Just as a planned sale of the largest private water company in the United States moves closer, potentially embarrassing records of high-level corporate meetings have surfaced detailing how the business failed to live up to expectations for the German utility giant RWE.
The resignation yesterday of Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, the No. 2 man at the Justice Department, was as inevitable as it was ironic. It was inevitable because the rules of physics and politics say that dominoes must fall and scapegoats must go. And it was ironic because McNulty is a former congressional staff member who is seasoned in the ways of both the Justice Department and Congress.
AP - A parked car bomb exploded near a market in a Shiite enclave northeast of the capital, killing at least 32 people and wounding 50, police said Wednesday. Hospital officials and wounded victims said chlorine gas may have been used in the attack, but police denied that.
AP - Israeli aircraft fired missiles at the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Wednesday, Palestinian officials and the Israeli army said, and Hamas confirmed that one of its security buildings was hit in the strike. Palestinian security officials said the Israeli airstrike killed four people.
AP - Under pressure from their rivals, the leading Republican presidential contenders defended their conservative credentials on abortion, gun control and tax cuts in a feisty debate Tuesday night.
Nicolas Sarkozy has been sworn in as France's new president, taking the oath in an elaborate inauguration ceremony at Paris' Elysee Palace. The conservative, elected on a platform of economic reform and tough policies on crime and immigration, was greeted by his rival and former mentor, outgoing leader Jacques Chirac, who stepped down after 12 years in power.