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Stevens says he may seek recount

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, says either his campaign or the Alaska Republican Party would ask for a recount, depending on the final tally of his loss.

If the margin of his defeat is within the needed 0.5 percent of the votes cast, Stevens said he would seek a recount, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Stevens, in the nation's capital for this week's lame-duck congressional session, lost to Democrat Mark Begich, the Anchorage mayor, who had a 3,724-vote lead during counting of absentee and questioned ballots, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Only about 2,500 ballots from overseas voters or from remote locations remained to be counted Nov. 25, Alaska election officials said.

About a week before the election, Stevens was convicted of felony charges that he failed to disclose more than $250,000 in gifts on Senate financial disclosure forms.

As of Tuesday, Begich's lead -- 47.8 percent to 46.6 percent -- puts him beyond the point that would allow Stevens to call for a state-funded recount, the Post said.

Begich's win gives Democrats 58 seats in the Senate -- including two independents who caucus with them -- two shy of the 60 needed to prevent Republicans from filibustering.

Still to be decided are races are in Minnesota and Georgia. Minnesota election officials began a recount Tuesday in the race between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken. Coleman finished finished 206 votes ahead of the author and onetime comedian out of 2.9 million ballots cast, triggering an automatic recount.

In Georgia, Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss faces Democrat and former state Rep. Jim Martin in a Dec. 2 runoff.

Senators urge end to 'burrowing' practice

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- At least two U.S. Senate Democrats are urging President George Bush to halt efforts to move political appointees to permanent jobs before leaving office.

In a letter to Bush, Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called the transfers -- known as "burrowing in" -- from political appointment to career positions a "regrettable, but entirely foreseeable" last-minute attempt to fill key posts with administration allies, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

"Today's (Tuesday's) report reveals that senior members of your administration are undermining your public commitment to ease the transition by reorganizing agencies at the eleventh hour and installing political appointees in key positions for which they may not be qualified," the senators wrote. "We respectfully urge you to stand by your public commitment to a smooth transition by directing executive agencies immediately to halt any conversions of political appointees to career positions."

The White House said there is no concerted effort to move political appointees into civil service jobs before President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration Jan. 20, contradicting published reports.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said career employees rate a political appointee's qualifications for a career position and the Office of Personnel Management oversees those decisions in the last 11 months of an administration.

Between March 1 and Nov. 3, numbers released by the OPM indicate the Bush administration allowed 20 political appointees to become career employees, the Post said. The office turned down one candidate and two were withdrawn by the submitting agency.

McCain makes quiet return to Senate

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., returned to the U.S. Senate seen by some as a potential ally of the man who defeated him in the presidential campaign.

The administration of President-elect Barack Obama likely could reach out to McCain, who battled Barack for the White House, on issues for which a consensus is needed, CNN reported Wednesday.

"You could have a McCain as a centrist who plays the role of consensus-builder on a lot of issues," Senate historian Donald Ritchie said.

McCain could position himself as an ally of the Obama administration while advocating causes he has always championed, such as earmark reform, climate change and immigration reform, observers said.

"John McCain's days as a presidential candidate are over, and his chance now to leave a lasting impression in public life going forward probably involves working with the man who beat him for the presidency: Barack Obama," Time magazine's Mark Halperin told CNN.

McCain's return to the upper chamber Tuesday was low-key as news about two other senators dominated headlines, Politico reported. Convicted felon Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, lost his bid to return to the Senate and the Democratic caucus voted to let McCain's friend Sen. Joe Lieberman, Ind-Conn., keep his Homeland Security committee chairmanship.

"There's a swirl of activity going on today," Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told the Washington publication. "And it's easy to be eclipsed by all of that."

But Republican senators, seeing their number dwindle, are glad McCain's back, Thune said

"We need him. We need the John McCain we all know and appreciate," he said to Politico. "We need him standing tall."

Cheney indicted in Texas case

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has been indicted in Texas, accused of aiding in the neglect of federal immigration inmates by contracting for-profit prisons.

The indictment issued Tuesday said Cheney committed "at least misdemeanor assaults" on inmates by "working through corporations as prisons for profit," the San Antonio Express-News reported Wednesday. The indictment said Cheney invested substantially in the Vanguard Group, which invests in privately run prisons.

Outgoing Willacy County District Attorney Juan Guerra, a Democrat, also indicted former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Brownsville, Texas, state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., R-Brownsville, among other political figures. Gonzales also was charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and Lucio was accused of accepting honorarium.

"I didn't intend to go after the vice president. That was not my intention," Guerra said. "We just followed the money, followed the corruption. It just happened that it just took us all the way to Washington."

Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said the office hasn't seen the indictment.

"We haven't received a call from the district attorney's office," Mitchell told the Express-News. "We haven't heard anything from the district attorney."

Guerra, who once was indicted on corruption charges that later were dismissed and who lost in his re-election bid in the Democratic Party primary, told the San Antonio newspaper the investigation remains active and he'll ask that a special prosecutor be named once he leaves office.

Indian navy destroys pirate ship

NEW DELHI, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- An Indian naval warship destroyed a pirate "mother vessel" in the Gulf of Aden off the Horn of Africa after a fierce battle, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The Tuesday battle between the Indian frigate Tabar and the pirate vessels occurred about 326 miles southwest of Oman's Salalah port, CNN reported, quoting the Indian Defense Ministry.

"This vessel was similar in description to the 'Mother Vessel' mentioned in various piracy bulletins," the ministry said in a statement.

The incident comes after a number of attacks in the region, the most bold being the hijacking of Saudi-owned oil supertanker Sirius Star by pirates.

The Indian ministry said the Tabar asked the pirate ship to stop for inspection but the pirates threatened to destroy the warship and later fired on it, the report said.

Returning the fire, the Tabar set the pirate ship on fire and there were explosions on board the pirate ship, the report said. The ministry said the two speedboats fled, one of which was later found abandoned.

In the Saudi supertanker incident, the BBC quoted Vela International, operators of the Sirius Star, as saying there has been no demand so far from the pirates. It said the 25-member crew was safe.

The tanker, which lay anchored off the Somali coast, was carrying 2 million barrels of oil worth more than $100 million when it was hijacked.