Bombing in Tel Aviv thwarted
TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Israel soldiers Sunday arrested a Palestinian teenager allegedly carrying three pipe bombs to be used in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, it was reported.
The teenager was arrested at a checkpoint near Nablus, Ynetnews.com reported, noting the bombs were seized and safely detonated.
The youth allegedly told soldiers he was to give the bombs to a man who planned to assemble them in an explosive belt for an attack in Tel Aviv within 24 hours, Ynetnews.com reported.
White House: Hands off Iraq testimony
WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Some Republican aides are upset the White House has declined to brief them on this week's congressional testimony on Iraq, it was reported.
"It would sure make things easier if we could get a heads-up on what the testimony will be," one Senate aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Washington Times in a story published Sunday.
Republican leadership aides said the White House failed to provide even a brief account of the proposed testimony by Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, the Times reported.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said there is no account to provide since only President George Bush has been briefed by Petraeus and Crocker.
Democratic critics have accused Bush of already dictating what Petraeus and Crocker can say, and not say, to Congress about conditions in Iraq, the Times reported.
Rumsfeld gets Stanford fellowship
PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 9 (UPI) -- Some faculty and students at Stanford University say they are outraged by the fellowship appointment of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld, who resigned last year amid intense criticism of his handling of the Iraq war, has been given a one-year fellowship at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday.
"I'm appalled," said Stanford history Professor Barton Bernstein. "He is a profoundly immoral man."
The Hoover Institution's director, John Raisan, defended Rumsfeld as a man of "immense experience" who has much to contribute. While at Stanford, Rumsfeld will examine national security and world peace in the post-Sept. 11 era, Raisian said.
Rumsfeld could be joined by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has said she will return to Stanford to teach in 2008. Rice served as provost at Stanford for six years.
Illness rampant at St. Louis conference
ST. LOUIS, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- A mysterious illness appears to have been rampant at a recent conference in St. Louis, leaving 67 people ill and sending nine to a local emergency room.
Charles Hurley, chief executive officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the group holding the conference, said 67 attendees became ill after attending breakfast and lunch meetings at the Renaissance Grand Hotel, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Sunday.
"I was a participant as well, and it wasn't pleasant," Hurley said of Friday's events.
The nine conference attendees who were forced to visit a local hospital for treatment were released shortly thereafter.
The MADD official said local health inspectors were immediately called in to investigate the mysterious outbreak, but were still waiting on the lab test results.
Hurley told the Post-Dispatch the unusual outbreak was likely the result of an airborne illness or food poisoning.
