UPI NewsTrack TopNews

Bush, Obama to begin transfer of power

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Barack Obama travels to the White House for the eighth time but the meeting Monday with U.S. President George Bush will be his first as president-elect.

The traditional White House meeting of the outgoing and incoming U.S. leaders is happening sooner than usual between two men who have been critical of each other, The New York Times said. Bush and Obama are expected to begin discussing the formal transfer of power after they and their wives, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama, tour the White House and private residence.

Bush was privately critical of Obama during the Democratic primary race, with one friend saying the president said he thought Sen Hillary Clinton, Obama's rival for the party's nomination, was "more experienced and more ready to be president," the Times reported. Meanwhile, Obama was less-than-flattering of Bush in his book, "The Audacity of Hope" and criticized Bush's "failed policies" while campaigning.

However, Obama said Friday during his first post-election news conference he didn't anticipate problems.

The White House said Obama has been to the White seven times during Bush's presidency. The last time Obama was at the White House was in September for the highly publicized meeting on the $700 billion financial rescue package.

Tax policy change a boon to banks

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Treasury Department, as Wall Street was in crisis, made a tax policy change that created a bank windfall of up to $140 billion, observers said.

Lawmakers, who said they were unaware of the change for several days, are trying to determine whether the notice was introduced to benefit specific banks and whether it improperly accelerated bank takeovers, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Section 382 of the tax code, a provision that limited a type of tax shelter from corporate mergers, was changed to allow some banks to keep more money by lowering taxes, Andrew DeSouza, a Treasury spokesman, told the Post,

The spokesman said administration had the legal authority to issue the Sept. 30 notice, which he described as a way as a way to help financial institutions during an economic crisis.

Tax lawyers interviewed by the Post -- including several representing banks that could profit handsomely from the change -- were split on whether the Treasury had the authority to issue the notice.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking minority member on the Senate Finance Committee, pushed for an explanation from the Bush administration, congressional aides told the Post.

Grassley and fellow committee member Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., publicly expressed concerns about the notice.

"Congress wants to help," Grassley said. "We also have a responsibility to make sure power isn't abused and that the sensibilities of Main Street aren't left in the dust as Treasury works to inject remedies into the financial system."

Lawyers: Bali bombers' rights violated

SERANG, Indonesia, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Lawyers for the three executed Bali terrorist bombers say they will sue the Indonesian government for human rights abuses.

The Muslim Lawyers Team said Monday it will file a lawsuit alleging the government denied the prisoners the right to legal counsel while being held in prison before their deaths by firing squad over the weekend, Antara reported Monday.

The attorneys also say they and the bombers' families were denied their human rights by the government's restrictions on the handling of the bodies of Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, the news agency said.

Agus Setiawan of the Muslim Lawyers Team said in Serang, Indonesia, that the group will put pressure on the country's National Human Rights Commission and House of Representatives to form a fact-finding team to investigate the executions.

Amrozi, Mukhlas and Iman Samudra had been on death row for their roles in the October 2002 terrorist bombings in Bali that left more than 200 people, including 88 Australian tourists, dead.

Three blasts kill 28 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Three explosions in one location in northern Baghdad killed 28 people and wounded 68 people Monday, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

The first bomb exploded in a parked car in a marketplace in the Kasrah section of the Adhamiya neighborhood. That blast was followed by a second car bombing, CNN reported. As the crowd gathered around the damaged vehicles, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vest.

Ministry officials said it was the deadliest attack in Baghdad in nearly four months.

Tropical Depression Paloma Bahamas-bound

MIAMI, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Tropical Depression Paloma, which battered Cuba as a hurricane, was weakening early Monday and moving north on a track for the Bahamas.

The system had winds of less than 30 mph Sunday night in the U.S. National Hurricane center's final update from Miami on the storm.

Paloma was expected to continue moving north at about 3 mph through Wednesday, leaving at least 2 more inches of rain in its wake in Cuba, Accuweather.com said.

The system made landfall Saturday evening in Cuba as a Category 4 hurricane with 140 mph winds, battering central and eastern parts of the country still rebuilding from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in August and September.

For the first time since U.S. record-keeping began, a major Atlantic hurricane has developed in five consecutive months: Bertha in July, Gustav in August, Ike in September, Omar in October and Paloma this month.