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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

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Two US lawmakers seek to protect abortion rights
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two US lawmakers introduced legislation Thursday aimed at codifying a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy, one day after the Supreme Court banned a controversial late-term abortion procedure.

The Illustrated Daily Scribble

The World

Suicide bombing kills 12 in Baghdad
BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber slipped past security barriers to kill 12 people Thursday, the latest in a wave of attacks that have shown the resilience of insurgents in the face of a U.S.-led crackdown on major violence in Iraq's capital.

Gates to Iraq: U.S. patience is limited
BAGHDAD - Making his third visit in four months to Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates took a decidedly stronger tone as he warned the troubled nation's leaders that American patience is wearing thin.

Training Iraqi troops no longer driving force in U.S. policy
Military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable American soldiers to start coming home soon and now believe that U.S. troops will have to defeat the insurgents and secure control of troubled provinces.

EU confirms April 25 Solana-Larijani nuclear talks
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani on April 25 to discuss whether it is possible to resume negotiations on Tehran's nuclear program, an EU official said on Friday.

Pakistan, Afghan forces clash on border
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Friday its troops had exchanged fire with an Afghan patrol a day earlier, but contradicted Kabul's account that Afghan troops were tearing down a fence Pakistan had put up on the disputed frontier.

Koreas resume talks after stormy session
SEOUL (AFP) - The two Koreas Friday pressed on with talks about rice aid and joint projects, despite a stormy previous session when the South's pleas to the North to start denuclearising prompted a brief walkout.

The Nation

Reid: U.S. can't win the war in Iraq
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday the war in Iraq is "lost," triggering an angry backlash by Republicans, who said the top Democrat had turned his back on the troops.
Jeez, Senator Reid! Can’t you choose your words more carefully? —Caro

Hearing generates more pressure for Gonzales to resign
Republican support for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales evaporated before his eyes Thursday as a Senate hearing into the firings of eight U.S. attorneys generated more pressure for his resignation.

Campaign against alleged voter fraud fuels political tempest
For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Justice Department political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates.

Senators question millions in defense firm's award fees
Defense contractor KBR Inc. received $256 million in award fees and glowing evaluations from a review board despite repeated negative comments on monthly performance reports about its logistics support work in Iraq and Afghanistan, and lawmakers have asked for an accounting of millions of dollars in reported overcharges.

Renzi's Family Business Raided By FBI, He Quits Intel Panel
FBI agents raided a family business tied to GOP Rep. Rick Renzi (Ariz.) on Thursday, spurring Renzi to immediately give up his seat on the House Intelligence Committee.

FBI raids Doolittle's Virginia home
The FBI raided the Virginia home of Rep. John Doolittle and his wife on Friday, executing a search warrant for materials related to Julie Doolittle's company, Sierra Dominion Financial Services. The raid was believed to be in connection with the ongoing federal investigation of the political corruption scandal stirred by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a one-time Republican star who last year pleaded guilty to three felony charges of defrauding Indian tribes and corrupting political officials.

Media

Time

Time Magazine Gets It Right
This is, of course, where the focus should be after Monday's horrific killings at Virginia Tech — on those who were lost. So many of these faces are now familiar after almost a week of media saturation, and knowing the stories of who they were and how they died makes for a pretty arresting and devastating image.

What Good Could Come From Airing the VT Killer's Video?
NBC played into this murderer's hands, and thus makes itself an accomplice to his horrific acts, by flooding the country with his images, making him a hero for every nut job in the country.

YouTube gets Va. Tech shooting footage
NEW YORK - It was inevitable that the online video world would offer its take on a crime glimpsed as it unfolded most dramatically via a cell phone camera, carried out by a student who put together a CD-ROM of his manifesto and mailed it to a TV news network.

Limbaugh said Virginia Tech shooter "had to be a liberal"
On the April 19 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Rush Limbaugh declared that the perpetrator of the April 16 Virginia Tech shootings "had to be a liberal," adding: "You start railing against the rich, and all this other -- this guy's a liberal. He was turned into a liberal somewhere along the line. So it's a liberal that committed this act."

'Devastating' Moyers Probe of Press and Iraq Coming
Bill Moyers returns to PBS next Wednesday with the most powerful indictment yet of the media's performance in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Some media figures admit he is right, but the press as a whole, he charges, has not yet taken responsibility for a tragic failure.

FAIR Action Alert: CBS's Nuclear Revival
On April 8, the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes aired a segment about the "resounding success" of the French nuclear power program, suggesting that "emission-free" nuclear power might offer an easy solution to the problem of climate change. The report protected this dubious assertion from skeptical scrutiny by failing to quote a single bona fide critic of the nuclear industry.

Technology & Science

House panel approves anti-spyware bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation that would help protect consumers from harmful spyware that can harvest personal data from a user's computer was approved on Thursday by a U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

Dell once again offers Windows XP
SEATTLE - Back by popular demand: Windows XP. PC maker Dell Inc. said on its Web site Thursday it will once again let home PC buyers choose between Microsoft Corp.'s older operating system and Windows Vista when they purchase certain new machines.

Scientists: You Can’t Profile School Shooters
The horrific, mass shooting at Virginia Tech earlier this week has led to many disturbing questions, perhaps one of the biggest of which deals with the factors that make a student go on a rampage of such magnitude and lethal consequence. If psychologists and mental health officials knew the answer, the world might be a different place, but of course the question requires a multi-faceted answer, say experts in the field of social and behavioral science.

Shooting shows gaps in mental health safety net
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Mental health professionals complain their hands are tied in two ways when they try to help people like Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui -- a lack of funding for mental health services in general, and laws that makes it tough to treat people against their will. They say the 23-year-old student's shooting rampage sheds new light on flaws in the U.S. mental health system.

Environment

Australia's drought linked to global warming
SYDNEY (AFP) - An unprecedented drought that has withered Australia's major food production zone could be a taste of things to come as global warming ramps up, experts said Friday.

Small Businesses Go Green, Using More Environmentally Friendly Products and Practices
The expression "going green" might have a gimmicky sound, but for small businesses, selling environmentally friendly products and services can be very profitable. And even companies whose line of work is more traditional can benefit from using green products and practices.

For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com.

I plan to post headlines every weekday morning.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com