Day: July 30, 2006

By Sue Pleming

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won a 48-hour suspension from Israel of its aerial bombardment of south Lebanon but ended a stymied peace mission on Monday without a call for an overall ceasefire.

The announcement came after a tumultuous day of diplomacy following Israel’s air strike on a Lebanese village that killed at least 54 people, most of them children, and led Rice to cancel a trip to Beirut after being told she was not welcome.

By LESLIE MILLER

Fewer than three prisoners in every 1,000 report they were sexually abused or harassed, but that probably is not the whole story, a government study says.

There may be far more sexual violence in prisons than is reported, the study’s authors said, because inmates fear reprisal, adhere to a code of silence, do not trust the staff or are embarrassed.

Willie Nelson says the Dixie Chicks "got a raw deal" from a disapproving public following their criticism of President Bush.

"I think the fact that they were overseas and onstage had a little bit to do with it because you’re speaking to other people about our business," the 73-year-old country crooner said in an interview in this week’s Time magazine.

By Caren Bohan

U.S. voters often tune out policy debates but it’s wrong to think of them as stupid, uninformed and gullible, top White House political strategist Karl Rove said on Saturday.

Rove, who is gearing up for a fight to help Republicans keep control of Congress in November, described Americans as swayed more by instinct than by the nuances of legislative proposals or candidates’ position papers.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), already fighting for his political life in a tough Democratic primary because he alienated fellow Dems with his stance in favor of the Iraq war, lost a key ally Sunday when The New York Times endorsed his opponent.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 56 people, including at least 34 children, in a southern Lebanese village Sunday, the Lebanese Red Cross said. It was the deadliest attack in 19 days of fighting. Lebanese security officials put the toll at 57 dead. Security officials said the toll rose dramatically after 18 people from two families were found in a single room of the building, where dozens of people had been taking refuge from the fighting.

We already know what the war in Iraq is doing to the American psyche but what about the thousands of young men and women we send into harm’s way with the weapons and ability to take human lives? The case of Private Steven D. Green may tell that story best.

The State Department agency in charge of $1.4 billion for reconstruction projects in Iraq used an accounting shell game to hide cost overruns and failed to tell Congress about schedule delays, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Her diplomatic mission in jeopardy after Israel’s bombing of a Lebanese village, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice canceled a visit to Beirut on Sunday, saying she had work to do in Israel to get a truce.

The disgraceful tactics of right-wing religious zealot Fred Phelps and his flock of homophobes from Topeka, Kansas, have ruined the funeral of many a fallen soldier returning home from Iraq. Now the father of one slain soldier is fighting back.