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Level -> And now.... the news. (7/26/2007 4:25:39 AM)
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WASHINGTON - Documents indicate eight congressional leaders were briefed about the Bush administration’s terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting sworn Senate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
The documents underscore questions about Gonzales’ credibility as senators consider whether a perjury investigation should be opened into conflicting accounts about the program and a dramatic March 2004 confrontation leading up to its potentially illegal reauthorization.
A Gonzales spokesman maintained Wednesday that the attorney general stands by his testimony.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19962962
U.S. construction giant Bechtel National Inc. arrived in Iraq in 2003, on the heels of U.S. troops, with a fat contract awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development to rebuild the country.
Then in 2004 the company won a second contract, worth a potential $1.8 billion. Wearing white construction helmets labeled "Bechtel," the company's construction supervisors oversaw work on hospitals, schools and bridges, and tried to get the water flowing and the electricity turned on.
A new federal audit released Wednesday, however, found that a big chunk of Bechtel's reconstruction work for USAID, the federal agency that issued the contract, was never achieved on the second contract. Auditors checked the 24 jobs Bechtel was supposed to complete.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19962288
WASHINGTON - Bill Clinton will be there. So will 300 officeholders from more than 45 states. But one thing will be missing when Democrats gather in Tennessee this weekend to discuss how to appeal to moderate, independent-minded voters in 2008: the Democratic presidential field.
Not a single one of the eight presidential candidates plans to attend the Democratic Leadership Council’s summer meeting, a snub that says less about the centrist DLC than it does about a nomination process that rewards candidates who pander to their parties’ hardened cores while ignoring everybody else.
“They have tunnel vision,” DLC founder Al From said of his fellow Democrats.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19957378
BEIJING - Liu Chang no longer has full use of her left hand, and the headaches get more piercing each year. But the egg-sized lump in her cheek is the most unbearable reminder of how an injection that was supposed to make her prettier destroyed her life instead.
Liu was in her mid-30s when a doctor in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen recommended a "shaping" shot of a so-called miracle gel to shave years off her face. Instead, the procedure led to disfigurement, chronic pain and depression. So last fall, she joined more than 50 other women in a lawsuit against the maker of the gel.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19961824
SHANGHAI, China - Wang Wenlong knew he wasn't going to get top quality when he plunked down $4,700 for a locally made car.
But he didn't expect so many problems from his Xiali subcompact — from windows that refused to open to windshield wipers that wouldn't wipe.
"I got what I paid for, and at least it didn't cost too much to fix those problems," said Wang, a 30-year-old Beijing resident. "That's why those cars are still very popular and sell well in the market."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19959775
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