at her door, she reportedly said. She said her husband pressured her to keep his reappearance a secret so he could have himself declared dead, according to the papers. That would allow her to collect $50,000 in life insurance and lift the burden of her mortgage. But he showed up at the family home a year after he disappeared and moved back in. The couple then bought the house next door so he could build a hideout, which he reached through a hidden tunnel, reports Palmer. Then this year, using Darwin's life insurance money, the couple tried to start a new life in Panama. But apparently he grew tired of hiding, and returned to the UK, hoping to see his two sons. Last week, the Web site for the company Move to Panama posted a photograph of the couple, apparently taken with a real estate agent in the Central American country. A sharp-eyed British newspaper reader spotted the photo. Police said they were in contact with the couple's two sons, who said they had no idea their father was still alive. There is "nothing to suggest that the sons of John and Anne were anything other than victims in this case," Detective Supt. Tony Hutchinson of the Cleveland Police told reporters Monday. Palmer reports the two boys, shocked by revelations in the British tabloids of their parents' elaborate scam, are in hiding. © MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Share & Save: Find Related: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments [ + Post Your Own ] Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not CBS News stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement. I didn''t even know that the Dead had a canoist. Did he replace Garcia? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by taylpatr at 09:10 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse If he was behind on his mortgage, how did his disappearing for one year help his wife pay it before he was declared dead and death benefits were paid? This scam makes no sense to me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by doppel- at 02:13 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse "Dead" Canoeist Appears In British Court I bet this caused a stench. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by radiob at 12:12 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse "Dead" Canoeist Appears In British Court That is quite a feat, someone should build a religion around this guy. Underling As Successor Russian Leader "Completely" Supports First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev Comments 10 MOSCOW, Dec. 10, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VideosPhotos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4President Vladimir Putin, left, and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev seen at a meeting in parliament's upper house, in Moscow, in this March 16, 2006 file photo. President Putin on Monday Dec. 10, 2007, expressed support for Medvedev to run for president. (AP Photo/ITAR-TASS) Russian Elections: Fair? Russians are poised to vote in parliamentary elections, but will the outcome be fair? Attorney Robert Amsterdam, an expert on Russian politics, weighs in with Maggie Rodriguez. | Share Russian Elections: Fair? (1:35) A Look At The Russian Election (5:18)» More Videos Related Fast Facts Russia Learn about the people, economy and history. Stories Putin Touts Dubious Election Romp Why Putin's Party Can't Lose (AP) President Vladimir Putin expressed support Monday for first Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as his successor, saying that electing him president would keep Russia on the same course of the past eight years. There have been months of intense speculation on whom Putin would support to run in the March 2 presidential elections - along with the wider question of what Putin himself will do once he steps down. Putin's popularity and steely control has led most observers to expect that whomever he supports would be certain to win the elections. Putin had long been seen as trying to choose between Medvedev, a business-friendly lawyer and board chairman of state natural gas giant Gazprom, and Sergei Ivanov, another first deputy premier who built up a stern and hawkish reputation while defense minister. Although Putin is banned by the constitution from seeking a third consecutive term in office, he has indicated a strong desire to remain a significant power figure. He has raised the prospect of becoming prime minister, and his supporters have called for him to become a "national leader" with unspecified authority. Putin made the statement in a meeting with representatives of the United Russia party - which is his power base and dominates parliament - and of three other parties. The parties told Putin they all supported Medvedev. "I completely and fully support this proposal," Putin said, according to footage shown on state television. I completely and fully support this proposal. Russian President Vladimir PutinAlthough he holds powerful positions, Medvedev projects a mild-mannered public image and has been widely seen as an official devoted to Putin. Putin reinforced that perception Monday, saying that electing Mevedev would pave the way for a government "that will carry out the course that has brought results for all of the past eight years." The Russian stock market surged on the news, led not only by Gazprom shares but also apparently boosted by the end of long uncertainty over whom Putin would designate as successor. Some have speculated that Putin could eventually try to return to the presidency - a goal that could be easier if Medvedev succeeds him, said Vladimir Ryzhkov, a prominent liberal politician. "If Putin wants to return in two, three years ... Medvedev will be the person who will without a doubt give up the path for him," he said on Ekho Moskvy radio. © MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Share & Save: Find Related: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments [ + Post Your Own ] Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not CBS News stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement. The big stories in America are covered up in blood... Researcher Danny Cassalaro...the PROMIS ''backdoor'' software scandal...Gary Webb...on the CIA cocaine connection... Most ''news'' is about toe tapping, stars, scandal... Where''s the $2.3 trillion Rumsfeld said was missing from Pentagon on 9-10-07?--Is America''s ''free'' corporate press all over that?--No, Katie Couric is asking the candidates for president about the foods they least like..."Enguiring minds need to know..." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by Prinzowhales at 05:51 AM : Dec 11, 2007 + report abuse Is he going to kill more little kids to get oil in Chechnya? Carry on the great Russian tradition? Just like Amerikkka and 9/11 and the UK and 7/7. it''s also amazing how rockets into Israel are always from competing Palestinian businesses that are then bulldozed. You are hoorible animals... not humans. You need to die! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by zootallures2 at 07:28 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse But your president isn''''t in the habit of killing or falsely imprisoning his political rivals like Putin is. US media still has a free independent press. Free and independent press was one of the first things Putin shut down. --------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ------- Posted by sevenveils at 02:44 PM : Dec 10, 2007 -SevenVeals, Chess Champion Kasparov is not in prison! The one in prison is not opposition politician. He''s only an OIL businessman who has not paid his taxes to the fiscal authority and shipping all the money to UK and from there to the ''Holy'' Middle-East land. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by grazinggoat at 06:08 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse Well, someone likes him in fact the majority of the voters there do. Can''''t say the same for our President. Posted by antoniof123 But your president isn''t in the habit of killing or falsely imprisoning his political rivals like Putin is. US media still has a free independent press. Free and independent press was one of the first things Putin shut down. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by sevenveils at 02:44 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse Chavez should really hold a pow-wow with Putin. He keeps calling Castro and of course, loses his dictatorship for a democratic society. Putin on the other hand just merrily goes along and appoint who he pleases and if anyone tries to stop him that plant little nukes inside their food. He''s must more successful at it than Chavez. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by mudrose at 02:38 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse Well, someone likes him in fact the majority of the voters there do. Can''t say the same for our President. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by antoniof123 at 11:30 AM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse Gore ran for president...but lacking a personality, no Monicas in the closet and a crazy wife who listened to rock and roll backwards his attempt ended in failure... Posted by Prinzowhales at 08:28 AM : Dec 10, 2007 I did not want to laugh--I really, really didn''t--but ...LMAO!!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by b-easy63 at 11:02 AM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse Czarist democracy? Why not? May function better than what we have, a "president" at 17%, along with a Congress around the same.... Posted by neoconRcrazy at 10:39 AM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse So now it''s Bill''s fault because Russia isn''t "Putin Out." What next? Fujimori Due In Peru Court Over Massacres Former President Charged With Using Death Squads To Kill 25 People, Kidnapping Others Comments 2 LIMA, Peru, Dec. 10, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 2Police transfer former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori from his neighborhood in Santiago, Chile (where he has been under house arrest) to the airport, Sept. 22, 2007. Chile's Supreme Court ordered his extradition to Peru to stand trial over charges of corruption and the killing of 25 people by death squads during his rule. (Getty Images/AFP/Martin Bernetti) Related Fast Facts Peru Learn about the people, economy and history. Stories Fujimori Extradited To Peru To Stand Trial Chile Orders Fujimori Extradition To Peru (AP) Former President Alberto Fujimori faces trial Monday on charges of using a death squad to kill leftist guerrillas and collaborators - a case stirring mixed emotions in a country where many admire him for defeating a bloody insurgency. It is the first time in Peru's history that a former president faces a public trial for crimes committed during his administration - and one of the few cases of a Latin American leader being tried after leaving office. Fujimori is charged with authorizing a death squad to kill nine students and a professor at La Cantuta University in 1992, and 15 people in a tenement in Lima's Barrios Altos neighborhood in 1991. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of some $33 million. He also is charged with ordering the abductions of a prominent journalist and a businessman, who were interrogated by army intelligence agents and released. Fujimori, 69, denies involvement. Elected in 1990, Fujimori initially received tremendous support for his crackdown on the Maoist Shinning Path guerrillas and his economic reforms, which ended hyperinflation inherited from the previous government and spurred record foreign investment. But his government became increasingly authoritarian, intimidating news media, human rights groups and political parties. In November 2000, he fled to Japan, his ancestral homeland, as his government collapsed in a corruption scandal involving his former spy chief, Vladmiro Montesinos. In 2005, Fujimori moved to Chile, expecting to be extradited to Peru on minor charges and hoping for the chance to return to politics in his home country. He apparently miscalculated: Chile's Supreme court approved his extradition charges including human rights violations. I, Raida Condor, mother of Armando Amaro Condor, his victim, will be there looking him in the face and asking him, 'Listen, why did you kill my son? What was his crime for you to kill him?' Raida Condor Mother of La Cantuta victimRelatives of the victims of the La Cantuta and Barrios Altos massacres will be present Monday when the trial begins at the police base on the outskirts of Lima where Fujimori is being held. Raida Condor, mother of one of the university students who was kidnapped and killed, said she was ready to confront the former president. "I, Raida Condor, mother of Armando Amaro Condor, his victim, will be there looking him in the face and asking him, 'Listen, why did you kill my son? What was his crime for you to kill him?"' she said. But other Peruvians are trying to reconcile their admiration for Fujimori with the long list of human rights abuses leveled against him. Peruvians have not forgotten the Shining Path, the car bombs, urban blackouts from sabotage and massacres of peasant communities by both sides in a 20-year war that left nearly 70,000 dead. The civilian militias that Fujimori armed to fight the Shining Path in remote jungles feel abandoned by the presidents who succeeded him, and are outraged that he is on trial. "It's not right if he had people killed in Barrios Altos like they say, but that is no reason to put him on trial. He did what he had to do. If some day he comes back to govern, we will be here to receive him," said Jose Luis Farfarn, 33, head of the militia in the hamlet of Triboline, in the isolated jungle-shrouded Apurimac valley. ©MMV The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Share & Save: Find Related: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments [ + Post Your Own ] Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not CBS News stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement. Hang his squinty azz. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by rushlimpdrug at 12:34 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse Watch and learn... No man is above the law, even those who think they can write it as they go. Observe Bush... Regards, Posted by exCoachKen at 08:32 AM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse Clinton tried to continue his legacy when his "underling" Gore ran for president...but lacking a personality, no Monicas in the closet and a crazy wife who listened to rock and roll backwards his attempt ended in failure...there would be no gathering around the old Clinton condum tree with Hillary, Socks and Bill as in the old days... Posted by omega39 at 11:13 AM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse this couple is sickening beyond words - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by jetlizhan at 10:06 AM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse This kind of person and his wife makes me ill because that makes it bad for all the other people that loose someone in this manner. I guess when all these type people were growing up their parents never told them not to lie and if they did there would be big trouble or if they did lie and their parents caught them they never got into trouble something went very wrong with these people and now they will finally pay for their lie. It is so sad to think that is the way life is going no a days it is just so sad!!! Posted by FeelFree1 at 03:49 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse Liberals like the taliban, because the taliban supply illegal drugs to liberals. Posted by zootallures2 at 07:32 PM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse Which Libya is this? Regardless, it is nice to see Libya in the world socially and economically and not as a terrorist sponsoring nation. A few details would be nice on the nuclear reactor, including its size, scope and fuel. Go France Go Libya Go team Posted by iphyt4u at 09:24 AM : Dec 10, 2007 + report abuse This lull in the violence is America''s BEST opportunity to yell, "Mission Accomplished" (again) and LEAVE. In 6 month''s the US retreat from Iraq will make the rooftop stampede from Saigon look like a bank queue. Remember President Bush, there are no French Peacekeepers to cover your retreat like Reagan had when you ran from Lebanon. Regards, -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by tuckerndfw at 05:13 PM : Dec 11, 2007 + report abuse Infidel_Us,,,, Inmates ??? --- Yes, I see.. A few right wing Bush Lovers who don''t like following our laws Experts say roughly 55 pounds of highly enriched uranium or plutonium is needed in most instances to fashion a crude nuclear device. But they say a tiny fraction of that is enough for a dirty bomb - a weapon whose main purpose would be to create fear and chaos, not human casualties. The Czech institute said the shipment contained 82.1 pounds of 80 percent uranium-235 and 95.5 pounds of 36 percent uranium-235. The shipment also included 619.1 pounds of low enriched 10 percent uranium-235, the institute said in a statement. Uranium is considered weapons-grade if it contains at least 85 percent uranium-235. Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday backed Iraq's reconciliation process in talks with neighboring foreign minister, the official SANA news agency reported. Assad told Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari that "Syria stands by the Iraqi national reconciliation process and rebuilding institutions on national bases," the report said. Residents and Hamas security forces said at least 30 tanks and bulldozers took part in the operation, but the military said only 10 tanks were sent in. The area where the operation was taking place is a main launching ground for rocket and mortar assaults on army bases and the Israeli-controlled Sufa crossing into Gaza. More than 15 militants were killed in the area in recent Israeli air strikes against rocket squads and Hamas fighters. Soldiers took over the rooftops of several homes at the onset of the operation, which began around dawn, and detained more than 60 people in house-to-house raids, residents said. The Israeli military said they were taken into custody for questioning. An Israeli tank was smoldering after it was hit by a Palestinian grenade. Two soldiers inside were slightly wounded, the military said. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum accused Israel of carrying out its decision to "launch a major operation against the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, especially Hamas, and tighten the siege on the Gaza Strip. They believe that such operations will harm the resistance and weaken it, but they are mistaken. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum"They believe that such operations will harm the resistance and weaken it, but they are mistaken," Barhoum added. A law that tightens adoptions was passed by Guatemala's Congress on Tuesday, but it allowed pending adoptions, mostly to U.S. couples, to go through without meeting the stricter requirements. The new law will help Guatemala comply with the Hague Convention, an international agreement to protect adopted children from human trafficking. The Central American country sent 4,135 children to the U.S. last year, making it the largest source of babies for American families after China. The North African branch of al Qaeda claimed in a Web site posting Tuesday responsibility for bombings in the Algerian capital, saying suicide bombers carried out the attacks that killed at least 26 people. A statement posted on a militant Internet Web site said two "martyrs" of al Qaeda in Islamic North Africa drove cars loaded with 800 kilograms of explosives each "to attack the headquarters of the international infidels' den" and the headquarters of the Algerian constitutional council. "This is another successful conquest ... carried out by the Knights of the Faith with their blood in defense of the wounded nation of Islam," said the statement. The two car bombs, including one that targeted offices of the United Nations, also wounded 177, according to Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni. A national official at the civil protection agency who spoke on condition of anonymity said 45 people were killed. A doctor at one Algiers hospital who said he was in contact with staff at other area hospitals put the death toll at 60 or more. A United Nations spokeswoman said four U.N. employees died in the blast, according to preliminary tallies. Officials earlier said 12 staff members were missing, and Marie Heuze, a spokeswoman for the world body in Geneva, said if all the missing were dead, it would be the deadliest assault on the U.N. since the Baghdad bombing of 2003 that killed 22. "We are looking through the rubble for people," said Jean Fabre of the U.N. Development Program, after speaking with Marc Destanne De Bernis, the agency's top official in the Algerian capital. "He doesn't know the counts of death. He knows that there are about 12 people missing, of which he has no news." "We can't even say for certain that the U.N. was being targeted but one can certainly start to draw that conclusion since this explosion took place in a very narrow street right between two U.N. buildings," Redmond told CNN. President Bush extended condolences for those killed in "this horrible bombing," said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner condemned the attacks as "barbarity" and said that while Algeria had made "great progress" in fighting terrorism, "The sordid beast is not yet dead." U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the bombings. "This is just unacceptable," said a somber Ban, who was on Indonesia's resort island of Bali for a U.N. climate conference. "I would like to condemn it in the strongest terms. It cannot be justified in any circumstances." Zerhouni said the attacks were caused by car bombs, with the one at the U.N. offices seemingly driven by a suicide bomber. "An attack like this is among the easiest actions to carry out. I have always said that we are not safe from these sorts of attacks," he told reporters. The U.N. offices are in the upscale Hydra neighborhood of Algiers, which houses many foreign embassies and has a substantial foreign population. One damaged U.N. building appeared to have collapsed in on itself, spilling its insides into a street littered with the soot-covered remains of parked cars crunched by the force of the blast. The blast at the Constitutional Council, which rules on the constitutionality of laws and oversees elections, ripped chunks off the white facade of the new building, exposing the red brick underneath, and left a hip-deep crater in the road. Some victims of one of the attacks had been riding a school bus, the official news agency APS said. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for Tuesday's bombings, but they come amid an increasing campaign of violence (Click for timeline) by the North African franchise of Osama bin Laden's terror group. Algeria has been battling Islamic insurgents since the early 1990s, when the army canceled the second round of the country's first-ever multiparty elections, stepping in to prevent likely victory by an Islamic fundamentalist party. Islamist armed groups then turned to force to overthrow the government, with up to 200,000 people killed in the ensuing violence. The last year has seen a series of bombings against state targets, many of them suicide attacks. Most recently, al Qaeda in the Maghreb (North Africa) claimed responsibility for two blasts in September; a car bomb that killed 28 coast guard officers in a coastal town about 30 miles from Algiers, and another blast just days after which ripped through a crowd waiting to see the president. Tuesday's date - the 11th - could point to an Islamic terror link for the most recent attack. Al Qaeda in the Maghreb claimed responsibility for attacks on April 11 that hit the prime minister's office and a police station, killing 33 people. (CBS)The group has carried out a spate of recent bombings that have shattered the Algerian government's efforts - successful until recently - to restore calm after a 15-year Islamist insurgency. Al Qaeda's media operation released a half-hour long video on Nov. 3, 2007, and obtained by CBS News, titled, "Unity of the Ranks," featuring an audio statement by the larger group's second in command, Ayman Zawahiri, and a and field commander with ties to North Africa, Abu Laith al-Libi. In the tape, Zawahiri called for attacks on Western interests throughout North Africa, and urged the Mujahideen to overthrow the leaders of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco. "We swear to God to continue (to) sacrifice our lives until you stop supporting the crusaders in their war, apply the Islamic tenet and stop your war against God's religion," the group said in a separate statement posted on an Islamic Web site in September. Near the end of July 2007, CBS News found a communiqué posted by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb boasting about the success of the franchise, saying it would have been more successful had it not been for al Qaeda's commitment to avoid civilian casualties. The communiqué warned Muslims to keep away from government buildings in coming months. The government has responded to the increasing attacks by intensifying military crackdowns on Islamic militants hiding out in remote scrubland. Zerhouni warned terrorists in September that they have "one choice: turn themselves in, or die." The name al Qaeda in the Maghreb was only adopted by the group in January, after the remnants of the insurgency, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSPC, formally linked with al Qaeda. (Christian Science Monitor) This article was written by Nachammai Raman. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When she's not scouting for office space in Madras to house the local branch of India's newest political party, Sundari Ramachandran is traveling up to New Delhi to meet her mentor and party chief Suman Kant. Ramachandran is one of more than 100 women in India who've been inspired to join the country's first national all-women's party, the United Women Front. The party was launched last month by Mrs. Kant, a social worker and the wife of a former vice-president, to boost women's representation in traditionally male-dominated Indian politics. First on Kant's agenda is getting 50 percent of elected parliamentary seats reserved for women. That's a tall order considering that a longstanding demand by women's groups for 33 percent of seats has met mostly with resistance. Various versions of the Women's Reservation Bill have been awaiting parliamentary approval since 1996. The current elected representation of women stands at just 8 percent. "We believe in equality. Women are not beggars," says Kant. "I don't believe in asking for just 33 percent when women make up half the population." Not everyone thinks that parliamentary seats should be reserved for women, citing fears that it will preclude quotas for other disadvantaged groups. And even many women activists seem to feel 50 percent is overly ambitious. But Ramchandran thinks it is important to try for such equality - and she has confidence in Kant. In a way, fighting is in Kant's blood. Born into a family of Indian freedom fighters who participated in the Quit India movement against the British, Kant worked as a teacher in the state of Punjab before she married her husband, Krishan Kant, who also came from a family of freedom fighters and went on to become vice-president of India from 1997 until his death in 2002. Kant made a name for herself as a social worker when her husband was governor of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, where she fought for tough laws to curb rampant alcoholism and violence against women. Before launching the United Women Front, she headed a national charity called Mahila Dakshata Samiti, which works for the socioeconomic empowerment of women. Kant, who could have retired, says that she's been driven into politics by her desire to help women. "I don't need anything for myself. I have seen everything," she says. "My ambition is to make women happy. They should be allowed to contribute to the development of society." Kant, who sees visitors without appointments, says she launched a political party because she felt her charity was limited to social issues. "I wanted women to become lawmakers." She promises her party will provide a "clean" alternative. Besides gender equality, she says her party will focus on poverty, universal health care, and creating employment, though she's rather vague about her plan of action. Getting a new party off the ground is no easy task. In Tamil Nadu, where party loyalties are intense, "the situation is not so encouraging," says Ramachandran, who is particularly worried about their lack of financial resources. But her boss is unfazed. "We are not competing with other parties and the willpower of our party members is very strong," says Kant. Limited media coverage means that many people, including political analysts, haven't heard of the new party. Others seem skeptical of a political strategy built on gender identity. "One can understand why some women have found it necessary to come together as a political party because the whole of society is gender-biased, discriminatory, and patriarchal," says Sudha Sundararaman, Delhi-based general secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association. "We feel that having a separate party may not necessarily serve the purpose of gender equality." Besides, mere numbers don't guarantee anything, says Sundaraman, citing the example of former Tamilnadu chief minister, Jayalalitha Jeyaram, whom she says played "an undemocratic role" that didn't further women's causes. Kant and Ramachandran say they aren't interested in power. "We only want women's voices to be heard in parliament," Ramachandran says. The United Women Front plans to field candidates from all the states in next year's elections. "We will put up women of merit," she says. "In the present system, the women put up as candidates are usually somebody's wife or somebody's daughter. They're not always good candidates." Russian Candidate Wants Putin As PM Dmitry Medvedev, Likely Successor To Vladimir Putin, Suggests President Keep A Powerful Role Comments 11 MOSCOW, Dec. 11, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VideosPhotos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4President Vladimir Putin, left, and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev seen at a meeting in parliament's upper house, in Moscow, in this March 16, 2006 file photo. President Putin on Monday Dec. 10, 2007, expressed support for Medvedev to run for president. (AP Photo/ITAR-TASS) Russian Elections: Fair? Russians are poised to vote in parliamentary elections, but will the outcome be fair? Attorney Robert Amsterdam, an expert on Russian politics, weighs in with Maggie Rodriguez. | Share Russian Elections: Fair? (1:35) A Look At The Russian Election (5:18)» More Videos Related Fast Facts Russia Learn about the people, economy and history. Stories Putin Backs Underling As Successor Putin Touts Dubious Election Romp (CBS/AP) Dmitry Medvedev, the hand-picked candidate to succeed President Vladimir Putin, called Tuesday for Putin become prime minister after the March 2 election. Putin is prohibited by law for running for a third consecutive term, but clearly wants to retain a powerful role once he steps down. Medvedev's proposal would provide such a role, especially if the constitution were amended to increase the prime minister's powers - which could be done readily with the new parliament dominated by pro-Putin politicians. Medvedev, 42, has spent most of his career as a loyal comrade of Putin, and his proposal for him to become prime minister almost certainly was made with prior consultation with the president. "Having expressed my readiness to run for president of Russia, I appeal to (Putin) with a request to give his principal agreement to head the Russian government after the election of the new president of our country," Medvedev said in televised address a day after Putin endorsed his candidacy. "I think it is crucial for our country to keep Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in the most important role in the executive branch - that of prime minister," Medvedev said. Putin's support for Medvedev virtually ensures that he will win the election. "Medved" in Russian means "a bear," and his name coincides with the symbol of the pro-Putin party, United Russia - which has a brown bear on its party banner, says CBS News Moscow bureau chief Svetlana Berdnikova. Medvedev also said that after the election, Russia must continue to pursue the policies driven by Putin in the past eight years. Medvedev's support for Putin's policies and his proposal that he become prime minister were sure to raise questions of whether he would be a genuinely independent president or essentially a figurehead, doing Putin's bidding. The world's attitudes toward Russia has been changed. ... Russia has been returned to its overwhelming position in the world community Dmitry MedvedevMedvedev, who projects a milder and more sympathetic image than the steely and often sardonic Putin, nonetheless echoed the prickly national pride and distrust of the West that characterize Putin's public statements. "The world's attitudes toward Russia has been changed. They don't lecture us like schoolchildren. They respect us and they reckon with us. Russia has been returned to its overwhelming position in the world community," Medvedev said in a three-minute statement broadcast on state television. He also praised efforts under Putin to restore the country's armed forces after years of post-Soviet neglect and underfunding, saying "Our military defense and security have been increased." Despite the assertion of surging military might, Medvedev is not considered a Kremlin hard-liner, in contrast with the others who had vied for Putin's endorsement, chiefly fellow First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov. Both Medvedev and Putin worked under St. Petersburg's reformist Mayor Anatoly Sobchak in the early 1990s. After Putin became prime minister in 1999, he brought Medvedev to Moscow to become deputy chief of staff of the Cabinet. He then moved up to become deputy chief of staff for the president, was appointed to head the board of state natural gas giant Gazprom in 2002 and became full presidential chief of staff in 2003. In 2005, Putin named him a first deputy prime minister. The Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva, which ranks women's parliamentary participation in 189 countries, ranks India 107, below neighbors Afghanistan (25) and Pakistan (48). But Kant is not looking to emulate other countries. "In my opinion, the situation of women is not comfortable anywhere. Women may be working, but they're not equal anywhere," she says. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once focused on toppling the Algerian government, the group has now turned its sights on international holy war and the fight against Western interests. French counterterrorism officials say it is drawing members from across North Africa. Many adoptive parents, some of whom had invested their life savings to bring home a Guatemalan baby, feared the changes would leave in limbo about 3,700 children already matched with adoptive parents. But the new law stipulates that pending adoptions need not meet the new requirements. President Oscar Berger is expected to sign the law, which will take effect next year. It is aimed at cleaning up an adoption process that critics claim allows birth mothers to sell their babies for profit. "Starting Dec. 31, the business of adoptions is over," said lawmaker Rolando Morales, one of the law's biggest supporters. Currently, the adoption process has been handled exclusively by notaries who work with birth mothers, determine if babies were surrendered willingly, hire foster mothers and handle all the paperwork. These notaries charge an average of $30,000 for children delivered in about nine months - record time for international adoptions. The process is so quick that one in every 100 Guatemalan children now grow up as an adopted American. Although Israel has warned that a major operation against Gaza militants was in the offing, it has said now is not the time, and the military insisted Tuesday that there was nothing out of the ordinary about the day's incursion. CBS News correspondent Robert Berger reports Israel also carried out air strikes against armed Palestinians in northern Gaza, in the area of Beit Hanoun, according to the military. Officials said the army had identified two hits in the two separate assaults. Hamas said it attacked two groups of soldiers in northern Gaza, but reported no casualties. The Islamic Jihad militant group said one member was killed and three others were wounded in an Israeli ground attack on a rocket-launching squad. The violence came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to "forge a historic path" toward a final accord with the moderate Palestinian government in the West Bank, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. On Wednesday, the two sides are to launch their first formal peace talks in seven years. But Olmert has warned that Israel would not implement any peace deal until Abbas regains control of Gaza and reins in militants there and in the West Bank. Comments 34 Stocks Plunge After Fed Cuts Rates Dow Falls Almost 300 Points As Third Interest Rate Cut Since Sept. Disappoints Investors Explore: The Fed Story: Eye On The Fed's Next Move The Big Freeze | | 62 Ice Storm Snaps Power Lines, Closes Schools In Midwest; 22 Deaths Blamed On Weather -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Al Qaeda Takes Credit For Algerian Attacks | | 89 Iraqi Policewomen Ordered To Turn In Guns | 108 Bush Wants Answers On Nukes From Iran | 115 Poll: Huckabee Soars Into GOP's Top Tier | | 318 John Edwards Forged A Path Beyond The Mill | 70 Colorado Gunman's Death Ruled A Suicide | | 20 Ex-CIA Agent Confirms Waterboarding | | 279 US Airways Offers Performance Bonuses THE SHOWBUZZ Latest Photos "The Hills" holds wrap party; Will Smith gets a Hollywood star. CBS Evening News Tonight: The presidential candidates respond to Katie Couric on climate change. 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Gallery Deadly Ice Storm Waves of frozen rain coat the nation's midsection, snapping trees, cutting power lines and greasing roadways. The ShowBuzz Strike's Impact Spreads In more fallout from the writers' strike, the Television Critics Association has cancelled its annual meeting on upcoming program schedules. News Roundup Iraqi Policewomen Disarmed Iraq just got a lot less safe for policewomen, who have been ordered to turn in their guns. This and more in today's "Skinny." Washington Post A Path Beyond The Mill Democratic candidate John Edwards talks the most about where he came from: the working-class mill towns of the Carolinas and Georgia. The Democrats Bill: Hillary Should Have Run First Former President Clinton says he was so struck by his future wife's intellect and ability he once suggested she should just dump him and jump into her own political career. 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Across America, tree lightings help kick off the holiday season Republicans were favored to keep two conservative congressional districts Tuesday in Ohio and Virginia in special elections to fill the seats of two incumbents who died recently. The winners will complete the terms of Rep. Paul Gillmor, who was first elected in a northwest Ohio district in 1988, and Rep. Jo Ann Davis, who represented southeastern Virginia for seven years. Gillmor died in a fall in September. Davis died of breast cancer in October. Democrats, who won control of the House last year by a 233-202 margin, hoped to extend their gains and to benefit from the low turnout typical of special elections. In Ohio, Republicans have held the state's 5th District since the 1930s. At times, Democrats have all but conceded the seat by spending little money and trotting out candidates with limited political experience. Bob Latta, a Republican state representative, was competing against Democrat Robin Weirauch to complete Gillmor's term. Latta ran for Congress in 1988, trying to replace his father, Delbert Latta, who held the seat for 30 years. But he lost in the GOP primary to Gillmor by 27 votes. Weirauch, 50, is on her third run for the seat. Last year she received more votes _ 43 percent _ than any other Democrat in the district's history. In Virginia, state Rep. Rob Wittman had a nearly 4-to-1 fundraising advantage and the benefit of being a Republican in a district where President Bush got 60 percent of the vote in 2004. But Democrat Philip Forgit was riding a tide of party victories that included the past two governor's races and, last month, the end of 10 years of GOP control in the state Senate. He has the backing of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, Sen. Jim Webb and former Gov. Mark R. Warner. Forgit also is a decorated military veteran in a district that includes the Quantico Marine base, the Army's Fort A.P. Hill and a Navy weapons testing center. Forgit, a teacher, went to Iraq with his Naval Reserve unit, returning in 2006. An independent, Lucky Narain, is also on the Virginia ballot. The man who killed four people at a church and missionary training center shot himself in the head and died after being hit by shots from a church security officer, police said Tuesday. Matthew Murray, 24, was struck multiple times by a security officer at New Life Church Sunday, but his death was ruled a suicide, the El Paso County Coroner's Office concluded after an autopsy. Murray shot himself in the head, said police Sgt. Skip Arms. Volunteer security guard Jeanne Assam shot Murray after he entered the church. Though investigators had earlier suggested he killed himself, they credited Assam's bravery with averting a greater tragedy. Assam, a 42-year-old former Minneapolis police officer, said her faith allowed her to remain steady under pressure. "It seemed like it was me, the gunman and God," she said, her hands trembling as she recounted the shooting during a news conference Monday. The first attack Sunday took place at Youth With a Mission, a training center for missionaries in the Denver suburb of Arvada; the other occurred about 12 hours later at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Officials said revenge was one apparent motive for the attacks. Police said Murray had sent hate mail to the Youth With a Mission center in the last few weeks after being removed from the program years ago. In a statement, the training center said health problems kept Murray from finishing the program, but elaborated little. Murray did not complete the lecture phase or a field assignment as part of a 12-week program, Youth With a Mission said. Authorities also believe Murray authored an anti-Christian diatribe online that closely repeated a rant by one of the Columbine killers, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The most recent post to the site, a forum for people who have left evangelical religious groups, was Sunday morning in the hours between his attacks in Arvada and Colorado Springs, according to KUSA-TV in Denver, which first reported on the writings. "You Christians brought this on yourselves," Murray wrote, according to the station, which did not identify the site. "All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you ... as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world." The language in the post is almost identical to the text of a manifesto written by Eric Harris, one of the teens who carried out the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School. The online posts, under the pen name "nghtmrchld26," spanned several weeks, and in an earlier one, Murray appeared to reject offers of psychological help. "I've already been working with counselors. I have a point to make with all this talk about psychologists and counselors `helping people with their pain,'" he wrote, according to KUSA. The station said Murray's posts were removed from the site after Sunday's killings, and that authorities were aware of them and investigating. Police in Colorado Springs and Arvada would not comment on the writings. In a search warrant affidavit, investigators said Murray attended a home-based computer school and worked at his computer for three to five hours a day for the past two years. Police said Murray's only previous brush with the law was a traffic ticket earlier this year. His relatives said they were grief-stricken and baffled. "We cannot understand why this has happened. We ask for prayer for the victims and their families during this time of grief," said Phil Abeyta, Murray's uncle, who read a statement from the family Monday. The nation's spy court said Tuesday that it will not make public documents regarding the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in a rare public opinion, said the public has no right to view the documents because they deal with the clandestine workings of national security agencies. The American Civil Liberties Union asked the court to release the records in August. Writing for the court, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates refused. "The identification of targets and methods of surveillance would permit adversaries to evade surveillance, conceal their activities, and possibly mislead investigators through false information," Bates said. Hundreds of thousands of holiday cards and letters thanking wounded American troops for their sacrifice and wishing them well never reach their destination. They are returned to sender or thrown away unopened. Since the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax scare, the Pentagon and the Postal Service have refused to deliver mail addressed simply to "Any Wounded Soldier" for fear terrorists or opponents of the war might send toxic substances or demoralizing messages. Mail must be addressed to a specific member of the armed forces _ a rule that pains some well-meaning Americans this Christmas season. "Are we going to forget our soldiers because we are running in fear?" Fena D'Ottavio asked. The suburban Chicago woman was using her blog to encourage friends to send mail to unspecified soldiers until she learned of the ban, which she called a sad commentary on society. Last season, despite the rule, officials say as many as 450,000 pieces of mail not addressed to anyone in particular managed to reach Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. But they were returned or, if they had no return address, were thrown out altogether, because the hospital lacked the manpower to open and screen all the mail, spokesman Terry Goodman said. "A lot of this is because of security concerns because it's unsolicited mail that someone is going to have to go through," Goodman said. "Also, being a democratic society, there could be inappropriate mail from someone who, say, doesn't support the war, and then you've got a wounded soldier getting it." Lt. Col. Kevin Arata, a spokesman with the Army Human Resources Command, said no one tracks the amount of unnamed-soldier mail being returned, so it is impossible to judge the size of the problem. The busiest part of the holiday season has yet to arrive, but officials said they are receiving far less mail this year addressed simply to "A Recovering American Soldier" or "Any Wounded Soldier." Candy Roquemore of Austin, Texas, was also promoting the idea of sending cards to wounded soldiers until she found out about the rule. She suggested the ban is an overreaction. "I think there are some wackos who might do something, so I can understand that. But I think with a Christmas postcard it would be pretty easy to see it doesn't have anthrax in it," Roquemore said. She added: "I just wanted to say, `Thank you, sorry you're hurt, and happy holidays.'" USO spokesman John Hanson said that like the military, the nonprofit service organization does not deliver unopened mail to unspecified recipients. He said the USO worries about security as well as hateful messages from war critics. "We just want to make sure it's not, `Die, baby killer,'" he said. "There are people out there who act irrationally, and we don't want anyone to get a message that would be discouraging." The USO is one of the organizations the military is encouraging people to support with donations as an alternative to sending cards to unspecified soldiers. The military is also referring people to the American Red Cross and a Defense Department Web site where supporters have posted thousands of messages to troops. Some groups are offering to forward mail to the troops. Aides to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., are offering to accept letters, screen them through the U.S. Capitol mail operation, and get them to members of the armed forces. "We've had about a dozen complaints from constituents about returned mail that they sent to troops," said Steven Boyd, a Sessions spokesman. A former police officer suspected in his wife's disappearance has set up a Web site to ask for financial help with his legal defense. Drew Peterson's site says he wants to collect money from people who believe he deserves a defense without going broke. "For the cost of a few cups of your morning coffee, you can help to ensure that Drew can afford to support his ongoing legal defense, find his missing wife, and divert any remaining funds into a trust for his children," the site says. Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, said Tuesday any money collected on DefendDrew.com will go into a trust account over which Peterson will have no control. Brodsky said it will be used first to pay for legal fees and then to hire a private investigator to look for 23-year-old Stacy Peterson, who vanished in late October. Any remaining money will be put into a trust for Peterson's four dependent children, the Web site says. Peterson, 53, a longtime member of the Bolingbrook Police Department until he quit after his wife disappeared, has denied any involvement in her disappearance. He has said he believes his wife left him for another man and is alive. A spokeswoman for Stacy Peterson's family, Pamela Bosco, said she was shocked to learn about the plea for money. She said the funding priorities should be rearranged to hire a private investigator first. "His best defense is to find Stacy," Bosco said. "Let's put that as a priority, Drew." The site, which collects money through PayPal, appeals for sympathy for Peterson and his children, who "may end up impoverished" by the cost of mounting a defense. The site says "media sensationalism" surrounding the story has caused the family hardship and stresses Peterson's years of public service as a police officer. The investigation of the disappearance also has prompted the exhumation of the body of Drew Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio. Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow has said after examining evidence he believes Savio's death was a homicide staged to look like an accident. Results of the new autopsy have not been released. Peterson has not been named a suspect in Savio's death. A pregnant attorney who vanished for four days last week now says her tale of being kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to Georgia was fabricated, police said Tuesday. Her husband said she had "a meltdown." Karyn McConnell Hancock, a former Toledo city councilwoman, had disappeared Wednesday and was found Saturday near Atlanta. Her husband said Monday that his 35-year-old wife, six months pregnant with her second child, claimed she was kidnapped by two men and a woman. Police said at a news conference that she recanted Monday after eight hours of questioning. Hancock will likely be charged with making a false police report, said Police Chief Mike Navarre. Police would not discuss a motive, but Hancock's husband, Lawrence Hancock, said his wife has been having psychological problems for several years. "She experienced a meltdown and attempted to handle those matters without the assistance of professional help or others. Karyn elected to leave everything because she felt that she was unable to continue," he said. Hancock's father, C. Allen McConnell, is a Toledo Municipal Court judge, and her husband is bishop of Final Harvest Church in Toledo. The husband had said earlier that he believed the purported kidnapping had something to do with a case McConnell handled before he was a judge. He had said his wife called him from a restaurant pay phone Thursday afternoon, saying "they have me." She said she thought she was going to die and "told me don't let her son forget her and that she loved me," he said. Investigators don't think her husband or anyone else knew what she was doing, authorities said Tuesday. Hancock was found after she flagged down a motorist near at Six Flags in Austell, Ga., and the motorist called police, authorities had said. Her car was found nearby. One of the attorney's former clients recently filed a lawsuit against her, accusing her of taking money from him that he was owed from an accident settlement. In the suit, Maurice Morris, of Toledo, said Hancock negotiated a settlement but never gave him the $10,000 settlement. Lawrence Hancock said he wasn't sure if the lawsuit triggered her actions. Both he and his father-in-law, McConnell, had appeared on NBC's "Today" show Monday to discuss the case. At the time, the judge said the family needed more time to find out "what went on, what went wrong and what happened with her." Also Tuesday, Minneapolis police Sgt. Jesse Garcia said Assam was fired from the Minneapolis force in 1997 for lying during an internal investigation. Sgt. John Delmonico, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, said police were investigating a complaint that Assam swore at a bus driver while she was handling an incident on a city bus. Funerals were held Tuesday for two more victims of last week's deadly mall shooting, while a service for a third victim was delayed because of snow. At the funeral for Angie Schuster, the Rev. Donald Shane referred not only to the eight people gunned down last Wednesday at Omaha's Westroads Mall, but to the "tragic end" of their killer, 19-year-old Robert Hawkins. "There were nine worlds shattered," Shane said at St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church. The only way to heal those wounds is through forgiveness and love, he said. A funeral for Maggie Webb was held in Moline, Ill., her hometown. The funeral for 47-year-old Beverly Flynn was rescheduled for Wednesday morning because of weather, according to a recorded message at Glad Tidings Church in Omaha. Flynn was a real estate agent who wrapped gifts in the Von Maur department store during Christmas because she loved the holiday season. Hawkins opened fire with an AK-47 in the Von Maur store, fatally wounding eight people before taking his own life. Schuster, 36, of Omaha, was a manager in the girls' department at Von Maur, where she had worked for nearly 10 years. Her older sister, Donna Kenkel, has said the department is near the third-floor elevator, which meant "she probably didn't have any chance, any warning" against the gunman. "They said he got off the elevator, and she would have been right there in his way," she said. Webb, who was about two weeks shy of her 25th birthday, was the youngest victim of the shooting rampage. She transferred to the Omaha Von Maur store from a Chicago location earlier this year. On Monday, funerals for Von Maur employees Janet Jorgensen, Dianne Trent, Gary Joy and shoppers John McDonald and Gary Scharf took place in Omaha and elsewhere Monday. The Rev. Harry Buse presided over a Mass for Trent, 53. "To be part of the sorrow of eight families grieving together is all the more overwhelming," said Buse at St. Leo Catholic Church. "It is like a whole city engaged in a huge group hug, embraced you and all grieving families into one common heartbeat of love and support," he said. "It has been as if millions of hearts beat as one, sharing a sense of loss." A thick glaze of ice brought down power lines and cut electricity to close to a million homes and businesses, closed schools and canceled flights Tuesday as a major storm blasted the nation's midsection. At least 23 deaths had been blamed on the storm system since the waves of sleet and freezing rain started during the weekend. Officials in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma had declared states of emergency. President Bush declared an emergency in Oklahoma on Tuesday, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts. A shell of ice as much as an inch thick covered trees, power lines, streets and car windshields Monday in parts of Oklahoma and Missouri, with thinner layers elsewhere. About an inch of ice was expected Tuesday over parts of Iowa, followed by up to 5 inches of sleet and snow. "This is a big one. We've got a massive situation here and it's probably going to be a week to 10 days before we get power on to everybody," said Ed Bettinger, a spokesman for Public Service Company of Oklahoma. "It looks like a war zone." Iowa's largest school district closed for the day in Des Moines, telling its nearly 31,000 students to stay home, and kids across most of Oklahoma and in the Kansas City, Mo., area stayed home for a second day. Schools also were closed in parts of Wisconsin, including Milwaukee Public Schools with 85,000 students. "We thought about our kids on foot," said Milwaukee schools spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin. Some drivers couldn't even get to their buses, she said. Nearly 600,000 Oklahoma homes and businesses still had no electricity Tuesday, most of them since Monday when power lines began snapping under the weight of ice and falling branches _ the biggest power outage in state history. Utilities in Missouri reported about 170,000 homes and business without power. Outages elsewhere affected more than 100,000 customers in Kansas, more than 60,000 in Iowa and nearly 18,000 in Illinois. The power was on at Big Apple Bagels in Ottumwa, but many others weren't so lucky, said owner Lesley Owczarski. "Most of the places don't have power so a lot of people have been coming to the bagel shop," she said. "If they can come in and get warm and have a hot coffee and a latte, why not? I can understand it's boring sitting at home." The Kansas National Guard was asked to supply generators to several locations, including two nursing homes, said Sharon Watson, Kansas Emergency Management spokeswoman. The storm even put a crimp on presidential campaigning, with Republican Mike Huckabee canceling stops in western Iowa and former President Bill Clinton calling off appearances in eastern Iowa on behalf of his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. A backup generator enabled a Home Depot store to open in Oklahoma City, but a sign warned customers of shortages: "No Generators, Ice Melt, Scrapers, Lamp Oil, Firewood, Kerosene Heaters, Chainsaws." One of the store's last kerosene heaters had been grabbed by Jay Garcia, who lost power at his Oklahoma City home two days earlier. "We have kids in the house and we've got to keep them warm," Garcia said. "I called the power company, and they said it could be seven to 10 days before we get the power back on." Des Moines International Airport closed because of ice late Monday and could be closed most of Tuesday, said spokesman Roy Criss. The airport, which also was shut down by winter weather two weeks ago, has 138 arrivals and departures per day, he said. "This rain keeps refreezing. We put chemicals down, it melts and the freezes again. We can't stay ahead of it," Criss said. "This is not fun." More travelers were grounded at Chicago, where about 250 flights were canceled Tuesday morning at O'Hare International Airport and departure delays averaging 15 to 30 minutes, said Karen Pride of the city's Department of Aviation. Kansas City International Airport in Missori canceled more than 90 flights Tuesday morning, but spokesman Joe McBride said that was probably due to problems at other airports. Southeastern Nebraska also had power outages Tuesday and some flights in and out of Omaha's Eppley Airfield were canceled. At least 23 deaths _ most of them in traffic accidents _ had been blamed on the ice and cold since the weekend, including 15 in Oklahoma, four in Kansas, three in Missouri and one in Nebraska. Authorities believe the man who killed four people at a church and missionary training center posted an anti-Christian diatribe online that closely repeated a rant by one of the Columbine killers, a newspaper reported Tuesday. Matthew Murray, who was kicked out of a missionary training center where the first shooting occurred, is believed to have posted the message on a Web site for people who have left evangelical religious groups. His most recent post was Sunday morning in the hours between his attacks in Arvada and Colorado Springs, according to KUSA-TV in Denver, which first reported on the writings. "You Christians brought this on yourselves," Murray wrote, according to the station, which did not identify the site. "All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you ... as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world." The language in the post is almost identical to the text of a manifesto written by Eric Harris, one of the teens who carried out the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, The Denver Post reported. The online posts spanned several weeks, the station said, and in an earlier one, Murray appeared to reject offers of psychological help. "I've already been working with counselors. I have a point to make with all this talk about psychologists and counselors `helping people with their pain,'" he wrote, according to KUSA. The station said Murray's posts were removed from the site after Sunday's killings, and that authorities were aware of them and investigating. Police in Colorado Springs and Arvada would not comment on the writings. On Monday, officials said revenge was one apparent motive for the attacks. Police said Murray had sent hate mail to the Youth With a Mission center in Arvada in the last few weeks after being removed from the program years ago. In a statement, the training center said health problems kept Murray from finishing the program, but elaborated little. Murray did not complete the lecture phase or a field assignment as part of a 12-week program, Youth With a Mission said. "The program directors felt that issues with his health made it inappropriate for him to" finish, it said. The program had an office at the site of the second shooting, the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, where Murray was shot by volunteer security guard Jeanne Assam. Investigators said Murray may have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, though police and church leaders credited Assam's bravery with averting a greater tragedy. Assam, 42, said her faith allowed her to remain steady under pressure. "It seemed like it was me, the gunman and God," she said, her hands trembling as she recounted the shooting during a news conference. Assam is a former police officer who worked in Minneapolis during the 1990s, Minneapolis police Sgt. Jesse Garcia said. Garcia said Monday night that he didn't know the exact dates of her employment with the force and couldn't comment on why she left. Also Monday, officials finished searching the home where Murray lived along with a brother, Christopher, 21. Murray's father, Ronald S. Murray, is chief executive of the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center in Englewood. In a search warrant affidavit, investigators said Matthew Murray attended a home-based computer school and worked at his computer for three to five hours a day for the past two years. A neighbor, Cody Askeland, 19, said the brothers were home-schooled, describing the whole family as "very, very religious." Christopher Murray studied for a semester at Colorado Christian University before transferring to Oral Roberts, said Ronald Rex, dean of admissions and marketing at Colorado Christian. He said Matthew Murray had been in contact with school officials this summer about attending the school but decided he wasn't interested because he thought the school was too expensiv. Police said Murray's only previous brush with the law was a traffic ticket earlier this year. His relatives said they were grief-stricken and baffled. "We cannot understand why this has happened. We ask for prayer for the victims and their families during this time of grief," said Phil Abeyta, Murray's uncle, who read a statement from the family. _Congress plans to extend a disaster relief deadline so farmers hit by drought this year can get cash assistance to offset losses, Democratic lawmakers said. The extension _ estimated to cost some $600 million _ will be included in a massive spending bill that lawmakers are expected to take up this week. Farmers and ranchers nationwide would be eligible, but the extension would be particularly beneficial to Southern growers facing one of the worst droughts on record. Many farmers in the region already are eligible for low-cost loans. But the government would actually write them checks under the proposed legislation. "This relief package, if the president will sign it into law, would be welcome holiday news for many of our farmers," said Rep. Artur Davis, an Alabama Democrat. Earlier this year, Congress passed legislation allowing farmers to get emergency payments for losses in one of three years between 2005 and 2007. The legislation included a cutoff of Feb. 28, 2007, meaning that millions of dollars in losses from the ongoing drought or from this year's late spring freeze were not eligible. The new language would extend the deadline through the end of 2007. "We need that to be included," said Tas Smith, a legislative specialist with the Georgia Farm Bureau. "This has been the worst we've seen in Georgia since we can remember." To be eligible for the aid, producers must be in declared disaster areas and have incurred significant losses. Crop aid covers up to 42 percent of established market prices. Livestock programs have different rules, but there is an $80,000 per-person cap in each program. Farm advocates have emphasized that the government assistance covers only part of farmers' losses. Farmers can apply for only one year's losses even if they have been hurt, for example, by a freeze in 2007 and by drought in 2006. Davis said farmers who already have applied for aid from 2005 or 2006 losses will have the option of changing their application to cover 2007 instead. The original legislation, signed by President Bush in May, had an estimated price tag of $3 billion. While the farm aid enjoys broad support, the fate of the expansion proposal ultimately will rest on Democratic and Republican efforts to reach a compromise spending bill. Some Republicans _ including the White House _ have criticized the measure as too costly. Specifically, the Bush administration has said farmers can get help through existing programs such as loans or subsidized crop insurance and that disaster funding is not necessary. The White House has said it will oppose new funding unless it is offset with cuts in the five-year farm bill that Congress is considering. __ WASHINGTON (AP) _ Sen. Amy Klobuchar conceded she faces a tall order in winning Senate approval of her proposal to bar farmers making more than $750,000 from receiving government payments _ but said it was an effort that should be made. "I think it could be kind of an uphill battle," the Minnesota Democrat said in an interview Monday. "But I still think it's worth doing." Klobuchar's amendment would allow payments only to full-time farmers making less than $750,000 a year and part-time farmers making less than $250,000, after expenses. Klobuchar, who offered the amendment to the farm bill on Friday, is hoping Democrats accept it as one of their limited number of amendments. It doesn't go quite as far as the Bush administration, which had proposed capping income at $200,000. Klobuchar said that she stopped short of that "because I was realistic about the range of things we would be able to get through the bill." Rep. Collin Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, said Klobuchar's amendment may be too much for Southern House members to accept. "Obviously, it won't be easy," he said. But Peterson said he thinks the income imit could get lowered below $1 million, and that $750,000 "is in the ballpark." __ AP Religion Writer Eric Gorski and Associated Press writers Colleen Slevin and Jacques Billeaud in Denver, George Merritt in Arvada and Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington contributed to this report associated Press writers Ken Miller in Oklahoma City, Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., and Marcus Kabel in Springfield, Mo., contributed to this report. Photo Essay Storms Smack Northwest At least 4 people killed, thousands without power after fierce storms pound region. Omaha Mall Victims Remembered Funeral Services Held For Those Killed During Massacre At Shopping Center Video: Mall Shooter Had Troubled Past Colin Cowie To The Rescue, With Classy, Affordable Possibilities Box Office Christmas Classic Movies Revisited Entertainment Weekly's Dalton Ross Walks Down Memory Lane The Early Show Does "Miracle Chair" Help Fertility? 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