Countdown Newsletter -- 07/20/06: Mideast Mayhem

[Patsy Stone]

------------------------------------------------------
Tonight on Countdown
------------------------------------------------------

Hezbollah guerrillas clashed with Israeli troops on the Lebanese side of the border for the second consecutive day Thursday, while Israeli warplanes renewed airstrikes against Lebanon in a ninth day of fighting. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for an immediate halt to the escalating conflict but said “there are serious obstacles to reaching a cease-fire or even to diminishing the violence quickly.” Annan said Hezbollah’s actions in launching rockets into Israel and abducting Israeli soldiers “hold an entire nation hostage” and set back prospects for Middle East peace. But he also condemned Israel's “excessive use of force” and collective punishment of the Lebanese people. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13929959/

Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.

The first plane carrying U.S. evacuees from Lebanon landed in the United States early Thursday, and eager family members and volunteers waited to greet them. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13948952/

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York tonight about efforts to end the conflict in Lebanon, while the Bush administration remains firmly opposed to efforts to impose a cease-fire on Israel. Ms. Rice will dine with Mr. Annan, and the two will be joined by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana at a briefing tomorrow from a high-level U.N. fact-finding team just returning from the region, according to State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. http://washingtontimes.com/world/20060719-111503-1051r.htm

Hezbollah has created a "state within a state" in Lebanon and must be disarmed, an Italian daily on Thursday reported Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora as saying, but his office later said the premier had been misquoted. Saniora reportedly told Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera that the Shiite militia has been doing the bidding of Syria and Iran, and that it could only be disarmed with the help of the international community and once a cease-fire had been achieved in the current Middle East fighting. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4059936.html

More on the repercussions from President Bush's stem cell stance; Also, more Republicans distancing themselves on Iraq as the situation there grows worse.

Barry Bonds' fate is in the hands of 23 anonymous Bay Area grand jurors who for the past year have reviewed evidence against the Giants slugger.
Thursday, they are expected to meet at the Phillip Burton Federal Courthouse and could decide whether to indict Bonds for perjury and tax evasion. Federal prosecutors need a simple majority--12 jurors. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cs-0607200287jul20,1,1206029.story?coll=cs-baseball-print

It took surgery to save a 12-foot Burmese python after it swallowed an entire queen-size electric blanket -- with the electrical cord and control box. http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-python20.html
And the two-faced cat we told you about last week is missing!

That's some of what we're planning for tonight's show.

Finally,
A New Zealand policewoman has been censured a stint moonlighting as a prostitute - but is being allowed to keep her day job after giving up the night duties. While prostitution is legal in New Zealand and police are allowed to take approved second jobs, a top officer said sex work and police work don't mix. "We have law students that are sex workers, we have doctors that are sex workers, I mean anyone can be a sex worker," the woman said, asking that she not be named due to the sensitive nature of her job. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PROSTITUTE_COP?SITE=NWCN&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME
What I love most about this story is how prostitutes are now referred to as "sex workers". My vote is still for that always happy-sounding name, "hooker".

-- Carey Fox

Countdown Home: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

Other News:
One or more Iranians witnessed North Korea’s recent missile tests, deepening U.S. concerns about growing ties between two countries with troubling nuclear capabilities, a top U.S. official said Thursday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10705390/

Iraq’s top Shiite cleric urged his followers Thursday to refrain from reprisal violence against Sunnis, his strongest call yet for an end to increasing sectarian bloodshed that threatens to erupt into full-scale civil war. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13952922/

More than 1.5 million Americans are injured every year by drug errors in hospitals, nursing homes and doctor’s offices, a count that doesn’t even estimate patients’ own medication mix-ups, says a report that calls for major steps to increase patient safety. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13954142/

President Bush acknowledged persistent racism in America and lamented the Republican Party’s bumpy relations with black voters as he addressed the NAACP’s annual convention Thursday for the first time in his presidency. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13949974/

The Massachusetts coast was under a storm warning Thursday as Tropical Storm Beryl swirled northward in the Atlantic Ocean, and parts of Long Island and Connecticut were told to prepare for foul weather. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13952478/

Amnesty International accused Yahoo, Microsoft and Google on Thursday of violating human rights principles by cooperating with China's efforts to censor the Web and called on them to lobby for the release of jailed cyber-dissidents. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13953905/

In a stunning turnaround a day after he was all but written off, American rider Floyd Landis moved back into contention at the Tour de France on Thursday, winning the final Alpine stage in a solo finish to jump from 11th to third. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13953418/