An Iraq policy more independent of Washington than the current British government, led by Tony Blair, will be pursued by Britain's expected incoming prime minister, Treasury chief Gordon Brown suggested. Brown is expected to succeed Blair by September. Brown acknowledged that mistakes were made in the aftermath of the invasion and promised to be "very frank" with President Bush.\nScientists have found a plentiful source of stem cells in the fluid that cushions babies in the womb and produced a variety of tissue types from these cells, they reported Sunday. The new source would sidestep the controversy over destroying embryos for research. Researchers at Wake Forest University and Harvard University reported the stem cells they drew from amniotic fluid donated by pregnant women hold much the same promise as embryonic stem cells. They reported they were able to extract the stem cells without harm to mother or fetus and turn their discovery into several different tissue cell types, including brain, liver and bone.\nThree U.S. airmen died Sunday in a car bombing in Baghdad. They are among at least 17 people killed in violence across Iraq as Iraqi troops launched a fresh battle to oust militias and pacify the capital. The sectarian attacks continued despite the major drive to tame Baghdad. The Iraqi army reported killing 30 militants late Saturday in a Sunni insurgent stronghold in the center of the city, just to the north of the heavily fortified Green Zone.\nIsrael denied that its pilots were training to strike targets in Iran with low-yield nuclear weapons, as reported by a British newspaper, and analysts expressed doubts about the report's reliability. Citing unidentified Israeli military sources, The Sunday Times said the proposals drawn up in Israel involved using so-called "bunker-buster" nuclear weapons to attack nuclear facilities at three sites south of the Iranian capital. Israel has never confirmed it has nuclear weapons, although the Jewish state is widely believed to possess a significant stockpile.\nDemocrats are not ruling out raising taxes for the wealthiest people to help pay for tax cuts for middle-income families, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. She spoke of pursuing an estimated $300 billion that people owe in back taxes, eliminating deficit spending and reducing wasteful federal spending. "As we review what we get from ... collecting our taxes and reducing waste, fraud and abuse, investing in education and in initiatives which will bring money into the treasury, it may be that tax cuts for those making over a certain amount of money, $500,000 a year, might be more important to the American people than ignoring the educational and health needs of America's children," Pelosi, D-Calif., said in an interview aired Sunday.\nMiscommunication led to the detainment of three men at the Port of Miami on Sunday after authorities became suspicious of their documentation and the contents of their cargo truck, officials said. Authorities initially said the men -- two Iraqis and one Lebanese national who are legal permanent U.S. residents -- had been caught trying to slip past a checkpoint at the port's entrance.
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