BUSH SUPPORTS ISRAELI PLAN
Bush supports Israeli plan
WASHINGTON -- President Bush put surprisingly strong support Tuesday behind Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to unilaterally define Israel's West Bank borders if talks with the Palestinians prove fruitless, saying it could be "an important step toward the peace we both support." At a time when the Palestinian leadership is bitterly divided and partly in control of a group the United States considers terrorists, Bush acknowledged that the preferred course of negotiated borders may be impossible. For his part, Olmert promised to spare no effort to seek a settlement before striking out on his own. The two leaders' statements following their first White House meeting amounted to agreement that although the United States won't endorse the plan now, it will not stand in Olmert's way if the Palestinians prove unable to negotiate on their own behalf. That was more than the White House had led Olmert to expect but still short of a green light to make one-sided decisions widely opposed by the Palestinians, Arab neighbors and European allies.
Senate panel approvesHayden for CIA chief
WASHINGTON -- Gen. Michael Hayden moved a step closer Tuesday to becoming the nation's 20th CIA chief, where he will take over a spy agency looking for a leader to steer it through troubles ranging from al-Qaida to Washington politics. The Senate Intelligence Committee recommended confirmation, 12-3, with three of the panel's seven Democrats voting against him. If the Senate approves him before Memorial Day, as expected, Hayden could be sworn in by the end of the week. "We think he is an outstanding choice to head the CIA," committee chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said after the vote. "He is a proven leader and a supremely qualified intelligence professional."
Former senator dies
HOUSTON -- Former Senator and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, the courtly Texan who famously put down vice presidential rival Dan Quayle in a 1988 debate by telling him "you're no Jack Kennedy," died Tuesday. He was 85. Bentsen, who represented the state in Congress for 28 years, died at his Houston home, his family said. He had been under a doctor's care since a pair of strokes in 1998. Bentsen's political career took him from a county judgeship in the Rio Grande Valley in the 1940s to six years in the U.S. House, 22 years in the Senate and two years as President Clinton's first treasury secretary. In 1988, Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis tapped Bentsen as his running mate while the GOP nominee, Vice President George Bush, chose Quayle.
European nations drawup compromise on Iran
LONDON -- Key European nations put finishing touches Tuesday on a proposal meant to enlist the support of Russia and China for possible U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran should Tehran refuse to abandon uranium enrichment, diplomats said. The compromise -- which would drop the automatic threat of military action if Iran remains defiant -- is part of a proposed basket of incentives meant to entice Iran to give up enrichment, a possible pathway to nuclear arms. It also spells out the penalties if it does not. France, Britain and Germany discussed the final form of the package Tuesday ahead of submission for hoped-for approval today at a formal meeting of the five permanent Security Council members and Germany. If accepted, the compromise would resolve wrangling within the Security Council since it became actively involved in March, two months after Iran's file was referred to it by the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Afghan president ordersinquiry into U.S. bombing
KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai ordered an inquiry Tuesday into a U.S. bombing that killed at least 16 civilians, including some at a religious school, and called for a meeting with the commander of American forces in Afghanistan. It was the second time in five weeks that Karzai has complained about civilian deaths from airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition. U.S. warplanes targeted the southern village overnight Sunday because Taliban fighters were hiding there, and dozens of the militants were killed. It was one of the deadliest U.S. attacks since the American-led invasion in 2001. Karzai expressed "concern at the coalition forces' decision to bomb civilian areas" in the village of Azizi in Kandahar province, but he also strongly condemned the "terrorists' act of cowardice" in using civilians as human shields.
Associated Press