Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a House panel Wednesday that the U.S. should know in a few months if the Iraqi government is making progress toward peace and whether the United States "is going to have to look at other alternatives and consequences." In stark contrast to predecessor Donald Rumsfeld, Gates also said there was no doubt the Army and Marine Corps needed to be larger if they are to deal with future wars and give troops enough rest between combat tours.
Executives from Wal-Mart, Intel, AT&T and Kelly Services joined hands with union leaders in setting a goal of providing "quality, affordable" health care for millions of workers by 2012. They laid out four main goals, including universal health-care coverage for "every person in America" and raising "the value it (America) receives for every health-care dollar" spent.
Austrian authorities said Wednesday they have uncovered a major international child pornography ring. It involved more than 2,360 suspects from 77 countries, including hundreds in the U.S., who paid to view videos of young children being sexually abused. The children were under the age of 14 and screams could be heard, said an Austrian police expert on Internet crime who headed the investigation.
Astronaut Lisa Nowak returned to Texas on Wednesday, a day after being charged in Florida with trying to murder the woman she believed was her romantic rival for a space shuttle pilot's affections. A police car met Nowak's plane on the tarmac, and the astronaut, her head covered by a jacket, was escorted down the stairs and into the waiting squad car, then driven away.
The blowing snow and intense cold already blamed for 11 deaths across the country kept schools closed for a second day Wednesday across much of West Virginia, where temperatures have been at their lowest in more than a decade. The arctic weather disrupted flights from Chicago to the Northeast on Tuesday, shut down some Amtrak service and caused huge chain-reaction traffic accidents. Schools also have been closed in places from Minnesota to upstate New York.
