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Posted at 2:49 p.m., Thursday, July 19, 2007

National & world news highlights

Associated Press

Federal judge dismisses ex-CIA operative Valerie Plame's lawsuit against Bush administration

WASHINGTON — Former CIA operative Valerie Plame lost a lawsuit Thursday that demanded money from Bush administration officials whom she blamed for leaking her agency identity.

Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had accused Vice President Dick Cheney and others of conspiring to disclose her identity in 2003. Plame said that violated her privacy rights and was illegal retribution for her husband's criticism of the administration.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds and said he would not express an opinion on the constitutional arguments.

Bates dismissed the case against all defendants: Cheney, White House political adviser Karl Rove, former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

Plame's lawyers said from the beginning the suit would be a difficult case to make. Public officials normally are immune from such suits filed in connection with their jobs.

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U.S. officials: Word for Iraq atmosphere is 'fear,' more time needed to judge progress

WASHINGTON — Iraq is a nation gripped by fear and struggling to meet security and political goals by September, U.S. officials cautioned from Baghdad on Thursday, dashing hopes in Congress that the country might turn a corner this summer.

They said not to expect a solid judgment on the U.S. troop buildup until November.

"If there is one word, I would use to sum up the atmosphere in Iraq — on the streets, in the countryside, in the neighborhoods and at the national level — that word would be 'fear,"' Ryan Crocker, the top U.S. diplomat, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"For Iraq to move forward at any level, that fear is going to have to be replaced with some level of trust and confidence and that is what the effort at the national level is about," he added, speaking by video link from Baghdad.

In briefings given to the news media as well as members of Congress, officials warned that making those strides could take more time than initially thought. One military general said a solid military assessment probably will not happen until November.

Some lawmakers have been hoping that Iraq will show more signs of stability this summer, long before they gear up for the 2008 elections.

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Pentagon rebukes Sen. Clinton on Iraq, saying she's boosting enemy propaganda

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon told Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton that her questions about how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq boosts enemy propaganda.

In a stinging rebuke to a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman responded to questions Clinton raised in May in which she urged the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of American forces.

A copy of Edelman's response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

"Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," Edelman wrote.

He added that "such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks."

Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines called Edelman's answer "at once outrageous and dangerous," and said the senator would respond to his boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

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Bush defends embattled immigration plan; sidesteps question on border patrol pardons

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — President Bush sharply challenged critics of his stalled immigration-overhaul efforts on Thursday, suggesting that failure to pass a guest-worker program could trigger a labor shortage in the United States.

At a town-hall style meeting, Bush also rebuffed a question about whether he would consider pardoning two Border Patrol agents in prison for the cover-up of the shooting of a drug trafficker in Texas.

"No, I won't make you that promise," Bush told a woman who asked about a possible pardon. Many Republicans in Congress have said the men should not have been convicted and have criticized the federal U.S. attorney for even prosecuting the agents.

"I know it's an emotional issue but people need to look at the facts. These men were convicted by a jury of their peers after listening to the facts" as presented by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, said Bush. Bush called Sutton a friend.

The president also toured a bun bakery here, and used the business to illustrate a warning to Congress that he'd veto any government spending bill that he thinks is excessive.

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NYC steam explosion serves warning about aging U.S. infrastructure

NEW YORK — With a blast that made skyscrapers tremble, an 83-year-old steam pipe sent a powerful message that the miles of tubes, wires and iron beneath New York and other U.S. cities are getting older and could become dangerously unstable.

The steam conduit that exploded beneath a Manhattan street at the height of rush hour Wednesday, just a block from Grand Central Terminal, was laid when Calvin Coolidge was president, and was part of a system that began providing energy to city buildings in 1882.

Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the explosion, but some experts said the age of the city's infrastructure was a possible factor. Pipes don't last forever.

"This may be a warning sign for this very old network of pipe that we have," said Anil Agrawal, a professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York. "We should not be looking at this incident as an isolated one."

From Boston to Los Angeles, a number of American cities are entering a middle age of sorts, and the infrastructure propping them up is showing signs of strain.

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Fire officials raise nation's wildfire preparedness as blazes rage in the West

BOISE, Idaho — The nation's wildfire preparedness was raised to its highest level Thursday as dozens of new fires started in the bone-dry West, including a rapidly growing blaze on the grounds of the Idaho National Laboratory.

The West had been at level four for only a few weeks when officials decided to raise it to level five, effective Thursday.

"It's driven by a couple of things: The number of large fires we have, and also the fires are occurring in several states and in several geographic areas," said Randy Eardley, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center. "The resources we have are being stretched thin."

The change allows fire managers to request help from international crews, and National Guard units could be mobilized. On Thursday, fire center spokesman Ken Frederick said new crews were arriving in the Pacific Northwest from Alaska and the Southeast.

Firefighters in the area critically need medium-sized helicopters, he said. With 23 uncontained large fires or fire complexes in Nevada, Utah and Idaho, there aren't enough contractor-supplied helicopters to go around, he said.

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Archaeologists dig up second-century bath complex in Rome; findings included marble latrines

ROME — Archaeologists said Thursday they have partly dug up a second-century bath complex believed to be part of the vast, luxurious residence of a wealthy Roman.

The two-story complex, which extends for at least 5 acres, includes exceptionally well-preserved decorated hot rooms, vaults, changing rooms, marble latrines and an underground room where slaves lit the fire to warm the baths.

Statues and water cascades decorated the interiors, American archaeologist Darius A. Arya, the head of the excavation, said Thursday during a tour of the digs with The Associated Press. Only pedestals and fragments have been recovered.

Arya spoke as students and experts were brushing off earth and dust from ancient marbles, mosaic floors and a rudimentary heating system, made of pipes that channeled hot air throughout the complex.

"The Romans had more leisure time than other people, and it's here in the baths that they typically spent their time," Arya said. "Because you could eat well, you could get a massage, you could have sex, you could gossip, you could play your games, you could talk about politics — you could spend the whole day here."

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Shooting gets underway in Germany on movie starring Tom Cruise as anti-Hitler hero

BERLIN — Shooting began Thursday in a forest outside Berlin on a movie starring Tom Cruise as Germany's most famous anti-Hitler plotter.

The German government said it was letting filmmakers shoot anywhere they requested, except the former German general staff headquarters.

The so-called Bendler Block, where Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg was executed by firing squad 63 years ago Saturday, was off-limits, said government spokesman Torsten Albig, citing "the dignity of the place."

Cruise plays Stauffenberg in "Valkyrie," directed by Bryan Singer.

The movie set was cordoned off with yellow-and-black plastic tape in a pine forest near the village of Klein Koeris, 43 miles south of Berlin. Studio Babelsberg, the film's German producers, confirmed that Cruise was on the set.

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Stocks climb following mostly upbeat earnings reports; Dow closes at 14,000.41

NEW YORK — Wall Street moved soundly higher Thursday, sending the Dow Jones industrials to their first close above 14,000 as investors kept jitters about the economy at bay and focused on a string of upbeat earnings reports.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index also had a record close.

Profit news from companies like International Business Machines Corp., network equipment maker Juniper Networks Inc., and business software company SAP AG help lift stocks and boosted investors' appetite for technology issues.

Resurgent concerns about the health of subprime loans, which are made to borrowers with poor credit history, hurt financial stocks, while a report that a would-be suitor for Alcoa Inc. had lost interest kept the Dow Jones industrial average from extending its gains.

The flurry of corporate news Thursday coincided with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's return to Capitol Hill for the second day of his semiannual report to Congress in which he said problems such as foreclosures among holders of subprime mortgages are "likely to get worse before they get better." Also, a research group predicted Thursday that the housing slump will cause the economy to contract slightly in coming months.

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Barry Bonds hits 2 home runs — including his 753rd — to move within 2 of Hank Aaron's record

CHICAGO — Barry Bonds hit his 752nd and 753rd home runs Thursday, ending his worst slump in six years with two of his biggest swings this month — and Hank Aaron's record is only two away.

He was rested and ready, all right.

Bonds sent the first pitch from Cubs starter Ted Lilly high over the right-field fence leading off the second inning — the first drive out of Wrigley Field to reach Sheffield Avenue all season. Then he homered again in the seventh on a 3-2 pitch from Will Ohman, a three-run shot that stuck in the basket of the center-field wall. Ohman became the 443rd pitcher to give up a home run to Bonds, who has 19 homers on the year.

It was his 71st multihomer game, second behind Babe Ruth's 72, and second this season.

Bonds' first homer pulled the Giants within 4-1 and was San Francisco's first hit off Lilly, who surrendered his third career homer to Bonds. The next homer got the Giants within 9-8 and gave Bonds six RBIs on the day, his most since driving in six runs Sept. 22 last year at Milwaukee. It was his seventh career game with at least six RBIs.

The second homer moved Bonds past Carlton Fisk for most longballs by a player in a year he turns at least 43. Fisk hit 18 at age 43 in 1990 and 18 more the following year at 44. Bonds needs two more homers not only to match Hammerin' Hank's record, but also to tie Fisk's 72 homers after turning 40.

The fans both cheered and booed when his second-inning ball sailed out in the direction of a beer billboard reading "755 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL." Dave Davison, a 39-year-old regular at Wrigley, retrieved the specially monogrammed ball in the middle of the street after it bounced off someone else's arm.