The vice president visited Pakistan today to deliver a tough message to Gen. Pervez Musharraf that U.S. aid could be cut unless he becomes more aggressive in hunting Al Qaeda leaders.
The dark art of intelligence, never far from the surface in our post-9/11 world, is once again front and center, only not exactly in the way President Bush might have wished. After several weeks of on-again, off-again promises of a top-secret briefing on the alleged role of Iranian agents in the nightmarish violence of Iraq, U.S. military officials finally decided to deliver the goods in a secret briefing to reporters in Baghdad-and promptly stubbed their toe. The charge of Iranian meddling in Iraq is a grave one and needs to be dealt with seriously. But given the Bush administration's dismal record in the intelligence arena, the Baghdad briefing was handled in the worst way possible. No cameras or tape recorders were allowed. The identity of the intelligence analyst who led the briefing was not disclosed. And despite weeks of careful vetting by intelligence and military officials back in Washington, the briefing ran disastrously off message. This is all the more sad for the fact that there was, at the heart of the briefing, what appeared to be some very credible evidence to support the allegations against Iran.
In pursuing the American dream, Hector Garcia figured he was doing everything right. A hardworking welder with two jobs and a new family, he bought his first house 4 1/2 years ago in Denver's Montbello neighborhood.
Among the incongruous scenes in Chinese cities like Shanghai and Beijing are little stores selling the wares of Amway, Mary Kay, and other companies that normally rely on an army of foot soldiers to peddle their products. For seven years, the Chinese government banned these direct-sales companies from using chains of individuals to sell cosmetics, household cleaners, and other goods from their homes. So, to avoid missing out on the growing Chinese market, the companies radically shifted their business models. For the first time, they opened up stores and factories, absorbing the higher costs, and some reported taking huge losses.
AP - A winter storm that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of Midwest homes and businesses moved into the East on Monday with a dicey mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain that slowed travelers and tied up airlines once again.
AP - Martin Scorsese's mob epic "The Departed" won best picture at the Academy Awards on Sunday and earned the filmmaker the directing prize that had eluded him throughout his illustrious career.
AP - Iraq's Shiite vice president escaped an apparent assassination attempt Monday after a bomb exploded in municipal offices where he was making a speech, knocking him down with the force of the blast that left at least 10 people dead.
"The Departed" paid off for Martin Scorsese who won his first-ever Oscar for best director. The film about mobsters and corrupt cops also took the prize for best picture. Forest Whitaker won best-actor Oscar for his role as Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland." Helen Mirren won best-actress Oscar for "The Queen."
JetBlue, which took a hit to earnings and a worse hit to its reputation when passengers were stranded for hours at its New York hub on Feb. 14, moved quickly to cancel 40 percent of its flights to and from John F. Kennedy International Airport as a new storm hit the area Monday.
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