Tim Russert testified today that, contrary to what I. Lewis Libby Jr. has maintained, the two of them never discussed a C.I.A. agent whose unmasking touched off a scandal.
Bypassing old, clogged heart arteries by stitching in new vessels has become one of the world's most successful heart surgeries. A new study, however, warns that a drug used on patients undergoing particularly complicated operations–an estimated 600,000 patients worldwide last year alone–is itself a killer. "The bottom dollar is 10,000 deaths over five years" due to the drug, Trasylol, says Dennis Mangano, lead author of the study in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Other physicians, however, see flaws in the study and think that Mangano is too quick to blame the drug.
This Valentine's Day a counterintuitive study tells us interracial marriage is on the decline. I say "counterintuitive" because interracial couples are hardly the rarity they were in the '60s and gen X-ers are rumored to not see race in the same way their forebears did. Legend has it, anyway, that skin color is of little import to younger Americans and of much less import than it was to their parents or grandparents.
The Justice Department has announced the first criminal indictments relating to contracting fraud in Iraq in what one official described as a "B-grade" plot, involving millions of dollars in bribes, gifts, kickbacks, and reconstruction contracts involving three senior active-duty Army officers, the spouse of one of the officers, and a U.S. contractor who owned and operated numerous companies in Iraq with ties to Romania.
AP - Baghdad's streets were electric with tension Wednesday as U.S. officials confirmed the new security operation was under way. U.S. armor rushed through streets, and Iraqi armored personnel carriers guarded bridges and major intersections.
AP - Lebanese troops deployed along the border with Israel opened fire late Wednesday as Israeli troops searched for Hezbollah bombs, drawing retaliatory fire, officials from both sides said.
AP - Three U.S. Army Reserve officers were indicted Wednesday, accused of taking part in a bid-rigging scam that steered millions of dollars for Iraq reconstruction projects to a contractor in exchange for cash, luxury cars and jewelry.
NASA will begin a review of its psychological screening for astronauts, NASA said Wednesday -- a day after astronaut Lisa Nowak was charged with attempting to murder a love rival. Meanwhile, Nowak was having a medical evaluation, which would also include a psychological evaluation, NASA said.
A grand jury indicted three Army Reserve officers and two civilians Wednesday on charges they steered more than $8.6 million in Iraq reconstruction funds to a contractor in exchange for kickbacks including vehicles, jewelry and real estate.
Twenty-four Filipino hostages shuddered as dozens of armed Nigerian militants danced around them. The hostages are being held as part of a wider rebel campaign over Nigeria's distribution of oil wealth. In an exclusive report, the hostages tell CNN's Jeff Koinange they are OK. The rebel leader says this is just the beginning of their battle.
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