The bipartisan nonbinding resolution amounted to a demoralizing "vote of no confidence" in the U.S. military because it criticized Bush's plans to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq without offering concrete alternatives, said Arizona Sen. John McCain. He sought to weaken support for a resolution opposing President Bush's Iraq war strategy, saying Sunday that supporters are intellectually dishonest.
The four U.S. helicopters that have crashed in Iraq since Jan. 20 were apparently shot down, the chief American military spokesman said Sunday. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters that the investigations into the crashes are incomplete but "it does appear they were all the result of some kind of anti-Iraqi ground fire that did bring those helicopters down."
A church that was demolished in the killer storms that laid to waste central Florida was a rallying point as tornado victims and their supporters turned out for Sunday service. The cleanup that began not long after Friday's destruction took a brief pause as the faithful and others gathered under bright sun and clear skies at what was the Lady Lake Church of God.
Small amounts of toxic ammonia leaked from a fluid line Sunday as two astronauts conducted the second of what could be a precedent-setting three spacewalks in nine days as they upgrade the international space station's cooling system. The ammonia flakes did not appear to make contact with Michael Lopez-Alegria or Sunita Williams.
The Maine Legislature on Jan. 26 overwhelmingly passed a resolution objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law sets a national standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases. Lawmakers in Georgia, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington state also balked at Real ID. They are expected to soon pass laws or adopt resolutions declining to participate in the federal identification network.
The Arab league envoy dispatched last year to persuade Iraq's bitterly divided leaders to make peace resigned, disillusioned and nearly drained of hope. Mokhtar Lamani says his mission was doomed by feeble support from the countries that hired him, U.S. policies and the refusal of Iraq's leaders to work together. He returned from Baghdad last week to deliver his resignation to the Arab League
At least 20 people have been killed and almost 340,000 forced from their homes in Indonesia's flood-stricken capital of Jakarta on Sunday as rivers burst their banks following days of rain, officials said. The government dispatched medical teams on rubber rafts into the worst-hit districts to prevent outbreaks of disease among residents without clean drinking water.
