The talk this week among conservative House staffers and GOP strategists is that a Democratic victory in the fall elections could lead to a wholesale junking of the House Republican leadership.
Nearly 10 years after Princess Diana died in a car crash in France, you might think Scotland Yard would be close to wrapping up its investigation into whether any foul play was involved. Yet the publication this week of a new exposé by Di's butler, Paul Burrell, has grabbed investigators' attention. Burrell's first book on Diana, A Royal Duty, dished plenty of dirt. Now the new book, The Way We Were, contains further info, reveals my colleague Richard J. Newman–like Burrell's insistence that a splashy ring given to Di by her playboy pal Dodi Al-Fayed was a friendship gesture, not an engagement pledge. Newman says that's relevant because some influential people, like Dodi's billionaire father Mohamed Al-Fayed, think Di may have been murdered to prevent her from marrying a Muslim. Last week, the book's publisher, Harper U.K., let Scotland Yard have an advance read of the book, to look for clues. And Burrell, who stands to make multimillions from The Way We Were, says he has held nothing back from Scotland Yard and will continue to help with the inquiry.
As a probe into Hewlett-Packard's use of private phone records widened, Chairman Patricia Dunn announced today she would step down next year. Current Chief Executive Mark Hurd will take over.
AP - Syrian guards foiled an attempt by suspected al-Qaida-linked militants to blow up the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday, exchanging fire outside the compound's walls with gunmen shouting "God is great" who tried to storm in with automatic weapons and hand grenades.
AP - Two spacewalking astronauts Tuesday began installing the first big addition to the international space station in more than 3 1/2 years, and NASA pronounced the outing a success, even though a small bolt floated off and got lost.
AP - A senior American commander in Iraq said Tuesday that U.S.-led military operations are "stifling" the insurgency in western Anbar province but are not strong enough to defeat it.
Bitter partisan election-year squabbles engulfed Capitol Hill on Tuesday sparked by President Bush's 9/11 speech Monday night. Democrats charged that the president was playing politics with the memories of 9/11, and Republicans questioned whether Democrats are more interested in protecting terrorists than the country.
Attackers armed with hand grenades and machine guns detonated a car bomb and tried to storm the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria, today, according to the Syrian Information Ministry. Syrian security forces killed four attackers and took one into custody. An al Qaeda offshoot group is suspected in the attack, according to Imad Moustapha, Syrian ambassador to the United States.
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