Bush given Iraq invasion plan
WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Gen. Tommy Franks briefed President George W. Bush this week about a scaled-down contingency plan to strike Iraq, which calls for an invasion force of some 80,000 to 100,000 personnel including only 50,000 ground troops, administration officials said. In this new proposal, an invasion would take place during November and December, administration officials, who asked not to be identified by name, told United Press International. A spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House said they had no information on the meeting and could not confirm nor deny that it had taken place.
Arabs criticize Rumsfeld comments
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's reference to the "so-called occupied territories" raised questions about Washington's credibility in the Middle East, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri said Thursday. In comments to Pentagon employees Tuesday, Rumsfeld declined to ask Israel to dismantle its settlements in the occupied territories. "My feelings about the so-called occupied territories are that there was a war," Rumsfeld said. "Israel urged neighboring countries not to get involved in it once it started. They all jumped in and they lost a lot of real estate to Israel because Israel prevailed in the conflict." He was referring to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war that saw Egypt, Syria and Jordan pitted against Israel. Israel won.
Special forces transport crash kills 10
WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- An Air Force plane used to transport special-forces troops crashed in Puerto Rico Wednesday killing all 10 passengers and crew aboard, the Pentagon confirmed. The MC-130H Combat Talon II aircraft fell during a low-altitude training mission near the town of Caguas, about five miles south of San Juan. Despite its close proximity to the capital, the crash site is located in difficult to reach jungle terrain, which has hampered rescue and recovery efforts. A U.S. official said seven crewmembers and three Special Forces troops were killed. The aircraft was on a training flight from Naval Station Roosevelt Roads to Borinquen Air National Guard Base on the west coast of Puerto Rico.
Lawsuit: Navy sonar endangers marine life
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- A coalition of environmental groups is suing the U.S. Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service in federal court, charging the Navy has no legal right to deploy a very noisy underwater sonar system that endangers marine mammals. The system, called Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active sonar, or SURTASS LFA, is designed to detect submarines. It consists of 18 bathtub-sized underwater loudspeakers dragged behind a ship. The speakers emit very loud sounds, echoes of which can be used to detect the presence of submarines. The system's loud sounds present a possible fatal danger to large numbers of whales and dolphins, the suit charges, and the permit issued by National Marine Fisheries Service is illegal.
Shark tank mishap investigated
NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Officials at a New Orleans aquarium Thursday investigated why a walkway collapsed, dumping 10 visitors, including four children, into a 20-foot-deep tank holding about two dozen sharks. There were no serious injuries at the Aquarium of the Americas Wednesday night and the tiger and hammerhead sharks did not attack anyone. Officials said the well-fed sharks scattered when the humans fell in the tank. It took about 15 minutes to get everyone out.
Crows show advanced tool-making skills
OXFORD, England, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- A female crow from the tropics appears to possess tool-making skills superior to those normally found only among humanity's closest relatives, British scientists report. The crow, named Betty, comes from the French island New Caledonia in the south Pacific. Lead researcher Alex Kacelnik and his colleagues were astonished when she bent a piece of plastic-coated garden wire into a hook to fish a small bucket of meat from a vertical pipe. This kind of tool use is virtually unknown in animals other than humans, Kacelnik noted. "Her level of understanding of how these tools work is greater even than that observed for similar tasks in our closest relatives, the great apes," Kacelnik, an animal behaviorist at Oxford University in Britain, told United Press International.
Tropical snake flies from trees
CHICAGO, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Although they are not the legendary winged serpents or dragons of mythology, they do soar from tropical treetops and glide through the air. University of Chicago biologist Jake Socha has videotaped more than 1,000 of the flying snakes in the rainforests of Singapore and Thailand. Socha said he has documented five species of 3- to 4-foot-long snakes that exhibit the unusual behavior. Technically they are gliders, not fliers -- they do not have wings so they can only perform extended falls through the air. One aerial species, the paradise tree snake, Chrysopela paradisi, coils its body to glide as far as 330 feet from a tall tree to the ground.
IMF warns Japan rebound may be short-lived
WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Japan's nascent economic recovery could be short-lived unless the country tackles its fundamental problems, the International Monetary Fund cautioned Thursday. "Complacency must be avoided at all costs, as this would only serve to prolong Japan's decade of stagnation, as well as heighten the vulnerabilities from the bank, corporate, and fiscal sectors," the IMF stated in its latest assessment of the Japanese economy. The agency conducts economic analyses of all its member countries, including industrialized nations that do not borrow from the IMF, at least once a year. Japan is the IMF's second-largest shareholder, after the United States and wields considerable influence over the lending policies of the international agency.
Bulls take stocks on third winning streak
NEW YORK, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- The bears stayed out Thursday pushing markets higher for the third straight session as big bank shares benefited from the International Monetary Fund's $30 billion bailout of Brazil, South America's largest country. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average soared 255.87 points, or 2.8 percent, to 8,712.02, having gained 8.6 percent since Tuesday. Big board volume was 1.6 billion shares. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index was up 35.62 points, or 2.5 percent, to 1,316.52.
Top seed ousted in Nordic tennis
HELSINKI, Finland, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Top seed Silvia Farina Elia of Italy will have to wait a little longer for her second title this season. Denisa Chladkova of the Czech Republic posted a 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) victory over Farina Elia in the second round of the $140,000 Nordea Nordic Light Open Thursday. Farina Elia was seeking her first title since late May, when she defeated Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia in the final at Strasbourg. Sixth-seeded Asa Svensson of Sweden was the only seed to advance Thursday as she defeated wild card Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, 6-0, 6-4. Hungarian Petra Mandula and Austria's Patricia Wartusch both recorded upsets.
Women's British Open has surprise leader
TURNBERRY, Scotland, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Candie Kung fired a 7-under-par 65 on her 21st birthday Thursday to take a one-stroke lead over Karrie Webb after the first round of the Women's British Open at the famed Turnberry Golf Club. Defending champion Se Rik Pak shot a 67 and was tied for third at 5-under in the year's final major. A three-time American Junior Golf Association All-American who turned pro last August, Kung last played a links course competitively two years ago in a World Amateur in Germany. Thursday she birdied four of her last five holes to finish a bogey-free round with a 31 on the back nine.
