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Lieberman: Will move on Fort Hood probe

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate will move ahead with an investigation into last week's mass shooting at the Army's Fort Hood, a senior senator says.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Ind-Conn., chairman of the Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, told "Fox News Sunday" that his committee will press ahead with a probe of the shooting, in which 13 people were killed.

Lieberman said the motives of the suspect, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, would be examined and that the committee would probe if possible ties to "Islamist extremism" were missed by police investigators.

"It's premature to reach conclusions about what motivated Hasan," Lieberman told Fox News. "But it's clear that he was, one, under personal stress and, two, if the reports that we're receiving of various statements he made, acts he took, are valid, he had turned to Islamist extremism."

Lieberman said his committee would work in conjunction with the FBI, adding that if terror connections exist, it would make the Fort Hood shootings the most serious act of terrorism in the United States since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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Clinton, Bush cancel joint appearances

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton now have canceled two joint appearances over a disagreement with a promoter, officials said.

Bush and Clinton were to appear in Los Angeles on a panel Feb. 22 as part of the American Jewish University's public lecture series. A second appearance was set for Feb. 25 at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Both of those appearances now have been canceled, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

The two events were to be moderated panel discussions, not a clash between two former presidents, as promoters seemed to be billing it, Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna and Bush spokesman David Sherzer told the Times.

A press release for the event called it "the hottest ticket in political history."

"It's unfortunate that an overeager promoter ruined the opportunity to hear a serious discussion of the issues between two former presidents who have a great deal of respect for each other," McKenna said.

Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna confirmed the cancellation in an e-mail to CNN.

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Vietnam digs out from Typhoon Mirinae

PHY YEN, Vietnam, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Food, shelter and medical assistance are urgently needed by victims of Typhoon Mirinae, Vietnamese leaders said Sunday.

Merchants were urged not to raise food prices in areas hard hit by the storm and to assist authorities in feeding the hungry, Party General-Secretary Nong Duc Manh told Vietnam News Agency.

Manh and Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai spoke with reporters after touring Phy Yen, the home of 73 of the 116 people killed during the typhoon.

The two leaders urged local authorities to continue looking for missing people and to assist in burying the dead. Local officials were urged to move quickly to prevent outbreaks of disease and to repair schools so children could return to their studies, Manh said.

The typhoon destroyed an estimated 1,300 homes and damaged 83,000 other houses. Thousands of acres of rice also were destroyed. As of Sunday, an estimated 21 tons of relief supplies had been delivered to residents in Binh Dinh and Phu Yen provinces.

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Afghanistan chides Eide on comments

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry says U.N. Special Representative Kai Eide is overstepping his bounds in the country.

Government officials said Saturday that Eide, who recently issued demands for a series of reforms he expects from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, is out of bounds by making comments that "exceeded international norms," the Los Angeles Times reported.

A statement issued by the foreign ministry said the U.N. representative's moves "violated respect for Afghanistan's national sovereignty," the newspaper said.

"We can't afford any longer a situation where warlords and power brokers play their own games," Eide had said Thursday, adding, "We have to have a political landscape here that draws the country in the same direction, which is in the direction of significant reform."

The spat came as Afghan officials were trying to determine if a NATO airstrike was responsible for the deaths of eight Afghans and injuries sustained by 22 others, including five U.S. troops, the Times said.