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WASHINGTON — President Bush went to Capitol Hill this morning for a face-to-face meeting with House Republicans to rally support for his anti-terror plans at a time of growing divisions within GOP ranks over how best to spy on, interrogate and prosecute terrorist suspects.

1. Giuliani Leads McCain in Iowa Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has pulled well ahead of Sen. John McCain among Iowa Republicans likely to take part in the state’s early caucuses, a new poll reveals. In the survey by Victory Enterprises, Giuliani received support from 30 percent of Republicans expecting to attend the 2008 caucuses, which are scheduled to launch the 2008 Republican presidential nominating cycle. McCain was second at 17.3 percent. A similar Victory Enterprises survey a year ago had Giuliani and the senator from Arizona tied at 21.7 percent. Giuliani is viewed as favorable by two-thirds...

For the sake of the President's program, Scooter must--can--clear good his name, here's how. [I don't know all of the protocols in posting here. I am a newbie. Just fair warning. :) ] No leak, no leak crime. It's as simple as that. Scooter Libby can clear his good name, as this very, very recent news shows. NOTE: He has to, because a conviction could cripple the administration and hurt the cause of good government for years to come. He can do it. The Administration picked a real bulldog in special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. When Scooter comes out of this...

Return of the leader Moqtada Sadr Shiite in Iraq AL BASRA (Iraq) - the radical chief Moqtada Sadr Shiite, whose movement is shown to have taken part in the recent exactions antisunnites, arrived Sunday morning to al Basra (southern) coming from Iran, after a round in the Middle East, indicated one of his close relations. At once after its arrival, it was addressed to its faithful, affirmed sheik Khalil Al-Maliki, a person in charge for his office. It had carried out in January the pilgrimage in Mecque then had gone then to Syria, Jordan and to Lebanon. The movement...

Reuters - CAR BOMB EXPLODES IN STREET MARKET IN IRAQI CITY OF KERBALA, DOZENS OF CASUALTIES-POLICE

Bangladesh: a building of five floors breaks down, feared victims DACCA - a building of five stages sheltering a textile workshop, stores and offices broke down Saturday in the capital of Bangladesh, Dacca, making fear many victims, one learned from police source. Many employees worked in the textile workshop at the time of the accident, indicated to AFP the assistant prefect of police force of Dacca, Obasidur Rahman. "Of the police officers, the firemen and voluntary are on the spot in order to help the people taken in the debris", it added.

ALARM - Al-Qaïda asserts an attack against an oil installation in Arabia PARIS - the Saoudi Al-Qaïda branch asserted an attack with the booby-trapped car, which was thwarted Friday against an oil installation with Abqaiq (Eastern Province), in Saudi Arabia, in an official statement on an Internet site.

APNewsAlert MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Philippine president declares state of emergency amid flurry of coup rumors.

PARIS, Feb 17, 2006 (AFP) - A wild duck found dead in central France was "very probably" infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the health ministry told AFP on Friday. If confirmed, it would be the first case of bird flu in the country, which is Europe's biggest poultry producer as well as western Europe's main crossroads for migratory birds. Initial tests on the duck, found in marshland near the town of Joyeux in the central-eastern Ain department, revealed "strong suspicions" that it may be carrying the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the ministry said. Further tests...

From: Mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Ninewa, Iraq In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life. To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months. To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and...

Once it was clear that the man sprinkled with birdshot would survive, Vice President Cheney's hunting accident was widely expected to become a late-night comedian's bonanza, a frenzy like Wal-Mart shoppers scrambling for $29 DVD players. As "Today" replayed the comedian clips on Tuesday, NBC's Matt Lauer asked, "Had a feeling that was coming, didn't you?" Katie Couric replied: "Well, I mean when you heard the story you just knew they were gonna go crazy with it, so they did." With apologies to the Cheney friend who received the pellet facial, the incident was funny. Now we learn the vice...

Programs Bush Wants to Cut or Kill By The Associated Press Thu Feb 9, 8:21 PM ET The 141 programs that President Bush proposed to eliminate or cut in his 2007 budget, with potential savings in millions: ADVERTISEMENT TERMINATIONS: AGRICULTURE Microbiological data program, $6 million. Community Connect broadband grants, $9 million. Commodity supplemental food program, $107 million. Research and extension grant earmarks, $196 million. Ocean freight differential grants, $77 million. Forest service economic action program, $10 million. High cost energy grants, $26 million. Public broadcast grants, $5 million. Watershed protection and flood prevention operations, $75 million. Total $511 million ___...

Rescue teams scoured the Red Sea for survivors Saturday after an Egyptian ferry sank, leaving more than 1,000 people dead or missing in one of the worst maritime tragedies in years, as the rescued spoke of a fire on board the ill-equipped vessel. "Why didn't the crew get it under control?" asked one former passenger hospitalized at this Red Sea port, after survivors said the blaze had raged for at least three hours before the ship went down. The owners of the ship said between 300 and 400 of the more than 1,400 people on board had been rescued...

<p>DE QUEEN, Ark. — A mother who told police she smothered her twin boys and a young daughter was arrested Saturday after being hospitalized when she collapsed in front of officers sent to the home in response to a telephone report from the children's father in New York.</p>

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Author James Frey confessed to Oprah Winfrey on Thursday that he made up details about every character in his memoir "A Million Little Pieces" and the talk show host apologized to her viewers, saying she felt "duped." ADVERTISEMENT In 19 years in television "I've never been in this position before," said Winfrey, whose praise for Frey's book in September helped make it the top-selling book on nonfiction lists in the United States last year. "I really feel duped," Winfrey told Frey on her television show. She said he had betrayed millions of viewers. Winfrey began by apologizing...

Law enforcement and Newton Free Library officials were embroiled in a tense standoff for nearly 10 hours last week when the city refused to let police and the FBI examine library computers without a warrant. Police rushed to the main library last Wednesday after it was determined that a terrorist threat to Brandeis University had been sent from a computer at the library. But requests to examine any of its computers were rebuffed by library Director Kathy Glick-Weil and Mayor David Cohen on the grounds that they did not have a warrant. While one law enforcement official said he was...

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S. government Wednesday for preventing a Muslim scholar from entering the country, arguing that the government was using anti-terrorism laws as "instruments of censorship." The lawsuit asks the court to find a provision of the Patriot Act unconstitutional and seeks clearance for Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss intellectual and Muslim scholar, to accept invitations to speak in the United States. Ramadan was blocked from accepting a tenured teaching position at the University of Notre Dame when his visa was revoked in August 2004 because of a provision of the Patriot Act,...

Bin Laden Offers Truce in Purported Tape Terrorist Leader Threatens New Attacks Against U.S. By Yara Bayoumy, Reuters DUBAI (Jan. 19) -- Osama bin Laden warned that al-Qaida was preparing new attacks inside the United States, but said the group was open to a conditional truce with Americans, according to an audiotape attributed to him on Thursday. Al Jazeera television, which aired the tape, said it was recorded in the Muslim month that corresponded to December. "The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete, God willing," said the speaker...

A former commander of the SAS called yesterday for the impeachment of Tony Blair over the war in Iraq, saying that the Prime Minister should not be allowed to "walk away" from the fact that he took his country to war on a false premise. Gen Sir Michael Rose, who commanded the United Nations protection force in Bosnia during the war in former Yugoslavia, said Mr Blair must take personal responsibility for a foreign adventure that had proved disastrous both for the West and the people of Iraq.

THIRD CHILD DIES IN TURKEY OF BIRD FLU - ANATOLIAN STATE NEWS AGENCY