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Obama outlines energy plan

LANSING, Mich., Aug. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama included exchanging 70 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for less expensive crude in his New Energy plan.

Speaking before an audience at Michigan State University in Lansing, Mich., the likely Democratic presidential candidate repeated his proposal of providing families a $1,000 energy rebate paid for by a windfall tax on profits made by oil companies. He also stressed investing in technology that "can help us recover more from existing oil fields, speed up the process of recovering oil and gas resources from shale formations in Montana and North Dakota, in Texas and Arkansas, and in parts of the west and central Gulf of Mexico."

He also proposed leasing more of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas production over the next five years. His plan includes a proposal to tap into natural gas reserves "and work with the Canadian government to finally build the Alaska natural gas pipeline, delivering clean natural gas and creating good jobs in the process," Obama said.

The proposals Obama discussed included:

-- Providing short-term relief to American families facing pain at the pump

-- Helping create 5 million new jobs by investing $150 billion in the private sector during the next 10 years to build a clean energy future.

-- Putting 1 million plug-in hybrid cars in the road by 2015.

-- Ensuring 10 percent of the nation's electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, increasing to 25 percent by 2025.

-- Implementing an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

Bush uses Olympic trip to assure, pressure

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush headed to the Beijing Olympics Monday, trying to both push China on human rights and reassure China's neighbors, observers said.

Besides cheering U.S. Olympians, Bush is expected to urge Chinese President Hu Jintao to use an expected round of talks to invite the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama to return to Tibet and participate more in making the region's development more equitable for Tibetans, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Bush also is expected to try to reassure China's neighbors. Before arriving in Beijing, he will discuss free trade in Seoul and deliver a major speech in Bangkok.

"Not many presidents could say, in the history of U.S. diplomacy, that relations with South Korea, Japan, China and Thailand are strong and robust," Bush said recently a news conference with Asian reporters. "A lot of times, if you're friends with one, you made it hard to be friends with another."

The speech in Bangkok is aimed at East Asia broadly, White House officials told the Journal. It is expected to highlight U.S. relations and improvements with vital countries, such as India and Indonesia, and underscore advances in political freedoms in places such as Mongolia.

Russia considers military presence in Cuba

MOSCOW, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A Russian analyst says the country may re-establish a military presence in Cuba in response to a U.S. move to put anti-missile defenses in Eastern Europe.

Leonid Ivashov, the former head of the Russian Defense Ministry's department for international cooperation, and now president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, told the RIA Novosti news agency that Moscow is feeling military and economic pressure from the West because of the missile shield plans and could respond by playing the Cuba card.

"It is not a secret that the West is creating a 'buffer zone' around Russia, involving in the process countries in central Europe, the Caucasus, the Baltic states and Ukraine," Ivashov said. "In response, we may expand our military presence abroad, including in Cuba."

The analyst made the comments after Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev and Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin visited Cuba last week.

Moscow vehemently opposes the possible deployment of 10 anti-missile missiles in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic, which the United States say is needed to counter threats from "rogue nations."

RIA Novosti says, however, that Cuban officials have shown little eagerness to host new Russian military facilities.

Report: Anthrax evidence 'cirmcumstantial'

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Most of the evidence amassed against a U.S. scientist suspected of orchestrating the 2001 anthrax letter attacks was largely circumstantial, sources say.

An unnamed source close to the investigation of U.S. Army scientist Bruce Ivins, who committed suicide last week, said FBI investigators had no direct link between him and the letter attacks. A grand jury sifting through the indirect evidence was planning to meet for several more weeks, The New York Times reported Monday.

The source said while DNA analysis had traced the letters to a specific batch of weaponized anthrax bacteria produced at Fort Detrick, Md., where Ivins worked, at least 10 people had access to the flask containing that anthrax, the Times said.

FBI investigators also could not place Ivins in New Jersey on the dates the letters containing the anthrax was mailed, the source said. Instead, investigators had an array of "damning" circumstantial evidence against Ivins in the attacks, which killed five people and sickened 17 others, the newspaper said.

K2 climb survivors airlifted to hospital

SKARDU, Pakistan, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Two survivors of a deadly avalanche on K2, the world's second-tallest mountain, were airlifted to a Pakistani hospital Monday, officials said.

The men were identified as Dutch climbers Wilco Van Rooijen, the expedition leader, and Cas Van de Gevel, CNN reported. Eleven other climbers and a Sherpa rescuer died in the Friday avalanche in the Himalaya Mountains along Pakistan's border with China.

The two men arrived at base camp Saturday and were flown to a military hospital in Skardu, Pakistan, Monday, Pakistan's Ministry of Tourism secretary told the broadcaster.

CNN said a Web log covering the rescue attempt reported that Van Rooijen, described as an accomplished climber who once scaled Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen, may be suffering from frostbite "and is not out of danger yet."