Assad: Syria preparing for Israeli attack
KUWAIT CITY, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Syrian President Bashar Assad said his country was preparing for an imminent attack from Israel, in an interview published Saturday.
"As far was we're concerned, the prospect for peace is unrelated to the changing circumstances and constitutes a basic principle, but at the same time we are preparing for an Israeli attack at any minute," Assad told the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Anba. "We all know that Israel is militarily strong and backed by the U.S."
He said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has consistently "given up on the peace process," YNetNews.com said.
With the United States supporting Israel's policies, he said, his country must prepare for war.
When asked about claims of arms smuggling from Syria to Hezbollah-controlled areas in Lebanon, Assad said:
"When you speak of smuggling, you must understand that it is bi-directional smuggling, not smuggling only from one side to the other. Goods arrive from every direction. Anyone who needs arms goes to a place where he can buy arms. The smuggling comes from Iraq, Lebanon and all over the place. It cannot be stopped."
Foley page to cooperate with feds
ENID, Okla., Oct. 7 (UPI) -- A former male congressional page will likely talk to federal agents investigating former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., the young man's lawyer says.
Foley allegedly sent an instant message telling page Jordan Edmund, now a 21-year-old aide to Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., to "strip down and get relaxed," CNN reported.
"I anticipate that (Edmund) will meet with one of them, at least, next week," Jones said.
Foley resigned Sept. 29 as a series of salacious correspondences between him and teenage male pages became public.
Meanwhile, a staff member in House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office said Hastert's chief of staff confronted Foley about inappropriate social contact with male pages well before the speaker said aides in his office took any action.
The staff member tells The Washington Post Scott Palmer met with Foley two years before Hastert says aids in his office confronted the congressman about troubling e-mails he had sent to a Louisiana boy.
Bush to push education legislation
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. President George W. Bush has begun laying groundwork intended to promote passage of a bill next year to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act.
After Bush this week was given an update on No Child Left Behind progress, he called the results "encouraging."
"The No Child Left Behind Act has brought good progress," Bush said in his Saturday radio address, "yet we still have a lot of work to do. So I will be talking more about education in the coming months."
Those talks will include urging Congress to reauthorize the bill while focusing on three areas, Bush said: improving teacher quality, more options for families with children in struggling schools and extending NCLB standards to high schools.
"When we set expectations high, America's children will rise to meet them. And by helping our children succeed, we're creating a brighter future for them and for our nation," the president said.
Bush opened Saturday's talk by saying he asked the Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to call a conference on school safety. That gathering is set for Tuesday.
Karr in limo with ABC-TV producers
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- San Francisco police questioned former JonBenet Ramsey suspect John Mark Karr after he peered into the window of the school where he used to teach.
Karr was driven to the Convent of the Sacred Heart school in a limousine with two ABC "Good Morning America" producers and Karr "stepped out of the limo and stood (outside the school) for two or three minutes, walked down the sidewalk, went up to the door and looked in the window," Sgt. Steve Mannina told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Neither Karr nor the ABC producers were arrested because they did not break any laws, Mannina said.
A school official who saw the 41-year-old former teacher wandering outside the building called police.
ABC did not say why the producers drove Karr to the school, but he has reportedly hired an entertainment attorney to help him stay in the spotlight.
Karr fled the United States following his arrest on child pornography charges in 2001. He turned up in Thailand about two months ago and claimed responsibility for JonBenet's 1996 slaying.
His claim was proven to be bogus and the 5-year-old child pornography charges were dismissed Thursday by a Sonoma County, Calif., judge.
