Lebanon blockade stays, Olmert tells U.N.
JERUSALEM, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's request for Israel to lift its blockade of Lebanon was shot down Wednesday by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Meeting in Jerusalem, Annan said the sea blockade was hindering recovery in Lebanon, where Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops battled for 34 days.
However, Olmert was adamant on two points before he would end the blockade, the BBC reported.
The first condition was the release of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped July 12 at the border -- the incident that started the war -- and other was the presence of some 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers as stipulated in an Aug. 14 cease-fire agreement.
Olmert said the cease-fire resolution "is not a buffet where you pick up one item and leave others," the report said.
Annan said there would be about 5,000 blue-helmeted peacekeepers in Lebanon "in the coming days and weeks."
Meanwhile in Beirut, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora cast a dark cloud on relations with Israel.
"Lebanon will be the last Arab country that could sign a peace agreement with Israel," he said.
Haggling holds up $1B in Katrina relief
NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Bickering is holding up almost $1 billion in Hurricane Katrina relief from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, The Washington Post reports.
While the storm hit three states one year ago most of the disputed funds center on New Orleans, devastated by flooding after levees gave way.
One example the newspaper cited was the removal of 3,000 dead trees in the city. FEMA said because the trees were not on an angle suggesting they were felled by winds, they couldn't have been killed by the storm. After time-consuming exchanges during which city officials explained the trees had stood in brackish water for weeks and died, FEMA relented.
Daniel Craig, who stepped down last October as head of FEMA's recovery division and is now consulting for New Orleans, said the agency should not be in the business of thrift.
"Disasters should be difficult to declare. But once you get them, FEMA should not worry about cutting costs," Craig said. "Public entities are eligible for everything they have lost due to the disaster. It is not up to FEMA to cut corners or makes sure money is saved."
Ernesto weakening, rain drenching Florida
MIAMI, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Tropical Storm Ernesto was dumping rain on southern and central Florida midday Wednesday, with winds weakening to 35 mph as it crawled northward.
At 11 a.m., forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm's center was 55 miles west southwest of West Palm Beach, moving north at 10 mph.
Forecasters said the storm could re-intensify Thursday when the center moves out over warm Atlantic waters.
However, a hurricane watch posted earlier in the day from the Savannah River in Georgia north to Cape Fear, N.C., was canceled.
Meanwhile in South Florida, Florida Power & Light said it had restored electricity to more than 5,000 customers overnight, leaving just 1,700 customers without service, the Miami Herald reported.
As early as Monday, tens of thousands of people rushed to prepare for Ernesto, although it never regained its strength after passing over Cuba, forecasters said.
Armitage claims to be CIA name-dropper
WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has reportedly come forward as the person who disclosed a CIA agent's identity to a newspaper columnist.
The New York Times said a lawyer involved in the case said Armitage confirmed he disclosed casually to Robert Novak that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA at the end of an interview in his State Department office in 2003.
The Times was unable to reach Armitage for comment.
The leak became hot news, mostly in Washington, and launched a politically laden criminal investigation that went as high as Vice President Dick Cheney's office.
There were allegations the leak was retaliation against Plame for remarks made by her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who said the Bush administration had used weak evidence for going to war with Iraq.
Despite the disclosure Armitage was the source, no explanation was given as to why he would mention a covert agent's name to a journalist, or why the journalist would publish it.
Iraqi barred from New York flight over T-shirt
NEW YORK, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Security officials at New York's JFK International Airport refused to allow a man aboard his flight because of an Arabic inscription on his T-shirt.
Iraqi-born architect Raed Jarrar said security staff told him his T-shirt, which said "We will not be silent" in Arabic and English was upsetting other passengers, WNYC, New York Public Radio, reported Wednesday.
He said security told him he would have to turn the shirt inside out before he could board, but he ended up putting on another T-shirt provided by Jet Blue airline staff over the original one.
"I grew up and spent all my life living under authoritarian regimes and I know that these things happen," Jarrar said. "But I'm shocked that they happened to me here, in the U.S."
A spokesman for Jet Blue told WNYC the airline is trying to determine if the security officials were with the airline, the federal Transportation Security Administration or the New York Port Authority.
