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House, White House reach war spending deal

WASHINGTON, June 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. House of Representatives voted 268-155 to enact an emergency supplemental spending bill Thursday.

The bill was the result of a compromise reached earlier by the House and the White House.

The compromise bill has $2.6 billion targeted for flood relief for Iowa, The Hill reported.

The measure would include about $165 billion in condition-free funding for the war effort, a three-month extension to recipients who work at least 20 weeks, and the new GI bill that would cover college tuition for Iraq and Afghan war veterans and which would be transferable to family members.

"This legislation shows that when Democrats are actually willing to reach out and work with Republicans, we can get things done for the American people," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement.

Negotiations did not include Senate representation, but House leaders said they would present the deal to Senate leaders.

EU set to lift sanctions against Cuba

BRUSSELS, June 19 (UPI) -- The European Union is set to take the largely symbolic action of lifting sanctions on Cuba, officials said.

The sanctions were imposed in 2003 in reaction to the jailing of about 70 dissidents, but were suspended, though not entirely removed, two years later.

After the first day of an EU summit in Brussels, EU External Relations Commissioner made the announcement, the BBC reported.

The plan to lift the sanctions is in defiance of U.S. policy. A decades-old U.S. trade embargo remains.

The BBC said since Raul Castro took over from his ailing brother Fidel Castro, Spain has been urging the removal of the sanctions to spur reform, but countries like Sweden and the Czech Republic believe any reforms are superficial.

Another factor -- Cuban allies Venezuela and China are important EU trading partners, the report said.

Rice to visit China, South Korea

WASHINGTON, June 19 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to South Korea and China, in part to discuss North Korea's nuclear program, a department spokesman said.

Rice will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang and other senior officials to discuss number of regional and bilateral issues, including the denuclearization of North Korea, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Thursday.

Rice, during a speech Wednesday, said North Korea soon would produce its past-due accounting of its nuclear programs and activities, Voice of America reported.

"Obviously we all wish that the original deadline had been met at the end of this past year," Casey told reporters. "We'd like to see the declaration be provided as soon as possible ... "

Once the list is proffered, "we also need to make sure that it is fully verifiable," Casey said.

Rice also will visit Chengdu to offer condolences to earthquake victims and discuss relief efforts, he said.

Before traveling to Asia, Rice will travel to Germany to attend the International Conference in Support of Palestinian Civil Security and Rule of Law, Casey said.

Her travels, which begin next week, also include attending a G8 meeting in Japan, he said.

Witness: Cheney probably knew of torture

WASHINGTON, June 19 (UPI) -- A former U.S. military official says U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney may have known military personnel were using torture techniques on Iraqi detainees.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson told a House panel he thought leadership failed "at the highest levels of the Pentagon, in the vice president's office and perhaps even in the Oval Office," The Washington Times reported Thursday.

Wilkerson's testimony followed a report by a human rights group that detainees in U.S. military facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba., Iraq and Afghanistan were subjected to beatings and other aggressive interrogation techniques.

The techniques apparently were authorized in a Feb. 7, 2002, order signed by President George Bush that said al-Qaida and Taliban detainees were not to be considered prisoners of war, meaning they would not be covered by the Geneva Convention's protection against torture, the Times said.

Douglas Feith, a government attorney thought to have offered legal advice on the interrogation techniques, notified the committee he would not be at the Wednesday hearing.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, said Feith's failure to appear showed a "fundamental disrespect for Congress and the American people," adding that Feith would be compelled to testify later.