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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (751346)	10/9/2006 6:50:33 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

Battle rages in Shia Iraqi town news.bbc.co.uk US and Iraqi troops have killed 30 suspected Shia militants during heavy clashes in the southern Iraqi city of Diwaniya, the US military has said. The fighting erupted as troops went in to arrest a militant responsible for earlier killings, they said. It is thought the rebels were from cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army, but its officials in Baghdad blamed "rogue elements" out of his control. In Baghdad, police have found 51 bodies of people who were abducted and killed. Meanwhile, a 36-hour curfew was lifted in the northern city of Kirkuk following a huge security operation. Thousands of Iraqi army and police force personnel backed by US-led coalition troops combed Kirkuk for insurgents, while US troops lent helicopter support. Nobody slept in Diwaniya last night. The fighting was very fierce Diwaniya resident Police said about 180 people were detained and large quantities of arms and ammunition seized. The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says tensions have been rising in Kirkuk, which is home to Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens who claim ownership of the city and the oil-rich lands around it. Regional tension A curfew was imposed for most of the day in Diwaniya, a mainly Shia town, following the destruction of a US tank during the clashes. It has now been lifted. The militants launched rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) against the troops who raided the house of Kifah al-Greiti, a Mehdi Army commander, the Associated Press news agency says, quoting an Iraqi army officer. "An M1A2 Abrams tank was struck by multiple RPG rounds and was severely damaged," the US military statement said. Iraqi and US troops then "engaged the enemy forces and killed approximately 30 of the terrorists", it said. It said coalition and Iraqi forces had suffered no casualties. The rebels said only three people had been injured. A witness told Reuters news agency: "Nobody slept in Diwaniya last night. The fighting was very fierce." Tensions high Our Baghdad correspondent says tensions have been high in the area since fierce fighting in August between the Mehdi Army and Iraqi government forces and US troops. It is not yet clear whether these latest clashes involve the Mehdi army itself. Recent reports have suggested that the militia is not cohesive and that more radical elements may have split off, says our correspondent. Whatever the case, the people fighting the Americans in Diwaniya are clearly not Sunni militants, who form the bulk of the insurgency against the coalition forces and the Iraqi government, our correspondent says. Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk Published: 2006/10/08 20:36:18 GMT © BBC MMVI

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (751346)	10/9/2006 6:53:02 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Virginia Senator Did Not Disclose Stock Options October 9, 2006 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS nytimes.com RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 8 (AP) — For the past five years, Senator George Allen, Republican of Virginia, has failed to tell Congress about stock options he got for his work as a director of a high-tech company. Congressional rules require senators to disclose to the Senate all deferred compensation, like stock options. The rules also urge senators to avoid taking any official action that could benefit them financially or appear to do so. Mr. Allen’s stock options date to the period from January 1998 to January 2001, after his term as governor of Virginia and before he took office as senator. The Associated Press reviewed his financial dealings from that time and found that he had twice failed to promptly alert the Securities and Exchange Commission of insider stock transactions as a director of Xybernaut and of Commonwealth Biotechnologies. In interviews, Mr. Allen and his staff sought to play down his corporate dealings, saying they were a good learning experience but did not lead to any large amounts of money, except for a $250,000 windfall from Com-Net Ericsson stock. Mr. Allen’s office said he had sold his Xybernaut stock at a loss and had not cashed in his Commonwealth options because they cost more than the stock is now worth. The senator also said he saw no conflict in going to work for companies shortly after assisting them as governor. “I actually got no money out of Xybernaut,” he said. “I got paid in stock options, which were worthless.” Mr. Allen’s office said he did not report his Commonwealth options because their purchase price was higher than the current market value. Mr. Allen viewed them as worthless and believed he did not have to report them, aides said. Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, a former prosecutor and a former Democratic Congressional aide, said, “As an ethical matter, it’s irrelevant whether the exercise price of those stock options is above or below the current market price.” “If he owns stock options,” Ms. Clark added, “he does have such a financial stake.” Mr. Allen’s office acknowledged that he had met socially over the years with company executives and that his office had granted “routine courtesy meetings” to company lobbyists “to hear their opinion on legislation and issues before the federal government.” John Reid, a spokesman for Mr. Allen, said he was aware of only one instance in which Mr. Allen’s office had helped a former company. That came in December 2001 when Mr. Allen asked the Army to resolve a lingering issue with Xybernaut. The company asked Mr. Allen to intervene, and he urged the Army to give Xybernaut an answer, Mr. Reid said. At the time, Mr. Allen still owned options to buy 110,000 shares of Xybernaut stock, which could have been affected by new federal contracts. The Army answered but did not give Xybernaut what it wanted, and Mr. Allen did nothing more, Mr. Reid said. As governor, Mr. Allen took representatives of Xybernaut and Ericsson on trade missions. He helped steer $4 million in tax-exempt bonds to Commonwealth for a new headquarters and announced an $800,000 state grant to help Lynchburg prepare a site for an Ericsson expansion. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company