August 05, 2008 10:53 am
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Bush to discuss North Korea, troop deployments, free-trade deal with South Korean leader
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) President Bush kicks off his Asian trip with a visit to a new friend while seeking solutions to sticky issues old and new.
After Bush arrives Tuesday in South Korea, he will meet for the third time with the conservative, pro-American president, Lee Myung-bak, who took office in February with promises to patch up relations with Washington that became strained under Seoul's previous decade of liberal governments.
Bush calls Lee a friend, which is good considering the raft of sensitive topics they will tackle Wednesday before the American president heads to Thailand, then to the Beijing Olympics.
At the top of the list is getting North Korea to live up to its commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
Sunday is the earliest that Washington could move to strike North Korea from a list of state-sponsors of terrorism, a long-held demand from Pyongyang. But first, Washington wants the North to agree to procedures for verifying a declaration of its nuclear programs that Pyongyang submitted to the international arms talks six months late and with fewer details than the U.S. originally demanded.
Authorities say suspect's obsession with sorority provided clues to anthrax mystery
WASHINGTON (AP) One of the biggest mysteries surrounding the anthrax scare of 2001 why the anthrax-laced letters were dropped off at a mailbox in New Jersey may be connected to a sorority chapter at Princeton University.
Bruce Ivins' decades-long obsession with the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority could link the former Army biowarfare scientist to the four anthrax-laced letters, authorities said Monday.
Still, authorities acknowledge they cannot place Ivins in Princeton the day the anthrax was mailed. And the curious explanation connecting the scientist and a sorority is unlikely to satisfy his friends and former co-workers who question what motive the married father of two might have had for unleashing the attack.
Ivins, 62, killed himself last week as the Justice Department prepared to indict him on capital murder charges for the deaths of five people who were poisoned by the anthrax in the weeks following 9/11. His attorney maintains he would have been proven innocent were he still alive.
The mailbox just off the campus of Princeton University where the letters were mailed sits about 100 yards away from where the college's Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter stores its rush materials, initiation robes and other property. Sorority members do not live there, and the Kappa chapter at Princeton does not provide a house for the women.
Security tightens in western China following attack, organizers offer reassurances
KASHGAR, China (AP) Police tightened security in China's western Xinjiang region Tuesday and Olympic organizers sought to reassure residents and visitors after a deadly attack on police heightened jitters just days ahead of the games' opening ceremony.
China's official Xinhua News Agency reported that authorities reinforced police checkpoints at roads leading into Kashgar, the scene of Monday's attack, with police boarding buses to search passengers' bags. A full security alert has been issued in public places, including government office buildings, schools and hospitals, the agency said.
In Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi, police used handheld devices to check residents' security cards in routine street patrols.
Sixteen officers were killed and another 16 were injured when two assailants rammed a dump truck and hurled explosives at a group of jogging policemen in Kashgar.
The attack in the city near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border brought an immediate response from China's Olympic organizers, who said security precautions are in place to ensure safety in Beijing and other Olympic venues when the games open Friday.
Pentagon orders about 1,250 Marine trainers to stay in Afghanistan for an extra 30 days
WASHINGTON (AP) The Pentagon has ordered roughly 1,250 Marines serving as trainers for the Afghan security forces to stay on the warfront almost a month longer to continue a mission that military leaders say is a top priority, according to a senior military official.
In addition, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has authorized the deployment of up to 200 other troops to Afghanistan to support the Marines. That includes eight helicopter crews that could be shifted from Iraq if commanders decide.
The senior military official spoke to The Associated Press on Monday on condition of anonymity because the formal announcement has not yet been made.
The decision to extend the tour of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment in Afghanistan comes just a month after defense officials told the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit that it would stay an extra month in Afghanistan.
According to the official, the decision to hold the battalion there longer is part of an effort to capitalize on the gains the Marines have made in the training mission. The extension means that the battalion would return home in late November.
Campaigns engage in hard-hitting politics, show differences in style, tone
WASHINGTON (AP) For all the talk about John McCain's hard-hitting politics, Barack Obama is hardly innocent.
Both candidates and their allies are fully engaged in creating unflattering caricatures of each other that they hope will stick in voters' minds for the next three months.
Obama and his Democratic allies argue that the Republican is negative and offers nothing new, while McCain and his Republicans claim the Democrat is presumptuous and ill-prepared.
"They're cynical," Obama recently charged of McCain and his followers, adding: "They want to distract people from talking about the real issues." One day earlier, the Democrat issued a fundraising appeal accusing McCain of taking "the low road" and stooping to "the same old smears" by launching "a desperate new set of attacks" each day.
McCain disputed that. "This is a very respectful campaign. I don't think our campaign is negative in the slightest," he said. His comments came the same week he agreed with a top aide's charge that Obama had "played the race card" and rolled out a TV commercial that mocking Obama as "the biggest celebrity in the world" and asking: "Is he ready to lead?"
US panel urges doctors to quit routine prostate cancer screening in men over 75
NEW YORK (AP) Doctors should stop routine prostate cancer screening of men over 75 because there is more evidence of harm than benefit, a federal task force advised Monday in a new blow to a much scrutinized medical test.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which made the recommendation, reported finding evidence that the benefits of treatment based on routine screening of this age group "are small to none." However, treatment often causes "moderate-to-substantial harms," including erectile dysfunction and bladder control and bowel problems, the task force said.
The new guidance is the first update by the task force on prostate cancer screening since 2002. The last report on the subject from this panel of experts, which sets the nation's primary care standards, concluded there was insufficient evidence to recommend prostate screening for men of all ages.
In recent years, there has been a growing debate about the value of the somewhat imprecise PSA test to detect cancer, as well as the value of treating most prostate cancers. A number of experts contend patients are being overtreated.
Most major U.S. medical groups recommend doctors discuss the potential benefits and known harms of prostate screening with their patients and make individual decisions. And most agree such testing shouldn't occur before age 50.
Freeman hospitalized in serious condition after car crash in Mississippi
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman was hospitalized in serious condition Monday after the car he was driving left a rural road in the Mississippi Delta and flipped several times.
Freeman, 71, was airlifted to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn., about 90 miles north of the accident in rural Tallahatchie County.
The actor "has a broken arm, broken elbow and minor shoulder damage, but is in good spirits," according to a statement from Donna Lee, Freeman's publicist. A hospital spokeswoman said Freeman was in serious condition but would not discuss his injuries.
"He is having a little bit of surgery this afternoon or tomorrow to help correct the damage," Lee's statement said. "He says he'll be OK and is looking forward to a full recovery."
Freeman, who won an Oscar for his role in "Million Dollar Baby," is among the stars in "The Dark Knight," now in theaters. His screen credits also include "Driving Miss Daisy."
Federal Reserve expected to leave interest rates alone as powerful forces buffet the economy
WASHINGTON (AP) The Federal Reserve, caught between mounting job losses and rising inflation, is likely to sit tight and hope that the interest rate cuts it has already provided will be enough to heal a sick economy.
Private economists believe that when the central bank concludes its one-day meeting on Tuesday, it will announce that its target for the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other, will remain at 2 percent.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues are being forced to navigate treacherous waters, trying to keep the economy from plunging into a deep recession while worrying about keeping interest rates so low that they could trigger a dangerous inflation spiral.
"The Fed is really locked in right now. They can't go forward or backward," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at the Smith School of Business at California State University Channel Islands.
Many economists believe the funds rate will remain at 2 percent not only in August but for the rest of this year. That would mean that commercial banks' prime lending rate, the benchmark for millions of consumer and business loans, will remain at 5 percent, its lowest level since late 2004.
Source: Gotti arrested on murder conspiracy charge
NEW YORK (AP) A law enforcement official says John A. "Junior" Gotti has been arrested on a murder conspiracy charge.
The official says the charge stemmed from a federal investigation originating in Tampa, Florida. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the charge had not been officially announced.
Gotti has had three criminal trials end in mistrial. He is expected to make an appearance in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday for a removal hearing.
A call to his attorney seeking comment was not immediately returned.
Report: More UCLA staff saw celebs health records
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ More than 120 workers at a Los Angeles hospital looked at celebrities' medical records and other personal information without permission between January 2004 and June 2006 nearly double the number initially reported, according to a state report.
The report released Monday by the California Department of Public Health also showed that three UCLA Medical Center staffers continued to peek at the confidential records of a "well-known individual" after an April crackdown on record-peeking. The report did not identify the celebrity.
State regulators blame the hospital for not taking adequate steps to maintain patient confidentiality.
"What's startling to us is, as we get to a point where we feel we've addressed a specific complaint and a specific issue, we identify additional issues," Kathleen Billingsley, director of the health department's Center for Healthcare Quality, told the Los Angeles Times. "It's very disturbing to see this."
State health officials have released five reports since the Los Angeles Times first reported that UCLA employees pried into the medical records of prominent patients, including singer Britney Spears, actress Farrah Fawcett and California first lady Maria Shriver.
The latest report said 127 workers peeked into celebrities' medical records without permission, leading to several firings, suspensions and warnings. The report also detailed the case of one employee who looked at the records of about 900 patients "without any legitimate reason" and viewed Social Security numbers, health insurance information and addresses, from April 2003 to May 2007.
Previous reports said the woman, Lawanda Jackson, viewed about 60 patient records. The former administrative specialist faces federal criminal charges.
The report said Jackson used her supervisor's password to view the records, which officials determined by examining her workstation.
Hospital officials said computer systems have been updated to block complete Social Security numbers and staff is being trained on privacy and security. The hospital said it has notified all patients whose privacy was breached by Jackson.
"We have no excuses," Dr. David Feinberg, chief executive of the UCLA Health System, said in a statement. "UCLA should have detected the violations by Ms. Jackson years ago and should have immediately initiated the process to dismiss her."
Feinberg said the hospital continues to investigate and all employees found to have breached patient confidentiality were disciplined or fired.
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