WAR IN IRAQ

MURTHA SAYS ARMY IS ‘WORN OUT’

LATROBE, Pa. – Rep. John Murtha, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, predicts most American troops will leave Iraq within a year.

Mr. Murtha says the Army is “broken,” and “worn out.” He added that the Pennsylvania National Guard is stretched so thin it won’t be able to send fully equipped units to Iraq next year.

Mr. Murtha has emerged as an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, after voting two years ago to authorize the president to go to war. Two weeks ago, the Democrat and Vietnam War veteran called for American troops to leave Iraq now.

– Associated Press

PRESIDENT CLINTON SAYS U.S. SHOULD ‘DRAW DOWN’ FORCES

President Clinton said America should restructure how its troops are deployed in Iraq and begin taking some personnel out of the country without setting a firm timetable for a withdrawal.

“It seems to me the best thing to do is heed the wishes of all the leaders of Iraq, the various sectors, who say they want us to draw down our forces,” Mr. Clinton said, according to excerpts from a CNN interview last night. “We don’t want to set a fixed timetable if that led to chaos.”

Mr. Clinton’s comments came in response to a question about criticism that his wife, Senator Clinton, a Democrat of New York, leveled against President Bush on Iraq.

– Bloomberg News

RESERVE OFFICER ARRESTED IN IRAQI CONTRACT BRIBE CONSPIRACY

A lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve has been arrested on charges he stole $100,000 from the Iraqi occupation authority and accepted money and gifts in exchange for steering reconstruction contracts to a businessman, the Justice Department said yesterday.

Michael Brian Wheeler, 47, of Amherst Junction, Wis., faces conspiracy, money laundering, and weapons violations charges, according to the criminal complaint filed under seal in Washington on Monday. It was made public yesterday, a day after Mr. Wheeler’s arrest. He is in custody in Wisconsin, the Justice Department said.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON

FOAM CRACKS MAY DELAY SHUTTLE LAUNCH

Recently discovered cracks in a foam “ramp” on the space shuttle’s external fuel tank may present an “unacceptable safety threat” to the orbiter, raising the possibility that NASA could delay its next launch while engineers decide whether to get rid of the ramp altogether, shuttle program manager N. Wayne Hale said in an internal memo.

Discovery of vertical cracks in the external tank’s “protuberance air load,” ramp during an inspection last month marked a new setback for the troubled shuttle program, which has flown only once since Columbia disintegrated over Texas in February 2003. Mr. Hale had predicted earlier that making changes to eliminate the ramp would delay the next shuttle launch until next fall, at least four months later than currently planned.

– The Washington Post

GOVERNMENT SEEKS TO REINSTATE ANTHRAX INOCULATIONS FOR MILITARY

The Bush administration asked a federal appeals court yesterday to reinstate mandatory anthrax inoculations for many military personnel, while a lawyer for soldiers who refused the shots said the anti-anthrax vaccine was never intended for the purpose the Pentagon is using it.

The government is appealing a decision by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who suspended anthrax vaccinations after he found fault in the Food and Drug Administration’s process for approving the drug. Half a dozen unnamed members of the armed forces are challenging the Pentagon’s program.

– Associated Press

GOVERNMENT PROBES FRACTION OF RAIL CROSSING ACCIDENTS

The federal government is investigating less than 1% of accidents at railroad crossings and imposing few fines for defective safety equipment, the Transportation Department’s inspector general said yesterday.

Of the 3,045 collisions at rail crossings last year, the Federal Railroad Administration investigated only nine. One-fifth of the collisions were not reported immediately, as required, to the Homeland Security Department’s National Response Center, the report said. About 368 people were killed at crossings in 2004, 11% more than the year before.

– Associated Press

HEALTH

CDC REPORT: DEADLY BACTERIAL ILLNESS SPREADING

A deadly bacterial illness commonly seen in people on antibiotics appears to be growing more common – even in patients not taking such drugs, federal health officials warned yesterday.

The bacteria are Clostridium difficile, also known as C-diff. The germ is becoming a regular menace in hospitals and nursing homes, and last year it was blamed for 100 deaths over 18 months at a hospital in Quebec, Canada.

Recent cases in four states show it is appearing more often in healthy people who have not been admitted to health-care facilities or even taken antibiotics, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

– Associated Press