After a highly emotional debate, the House voted 218-212 to set a timetable for bringing American troops home. Republicans said the measure amounted to micromanaging the war.
Fifteen British sailors were captured at gunpoint in the Persian Gulf and taken into custody by Iranian forces today, the British Ministry of Defense said.
1. George Elmer Pataki was born June 24, 1945, in Peekskill, N.Y. He grew up on a vegetable farm, surrounded by a large extended family. Adults and children were expected to work in the fields and at the family's produce stand. In addition to the farm work, both his parents held jobs– his father, Louis, was a mail carrier, and his mother, Margaret, was a waitress. Pataki refers to his time on the farm often, drawing lessons from it such as "pray for a good harvest, but keep hoeing."
Thursday's unexpected breakdown of North Korean nuclear talks in Beijing--though galling to the United States and other negotiators--is likely to be a temporary hiatus in a negotiating process that will face much tougher tests later this spring, says U.S. News diplomatic correspondent Thomas Omestad.
AP - The House voted Friday for the first time to clamp a cutoff deadline on the Iraq war, agreeing by a razor-thin margin to pull combat troops out by next year and pushing the new Democratic-led Congress ever closer to a showdown with President Bush.
AP - Rat poison was found in pet food blamed for the deaths of at least 16 cats and dogs, but scientists said Friday they still don't know how it got there and predicted more animal deaths would be linked to it. Also Friday, the company that produced the food expanded its recall to include all 95 brands of the "cuts and gravy" style food, regardless of when they were produced.
AP - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has canceled his trip to New York to address the U.N. Security Council before a vote on whether to impose further sanctions against his country for refusing to stop enriching uranium, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday.
State-run Iranian TV reports 15 British marines and sailors seized off the coast were arrested after crossing illegally into Iran's waters. The British government immediately demanded their safe return and summoned Tehran's London ambassador to explain the incident. Meanwhile, Iranian TV reported Britain's ambassador in Tehran was being asked to explain why the personnel crossed into Iranian territory.
The U.N. Security Council will vote Saturday on a new sanctions resolution on Iran, Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, Emyr Jones-Parry, said Thursday.
The House of Representatives today passed a spending bill that includes a firm deadline -- August 31, 2008 -- for combat troops to leave Iraq. President Bush said the House had abdicated its responsibility to protect the troops and denounced the vote as "political theater." He said the vote had only one outcome: "It delays the delivery of vital resources for our troops."
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