The latest news on SCHIP, Blackwater, Troops in Iraq, North Korea, Dafur, Burma, Evangelicals and Republicans, Abortion and Executions
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SCHIP. Bush vetoes child health insurance plan“President Bush, in a sharp confrontation with Congress, on Wednesday vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children’s health insurance.” Kids health plan battle rages “In the political battle over SCHIP, Democrats have distilled the argument over a $35 billion health-care bill to a simple question of children versus the president.” Bush veto strategy threatens Republicans “President Bush is putting his fellow Republicans on a collision course with the American people, forcing them to choose between guns and butter. He’s asking Congress for $190 billion to keep financing the unpopular war in Iraq for another year and vowing to veto a bipartisan plan to spend an additional $35 billion over five years on health insurance for children.”

Blackwater. Blackwater Chief Defends Firm “The chairman of the Blackwater private security firm said yesterday that guards working for his company have “acted appropriately at all times” while protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq and accused critics of making “baseless allegations of wrongdoing” against them.” Blackwater head defends firm from congressional critics “Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince defended his company Tuesday from an onslaught by House Democrats, who portrayed the defense contractor as an overpaid private army that is harming U.S. interests in the Middle East.” Chief of Blackwater Defends His Employees “Erik D. Prince, chief executive of Blackwater USA, told a Congressional committee on Tuesday that his company’s nearly 1,000 armed guards in Iraq were not trigger-happy mercenaries, but rather loyal Americans doing a necessary job in hostile territory.”

Troops in Iraq. House Passes Bill on Pullout “The House, with overwhelming, bipartisan support, voted yesterday to give the Bush administration two months to present to Congress its planning for the withdrawal of combat forces in Iraq.” Britain to cut troop level in Iraq “British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced plans Tuesday to pull 1,000 troops from Iraq by Christmas, saying Iraqi authorities were ready to take responsibility for security in Basra, the last province under British control, within two months.” Shiite Bloc Condemns U.S. Policy Of Recruiting Sunni Tribesmen “The largest Shiite political coalition in Iraq demanded Tuesday that the U.S. military abandon its recruitment of Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi police, saying some are members of “armed terrorist groups” and are engaged in killing, kidnapping and extortion under the guise of fighting the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.”

North Korea . N. Korea Nuclear Accord Reached “North Korea will begin disabling key nuclear facilities within weeks and start disclosing details of its nuclear programs under a six-nation agreement to be announced this week, U.S. and Asian diplomats said yesterday.” N. Korea to disable main nuclear facilities by year-end “North Korea pledged today to disable its main nuclear weapons facilities by the end of the year, while its leader Kim Jong Il huddled with his South Korean counterpart at the two Koreas’ first summit in seven years to talk about a greater peace on the peninsula.”

Dafur. Carter faces down Sudanese security in Darfur “Former President Carter got in a shouting match Wednesday with Sudanese security officials who blocked him from a town in Darfur where he was trying to meet representatives of ethnic African refugees from the ongoing conflict.” Sudan pledges $300m Darfur aid “Sudan’s government has promised $300m (£150m) to “help rebuild and repair” Darfur, tripling a previous pledge, said ex-US President Jimmy Carter.” Commander voices fears for Darfur peacekeepers “The Nigerian commander of African Union troops said he feared for the future of a new peacekeeping force, but assured former president Jimmy Carter and other statesmen yesterday that the deaths of 10 comrades would not weaken his country’s commitment to Darfur.”

Burma . Truckloads arrested “Myanmar’s junta arrested more people on Wednesday, hours after the departure of a U.N. envoy who came to the country to try to end a ruthless crackdown on protests which sparked international outrage. At least eight truckloads of prisoners were hauled out of downtown Yangon,” Burmese army major defects to Thailand “The unnamed officer fled to Thailand apparently in disgust after being ordered to beat Buddhist monks protesting against the regime last week.”

Evangelicals and Republicans. Young evangelicals diverge from GOP “Young evangelical Protestants continue to cling closely to their bedrock conservative values. Yet they are abandoning trust in the White House and straying from the Republican Party, according to an analysis that tracked waning sentiments from 2001 to 2007.”

Abortion. Pro-life challenge on campus “When Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life (FFL) in Northwest, lectured on college campuses, she never saw a pregnant woman attending school, a fact that began to bother her.”

Executions. Texas Ruling Signals Indefinite Halt of Executions“Signaling an indefinite halt to executions in Texas, the state’s highest criminal appeals court late Tuesday stayed the lethal injection of a 28-year-old Honduran man who was scheduled to be put to death Wednesday.”

Op-Ed. Federalism, Not Partition(Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Leslie H. Gelb, Washington Post) “We want to set the record straight. If the United States can’t put this federalism idea on track, we will have no chance for a political settlement in Iraq and, without that, no chance for leaving Iraq without leaving chaos behind.”