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Invitations sent for Annapolis peace talks

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The United States sent out invitations Tuesday to 40 countries for a summit on the Middle East next week in Annapolis, Md.

The gathering at the U.S. Naval Academy is to try to get the Israelis and Palestinians to commit to formal talks in the Bush administration's biggest effort yet to jump start the peace process, The Washington Post reported.

Bush first announced plans for such a meeting in July, but since then Palestinian militants have rejected any deal with Israel, and there has been no progress yet on any joint declaration. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Tuesday said he would support the peace conference while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the official Iranian news agency IRNA the meeting a mistake that will hurt the Palestinian cause.

"What the president (Bush) has wanted is what he said had wanted back in July of 2002. He's the first president to call for a two-state solution. He'd like to see these two parties come together to talk about the substantial and core issues surrounding the peace process so that we can begin negotiations towards that end," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "That's what we've been working towards as we get toward -- get closer to an Annapolis conference."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a news conference more than 100 representatives and staffers would attend the meeting, the Post said. He declined to name the countries that will participate but the Israeli press put the number at 40.

Both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters they had been invited.

High court to decide on gun rights

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether individuals have a right under the Second Amendment "to keep and bear arms."

In a case that will probably be heard in March and decided before the end of June, the District of Columbia asked the high court to review an appeals court decision that struck down a Washington gun ban last year. The appeals court ruled the amendment does contain an individual right to bear arms, at least to protect one's home.

A ruling in the Supreme Court case could affect gun laws and bans across the nation.

The Second Amendment to the Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, says, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Most federal courts, unlike the appeals court in the Washington case, have ruled that the amendment applies only to state militias. The U.S. Supreme Court itself has not ruled on the gun issue since 1939's U.S. vs. Miller, in which the justices said national law regulating types of firearms did not usurp state police powers.

In the Washington case, the justices took on the issue directly Tuesday, making no attempt to duck the central dispute.

The justices rewrote the "question" -- the terms under which the high court agreed to hear the case: Whether the Washington laws banning pistols and requiring weapons at home to be disassembled "violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes?"

The case is District of Columbia vs. Heller, 07-290.

WH to Congress: Pass supplemental funding

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The White House Tuesday urged Congress to stop delaying funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, warning civilian Defense Department layoffs are imminent.

Congress is on a two-week break that is to end Dec. 4, although the Senate remains in session to prevent U.S. President George Bush from making interim appointments. Lawmakers approved the Pentagon's $470 billion general operating budget but not a $189 billion supplemental funding request.

"Delays in funding mean that the Army and Marine Corps are immediately forced to begin shifting funds between accounts in order to keep operations running," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told the daily press briefing. "And the Pentagon will soon be forced to send furlough notices for as many as 100,000 Army and Marine Corps civilian employees at bases around the country."

She said the notices could go out as soon as six days after Congress returns from its break.

"We are calling on Congress and the Democrats in Congress to send the president supplemental war funding without arbitrary surrender dates and without micromanaging the war before they leave for their next vacation, which is going to be around the Christmas holidays," Perino said.

Group warns of dangerous toys at Christmas

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The Public Interest Group released its annual Trouble in Toyland survey Tuesday, saying that dangerous toys remain in U.S. stores.

The major hazards the group found are ones that have been highlighted in previous reports, the group said. They include toys with dangerous lead levels, toys with small powerful magnets and toys with small parts that can break off and choke young children.

"While we have seen progress after more than two decades of advocacy on behalf of America's littlest consumers, U.S. PIRG's researchers still found trouble in toyland on store shelves this fall," said PIRG Consumer Program Director Ed Mierzwinski.

In 2005, to the Consumer Products Safety Commission said, 75,000 children were injured seriously enough by toys to be treated in hospital emergency rooms. At least 20 toy-related deaths were reported.

PIRG said that in one case a piece of jewelry was 65 percent lead by weight although the risks of lead exposure have been known for decades.

The group said that more manufacturers are using small powerful magnets in toys. If children swallow them, they can attract each other in the body, creating dangerous bowel obstructions.

Former Rhodesian PM Smith dies

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Ian Smith, the former prime minister of Rhodesia, has died in South Africa following a long illness. He was 88.

Smith and his white minority government declared independence from Britain in 1965. He led the government until 1979, during which time the country was wracked by violence. A settlement in 1979 paved the way for the creation of Zimbabwe in 1980 and the election of Robert Mugabe as prime minister.

Smith was a member of the Zimbabwe Parliament until 1987 when he retired.

In 1988, Smith told the BBC he had good reasons for declaring independence.

"Had we not resorted to this the country would have degenerated into chaos and confusion," he said in that BBC interview, denying the declaration led to years of civil war.

"The civil war was caused by people who left our country and were brainwashed in Russia, in China," he said.

"They were power hungry people who wanted to take their country over immediately and were not prepared to wait for the evolutionary process."

Smith was born in the small mining and farming town of Selukwe, the youngest of three children. His father was a butcher-turned-cattle-rancher who emigrated from Scotland in 1898.

Smith served in the Royal Rhodesian Air Force during World War II, suffering burn injuries in a 1943 crash. He later was shot down over Italy where partisan forces gave him refuge.

He married Janet Watt in 1948. They had one child, a son.