Suspicious package found at White House
WASHINGTON, March 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Secret Service is investigating a suspicious package found on the White House grounds Wednesday, and one person was taken into custody.
CBS reports the suspect was "well-known" to the Secret Service.
The package was found near the northwest gate and reporters were herded into the Brady briefing room, where President George Bush had his news conference Tuesday.
The package was found shortly after the president had left the grounds for a public appearance.
Court upholds 'anticipatory' warrants
WASHINGTON, March 22 (UPI) -- So-called anticipatory warrants to seize contraband do not violate the Fourth Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a California case.
"The fact that the contraband is not presently at the place described is immaterial, so long as there is probable cause to believe it will be there when the warrant is executed," the court ruled in a three-point decision written by Justice Antonin Scalia. Californian Jeffery Grubbs, who was arrested by U.S. postal inspectors after delivery of a child pornography videotape he had ordered online, challenged the anticipatory warrant used in his case.
Grubbs claimed the warrant failed to list the "triggering condition" for his arrest. California's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, and overturned Grubbs' guilty plea and conviction.
However, the Supreme Court reinstated the conviction and sent the case back for further action.
"Successful delivery of the videotape to Grubbs' residence ... would plainly establish probable cause for the search," the court said.
Justices David Souter, John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg concurred with two of the three points in the ruling. Justice Samuel Alito took no part in the case.
Report: CIA paid Saddam's foreign minister
WASHINGTON, March 22 (UPI) -- The CIA paid Saddam Hussein's foreign minister for information that raises new questions about U.S. pre-Iraq war intelligence, NBC News reported.
The CIA paid more than $100,000 to former Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, who privately provided information in 2002 about Saddam's capabilities while publicly denouncing the United States.
The information turned out to be far more accurate than the CIA believed at the time of a September 2002 meeting brokered by French intelligence agents, sources told NBC.
During the meeting, a Sabri intermediary was accurate in telling the CIA that Saddam had neither a biological weapons program nor the capability to produce a nuclear weapon.
Sabri was inaccurate, however, in asserting that Saddam had leftover stockpiles of poison gas from the Gulf War.
Despite Sabri's information, the CIA in October 2002 asserted that Saddam had an active biological weapons program and had obtained enriched uranium.
Fire burning at Japanese nuclear plant
OHI, Japan, March 22 (UPI) -- Two people were injured Wednesday when a fire broke out at a western Japanese nuclear facility, but the Kyodo news agency said no radiation leaked.
The fire was reported in a waste disposal facility at the Kansai Electric Power Co.'s plant in Ohi. The fire filled the building between two reactors with smoke, which injured the two workers, the news agency said.
The plant operator said there had been no radioactive leak and the power-generation units were not affected at the facility, about 200 miles west of Tokyo.
GM to fund Delphi layoffs, UAW agrees
TROY, Mich., March 22 (UPI) -- Bankrupt Delphi Corp.'s former parent, General Motors Corp., agreed to fund a massive Delphi staff reduction in a deal that has union approval.
The proposed plan for eligible U.S. hourly employees of auto supplier includes normal and early retirements and United Auto Workers union "flowbacks" to openings at GM facilities.
Eligible UAW-represented Delphi employees may elect to retire from Delphi or flow to and retire from GM, Delphi said Wednesday.
"Approximately 13,000 hourly union-represented employees may be eligible to participate in the plan. Certain eligible U.S. hourly employees may be offered a lump sum payment of $35,000 to retire."
About "5,000 UAW-represented employees will have the opportunity to flowback to GM through the end of September 2007."
Under the proposal, which must be approved by a bankruptcy court April 7, "GM has agreed to assume the financial obligations related to the lump sum payments to be made to eligible Delphi U.S. hourly employees accepting normal or voluntary retirement incentives and certain post-retirement employee benefit obligations related to Delphi employees who flow to GM under the plan."
