Report raises new questions on Bush, WMDs
WASHINGTON – The White House faced new questions Wednesday about President Bush’s contention three years ago that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq.
The Washington Post reported that a Pentagon-sponsored team of experts determined in May 2003 that two small trailers were not used to make biological weapons. Yet two days after the team sent its findings to Washington in a classified report, Bush declared just the opposite.
“We have found the weapons of mass destruction,””Bush said in an interview with a Polish TV station. “We found biological laboratories.”
Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday that Bush was relying on information from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency when he said the trailers seized after the 2003 invasion were mobile biological laboratories. That information was later discredited by the Iraq Survey Group in its 2004 report.
FEMA: La. homes must be raised off ground
NEW ORLEANS – Many homes damaged by flooding during Hurricane Katrina will have to be raised 1 to 3 feet to qualify for flood insurance, a FEMA official said Wednesday, as the government released long-awaited new projections on area flooding risks.
The government recommendations, issued more than seven months after Hurricane Katrina hit, have been eagerly awaited by New Orleans residents and public officials.
The advisories are based on President Bush’s new pledge to seek an additional $2.5 billion to raise levees and are considered crucial for residents deciding whether or how to rebuild their homes and businesses. They also will be key factors in planning the area’s reconstruction and how much aid will be available to home owners.
“This will enable people to get on with their lives,” Donald Powell, the federal coordinator for Gulf Coast hurricane recovery, told reporters as he announced Wednesday that the advisories were ready.
Moussaoui jury hears Flight 93 recording
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Jurors in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial listened Wednesday to a recording of terrified shouts and cries in the cockpit as desperate passengers twice charged panicked hijackers during the final half hour of doomed United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Is that it? I mean, shall we pull it down?” one hijacker asked in Arabic 123 seconds before the 757 jetliner slammed into a Pennsylvania field with 33 passengers, seven crew members and four hijackers.
“Yes, put it in it, and pull it down,” another voice replied in Arabic.
The government rested its case for executing Sept. 11 conspirator Moussaoui shortly after 17 jurors and alternates and 150 audience members became the first people other than investigators and victims’ relatives to hear the only audible cockpit recording recovered from the four jetliners hijacked by al-Qaida in the nation’s most deadly terrorist attack.
Fast food fries, chicken fattier in U.S.
HELLERUP, Denmark – Order french fries or hot wings at a McDonald’s or a KFC in the United States and you’re more likely to get a super-sized helping of artery-clogging trans fats than you would be at their restaurants in some other countries.
Researchers said the differences, found during a new study of fast food products, had to do with the type of frying oil used, and the main culprit appeared to be partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is high in trans fats.
“I was very surprised to see a difference in trans fatty acids in these uniform products,” said one of the researchers, Dr. Steen Stender, a cardiologist at Gentofte University Hospital in Hellerup, Denmark, and former head of the Danish Nutrition Council. “It’s such an easy risk factor to remove.”
McDonald’s Corp., which promised in September 2002 to cut trans fat in half, and KFC parent Yum! Brands Inc. said the explanation is local taste preferences. But nutrition experts and consumer activists said it is about money: Frying oil high in trans fats costs less.