In the News

Rita batters Gulf Coast with high winds and water

BEAUMONT, Texas – Hurricane Rita pummeled east Texas and the Louisiana coast Saturday, triggering floods and demolishing buildings, yet the dominant reaction was relief that the once-dreaded storm proved far less fierce and deadly than Katrina. Authorities pleaded with the roughly 3 million evacuees not to hurry home too soon, fearing more chaos.

In any other hurricane season, Rita might have seemed devastating. It knocked out power for more than 1 million customers, sparked fires across the hurricane zone and swamped Louisiana shoreline towns with a 15-foot storm surge that required daring boat and helicopter rescues of hundreds of people.

But the new storm came in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, with its 1,000-plus death toll, cataclysmic flooding of New Orleans and staggering destruction in Mississippi. By contrast, Rita spared Houston, New Orleans and other major cities a direct hit, and by mid-afternoon Saturday federal officials said they knew of no storm-related fatalities.

Fighting surges in Iraq; two U.S. Troops Die

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Heavy fighting surged Friday in the Euphrates River city of Ramadi, police and hospital officials said, and the U.S. military reported the deaths of two more soldiers around the militant stronghold, scene of nearly one-quarter of 29 American deaths this month.

Saturday morning, a suicide car bomber driving at high speed exploded his vehicle near an Iraqi army checkpoint in downtown Baghdad, killing three soldiers and an Iraqi civilian, police said.

The attack also wounded three Iraqi soldiers and two civilians, said police Capt. Abdel-Hussein Minsif.

A suicide bomber on a public minibus set off an explosives belt Friday as the vehicle approached a busy terminal in Baghdad, killing at least five people and wounding eight, police said. Elsewhere in the capital, a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Army soldier whose convoy was patrolling southeastern Baghdad Friday night, raising to at least 1,913 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

Gunmen also killed a member of the commission charged with ensuring former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime are banned from the Iraqi government. Thirteen commission members have been killed since it was created two years ago.

Cheney in good condition after surgery to repair two aneurysms

WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney had successful surgery Saturday to repair aneurysms on the back of both knees and was alert and comfortable after the six-hour procedure, his spokesman said.

Cheney, who has a history of heart problems, was under local anesthesia during the surgery at George Washington University Hospital.

“He will remain in the hospital for up to 48 hours to monitor his recovery. He is expected to resume a regular schedule when he is released to home,” said Steve Schmidt, counselor to the vice president.

After the operation, Cheney was “awake, alert, comfortable,” Schmidt said.

Cheney’s aneurysms, known as popliteal aneurysms, were discovered during his annual physical in July.