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The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tell, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently. Two key US senators briefed on the attack planned to go public with their opposition to the move, according to the source, but their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear. The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that the US plans an...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior Republican senator who has worked with Russia on disposing nuclear materials questioned Tuesday whether NATO was right to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to its summit meeting next month. Speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on NATO, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., pointed to a recent threat by Putin to target Ukraine with nuclear missiles if the former Soviet republic joins NATO and accepts the deployment of anti-missile defenses on its territory. At its summit in Bucharest, the alliance will consider whether to invite Ukraine and Georgia to join a program to prepare them...

That would be Mark Pryor, first-term Democratic incumbent, running in a reliably red state. [T]he Republicans’ inability to field any Senate candidate in a Southern state that twice favored Republican George W. Bush for president this decade is yet another blow for a party that lost six seats and its Senate majority in 2006, and is mainly playing defense against further Democratic gains this year.Having missed the filing deadline, any Republican who might belatedly decide to run against Pryor would have to do so as a write-in candidate…Pryor becomes the first senator to draw no opponent from the other major...

Snip..... In what could be the biggest State Department scandal since State Department official and United Nations founder Alger Hiss was exposed as a Soviet spy, a top Clinton State Department official and former Time magazine journalist has been identified as having been a trusted contact of the Russian intelligence service. Snip... The sensational charge against Strobe Talbott is made in a new book based on interviews with a Russian defector. Snip... Talbott has been and continues to be a major foreign policy thinker. Back in 2000, when he was named head of the Yale Center for the Study of...

Sen. Barack Obama is already plotting the makeup of his Cabinet, and it includes two prominent Republicans. According to the Sunday Times of London, Obama has his sights set on Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Richard Lugar of Indiana. Hagel has been an outspoken opponent of the Iraq war, and Lugar is the ranking GOP member on the Senate foreign relations committee. Senior advisers told the Times that Hagel is being considered for the secretary of defense post, and Lugar as secretary of state. Obama would only say to the Times: “Chuck Hagel is a great friend of mine...

AS Barack Obama enters the final stages of the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, he is preparing to detach the core voters of John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, with the same ruthless determination with which he has peeled off Hillary Clinton’s supporters. The scene is set for a tussle between the two candidates for the support of some of the sharpest and most independent minds in politics. Obama is hoping to appoint cross-party figures to his cabinet such as Chuck Hagel, the Republican senator for Nebraska and an opponent of the Iraq war, and Richard Lugar, leader of...

Why are Republicans in Congress trying to help Barack Obama?Republicans allowed a bill that carries his name, among nine others, to pass the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by voice vote last week – without any hearings. That means there was no roll-call vote so no member can be held accountable. The same bill passed the House by voice vote last year.The Obama bill passed out of committee with the cooperation of the co-sponsor, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. A Rhodes scholar like former President Bill Clinton, Lugar has never seen a United Nations enhancement he didn't like.Obama's costly, dangerous and altogether...

Senator Dick Lugar, Ranking Member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Wednesday issued a statement in response to threats made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to halt oil shipments to the United States and the declaration last Tuesday that Venezuela would discontinue oil sales to Exxon refineries. "I urge the government of Venezuela to maintain this discussion within the legal framework that ExxonMobil and Venezuela's state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (Pdvsa) chose to resolve their differences," Lugar said in a communiqué published on his official website. Lugar urged the parties to resolve their dispute without creating further...

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans sharply challenged President Bush's top military general and ambassador in Iraq on Tuesday in a blatant demonstration of misgivings within the GOP about the protracted war. "Are we going to continue to invest blood and treasure at the same rate we're doing now? For what?" asked Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who supports legislation setting a deadline to bring troops home. The deep-seated doubt expressed at the hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reflected just how far Congress had come since the war began over four years ago. And Republican senators raised tough questions that rivaled...

Hadley: Bush Will Not Accept Mission Change Offered by Warner, Lugar Sunday , July 15, 2007 AP WASHINGTON — The White House is rejecting as premature a plan by two senior Republican senators to restrict the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said Sunday the administration has a "very orderly process" set out for reviewing whether its Iraq strategy is working and that should be allowed to play out. Asked in a broadcast interview whether Bush could live with the plan offered by Sens. John Warner of Virginia and Richard Lugar of Indiana,...

2 top Republicans propose own Iraq billBy ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer Two top Republicans cast aside President Bush's pleas for patience on Iraq Friday and proposed legislation demanding a new strategy by mid-October to restrict the mission of U.S. troops. The proposal, by veteran GOP Sens. John Warner of Virginia and Richard Lugar of Indiana, came as the Pentagon conceded that a decreasing number of Iraqi battalions are able to operate on their own. "American military and diplomatic strategy in Iraq must adjust to the reality that sectarian factionalism is not likely to abate anytime soon and probably cannot...

WASHINGTON - Two prominent Senate Republicans have drafted legislation that would require President Bush to come up with a plan by mid-October to dramatically narrow the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq. The legislation, which represents a sharp challenge to Bush, was put forward Friday by Sens. John Warner and Richard Lugar, and it came as the Pentagon acknowledged that a decreasing number of Iraqi army battalions are able to operate independently of U.S. troops. "Given continuing high levels of violence in Iraq and few manifestations of political compromise among Iraq's factions, the optimal outcome in Iraq of a unified,...

WASHINGTON — Two prominent Senate Republicans have drafted legislation that would require President Bush by mid-October to come up with a plan to dramatically narrow the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq. The legislation, which represents a sharp challenge to Bush, was put forward Friday by Sens. John Warner and Richard Lugar and it came as the Pentagon acknowledged that a decreasing number of Iraqi army battalions are able to operate independently of U.S. troops. "Given continuing high levels of violence in Iraq and few manifestations of political compromise among Iraq's factions, the optimal outcome in Iraq of a unified,...

WASHINGTON - Two prominent Senate Republicans have drafted legislation that would require President Bush by the end of the year to dramatically narrows the mission of U.S. troops. The legislation, which represents a sharp challenge to Bush, was put forward by Sens. John Warner and Richard Lugar, the ranking members of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations. It came as the Pentagon acknowledged that a decreasing number of Iraqi army battalions are able to operate independently of U.S. troops. "Given continuing high levels of violence in Iraq and few manifestations of political compromise among Iraq's factions, the optimal outcome in...

WASHINGTON — Top Republicans on the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees will offer a resolution as early as Friday, calling on President Bush to develop detailed contingency plans for getting the U.S. out of Iraq, a move that could attract support from more in the GOP. The proposal by Sens. John Warner of Virginia and Richard Lugar of Indiana includes a gradual reduction of U.S. forces and a change of mission. Warner and Lugar are not waiting until the September report from the top generals and U.S. ambassador in Iraq before calling for a change, but their nonbinding...

The soldiers think they can win. Some Senators lose their nerve. Richard Lugar of Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, and John Warner of Virginia have together served more than a century in the world's greatest deliberative body. Historians will remember their time in public office for Reagan's challenge to the Soviet Union, for the success of pro-growth economic policies, for welfare reform, for the reinvigoration of a constitutionalist approach to the courts, for the framing of a foreign policy for the post-9/11 world. None of these men played a leading role in any of these...

WASHINGTON Some Senate Republicans are suddenly pushing the White House to begin withdrawing most U.S. troops from Iraq, apparently deciding that they can't wait for a September report to call for changing course. A day after Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, bluntly declared that President Bush's Iraq plan isn't working and called for withdrawing most American forces, Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said he was writing a letter to Bush on Tuesday to urge him to embrace a Plan E (for exit). Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Lugar's comments...

One of America's most influential Republicans rounded on George Bush over Iraq yesterday, saying the "surge" begun in February had little chance of success. Richard Lugar, senior Republican on the Senate's foreign relations committee, said the war put vital US interests in the Middle East at risk and could end in disaster unless a coherent withdrawal plan for US forces was agreed "very soon". Mr Lugar had previously been a supporter of the action. In a sign of spreading rebellion another Republican senator, George Voinovich, backed him last night. "We must not abandon our mission, but we must begin a...

Following up on comments by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Republican Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio) called today for President Bush to begin planning for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq. In a letter to President Bush, the Ohio Republican said the president should adopt a policy of "responsible military disengagement with a corresponding increase [in] non-military support" to help the United States achieve a stable and democratic Iraq, although Voinovich warned that the window of opportunity for enacting such a plan is limited. "However, I am also concerned that we are running out of time," Voinovich added.

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), whose comments on Iraq have caused a huge ruckus in the Capitol today just told reporters that the White House called him to ask for a meeting. Lugar would not say who he is meeting with or when it would happen, but all indications are that it will be National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and it will take place later in the week. Lugar said that he had been working on his floor speech, which he delivered Monday night, for the last three weeks, and had shown other senators copies of the statement, although he did...

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf Reports: Republican Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee, made a stunning speech on the Senate floor this evening after most people had gone home. He said the president and Congress must start planning to redeploy American troops from Iraq now. Waiting for September 2007, when Army General David Petraeus is set to report about the progress of Bush's recently ordered troop buildup is not smart, said Lugar. Doing so would force the Iraq strategy debate into the presidential campaign, which would drag out at least through 2008, Lugar said. "In...

35 minutes ago WASHINGTON - Sen. Richard Lugar, a senior Republican and a reliable vote for President Bush on the war, said Monday that Bush's Iraq strategy was not working and that the U.S. should downsize the military's role. The unusually blunt assessment deals a political blow to Bush, who has relied heavily on GOP support to stave off anti-war legislation. It also comes as a surprise. Most Republicans have said they were willing to wait until September to see if Bush's recently ordered troop buildup in Iraq was working. "In my judgment, the costs and risks of continuing down...

Title says it all, breaking on TV.

Fresh from voting against the Senate resolution saying the addition of troops to Iraq was "not in the national interest", Republican Senator Lugar, a man generally considered a hawk on the war, weighed in today on the pages of the Washington Post in a piece entitled “Beyond Baghdad” to offer in more substantial terms his views of the war in Iraq. Offering the Bush Administration advice as to how this country should precede in this troubled region, the good Senator laid out his hopes, fears and suggestions. Unfortunately, I am not sure if President Bush will find his counsel all...

Republican senators joined their counterparts in taking aim at Bush's Iraq plan -- even if they were only shooting blanks. The Senate on Wednesday took baby steps toward opposing President Bush's strategy in Iraq, as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee moved forward a nonbinding, legally toothless statement opposing deeper military entanglement there and pushing for more diplomacy in the region. In their criticism, Democrats and Republicans seemed to share the same talking points. Senators from both parties spoke of the ramifications of failure, the United States' dwindling options, and their skepticism about war plans from a White House that has...

Two prominent Senate Republicans bucked the White House on Sunday, expressing skepticism about more U.S. troops in Iraq and support for greater dialogue with Iran, Syria and others in the region. Sen. Richard Lugar, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the president to consult with lawmakers before announcing a new strategy on Iraq that could call for additional troops in Iraq. If Bush were to act with without involving the new Democratic-controlled Congress, he can anticipate "a lot of hearings, a lot of study, a lot of criticism," Lugar said. Bush is expected to deliver his...

Preview and analysis for Weekend Talk Shows, 9-30 and 10-1-06 It's week four (or 297, depending on how you figure it) of the WOB (war on Bush) and all things "Republi-fascist," as the drive by media might style what they're doing.  We've had a week of spin like we haven't seen since... well, since Clinton was in office.  All the old hateful and hate filled faces were back on the screaming head shows pulling their electrically powered rapid fire mouths back out of storage and plugging them in for one more go around of lies, screaming lies and videotape.  And...

Abbreviated analysis this week.  I'm trying to be good (honest) and not use my eyes much in the lead up to seeing my surgeon next weekend. My bet is 80-20 that the corneal transplant surgery (this will make number 4 in 26 years) is before the end of October.  We'll soon see (no pun intended... at least intentionally). Bottom line for this week, everything in the universe that is not perfect is the fault of George W. Bush.  As if we didn't know that already. The big theme this week is "all Katrina, all the time."  The DBM pulls out...

Despite having no authorization from Congress, the Bush administration has launched extensive working-group activity to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada. The membership of the working groups has not been published, nor has their work product been disclosed, despite two years of massive effort within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The groups, working under the North American Free Trade Association office in the Department of Commerce, are to implement the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, on...

A first in Northwest Indiana HISPANIC SERIES: Illegal immigrant sets sights on attending college through new program BY JERRY DAVICH jdavich@nwitimes.com 219.933.3376 This story ran on nwitimes.com on Monday, May 29, 2006 12:16 AM CDT Chapter two: Reaching for the dream HOBART I Frances Vega cried when she heard the news. On Nov. 23, the day before last Thanksgiving, she heard about Sen. Dick Lugar's formal introduction of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM, Act. The still pending measure would help young, undocumented immigrants in the United States earn legal status by obtaining an education and...

O.K. Freepers, here’s the list of Pubbies who voted with the Dems Thursday to give Social Security benefits to Illegal Aliens. Brownback (KS) Chafee (RI) DeWine (OH) Graham (SC) Hagel (NE) Lugar (IN) Martinez (FL) McCain (AZ) Specter (PA) Stevens (AK) Voinovich (OH) I must admit that I was shocked by Brownback’s and Lugar’s votes.

Only days after former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage urged the Bush Administration to engage the Iranians in talks rather than launch air strikes against their nuclear facilities (see DallasBlog story on Armitage’s remarks here), the Republican Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee echoed Armitage’s views. Here are excerpts from the Australian story which lays out Senator Richard Lugar’s position on the Iranian situation: Influential Republican senator Richard Lugar has urged the Bush administration to change its Iran strategy, saying the US must talk directly to Tehran about its nuclear ambitions instead of pushing for economic sanctions. Senator...

In an airport in the Russian city of Perm, a minor diplomatic crisis broke out last August. In violation of an international treaty, local border police refused to allow the plane of Senators Richard Lugar and Barack Obama to depart without being inspected. Instead of pitching a fit, Lugar, the powerful Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, curled up on a chair—ignoring the overpowering smell of a broken toilet—and took a nap. The Russians eventually backed down. "He is a quiet, intelligent, steady force," says former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey, Lugar's former colleague. But make no mistake, Kerrey adds,...

The Talk Shows Sunday, March 19th, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Vice President Dick Cheney. THIS WEEK (ABC): Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Jack Reed, D-R.I.; Olympic speed skater Joey Cheek. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Joseph Biden, D-Del.; Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi; Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah; former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Republicans Receive High Grades on U.S. Chamber Report Card By Greg Giroux   |   8:24 PM; Mar. 15, 2006 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today identified members of Congress who sided with the prominent business federation most frequently on key legislation last year. In all, 308 members of Congress — or nearly 60 percent of the membership — qualified for the Chamber’s “Spirit of Enterprise Award,” which was bestowed on those who backed the Chamber’s preferred position at least 70 percent of the time last year. The ratings are based on 27 votes in the House and 18...

The Talk Shows Sunday, March 5th, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Michael Brown, former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency; National Weather Service Director David Johnson.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Pace; former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., and former Rep. Jack Kemp, R-N.Y., co-chairmen of the Council on Foreign Relations' task force on U.S. policy toward Russia. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.; Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. THIS WEEK (ABC): Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.;...

Indiana Senator Richard Lugar says he supports congressional hearings to look into President Bush's contention that he had constitutional and congressional authority to authorize domestic wiretaps without a court order. Lugar was among four senators who said Sunday that hearings are called for to investigate the president's domestic spying order, which was issued after the September 11th attacks. Lugar, who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, says Congress made many concessions in the first few weeks after the 2001 terror attacks because the nation was under attack. The Indiana Republican says Congress now needs to look into the president's...

The Talk Shows Sunday, January 1st, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Diane Swonk, chief economist, Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc.; John Bogle, founder, the Vanguard Group Corp. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian and author of "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." FACE THE NATION (CBS): New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin; Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. THIS WEEK (ABC): Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of...

p>The Talk Shows Sunday, December 4th, 2005 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Stephen Hadley, President Bush's national security adviser; Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; Douglas Owsley, division head for physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Thomas Kean, chairman, and Lee Hamilton, vice chairman, of the Sept. 11 investigative commission. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. THIS WEEK (ABC): Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.; Hadley; New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Hadley; Sens. Joseph Biden,...

Congressional Democrats are criticizing President Bush's speech on Iraq, saying he failed to detail a strategy for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops. Congressional Democrats say Mr. Bush's address did not offer a realistic assessment of the situation in Iraq, nor did it offer a plan for the future. In his speech at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, the president highlighted progress in the training of Iraqi security forces. He said as Iraqi forces gain experience and the political process advances, the United States will be able to decrease its troop levels. But he rejected setting a timetable...

Washington, DC, November 4 - The sky-rocketing cost of a college education is certainly on the minds of parents. This week, an Indianapolis group took up the issue in the nation's capital. "The cost to students has been rising faster than inflation, faster than families' ability to pay and also faster than need-based aid," said Martha Lamkin of the Lumina Foundation. That's why the Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation hosted a summit in Washington. Among the findings; a growing frustration with how long it sometimes takes to get a degree. They also concluded that ways need to be found to make sure...

MILLER,YOU SLY ANTI-INTERNET MARTYR! Tuesday, October 18, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.comDid Judith Miller’s jail time set up Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana’s shield law? In the wake of mounting puzzlement over why New York Times reporter Judith Miller went to jail for almost three months, some free-market thinkers have concluded that one possibility is to provide Washington and mainstream media like the New York Times with a convenient martyr to hasten certain media legislation. As it so happens, such legislation is indeed in the works in the form of a press "shield bill" to ensure members of the press do...

WASHINGTON (AP) - New York Times reporter Judith Miller and the Justice Department are facing off once again: This time they disagree about a proposed federal law that would allow reporters to keep the identity of their sources secret. Miller, who spent 85 days in jail this summer to avoid telling prosecutors about her sources, was promoting such a law Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.In prepared testimony, she acknowledged her own stories suggesting Iraq had weapons of mass destruction were flawed by sources with wrong information. But Miller argued that ``even flawed reporters should not be jailed for protecting...

...Word out of Washington yesterday was that an arm of Congress has begun to investigate what damage would result from a "possible cutoff" of oil supplies to the U.S. by a "politically unstable" Venezuela. The study was requested by Chairman Richard Lugar of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It follows years of hand-wringing about Venezuela from a Washington establishment concerned about the Chávez "oil power." This confluence of ignorance and commercial interest has produced a U.S. policy of tip-toe diplomacy toward the aggressive and menacing Venezuelan government. Tragically, that cost the Venezuelan people dearly in 2004, with the State Department...

Two prominent U.S. senators pledged on Monday to redouble efforts to overcome resistance in Congress and repeal a 1970s law hampering trade between the United States and former Soviet Ukraine. Richard Lugar, Republican head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Democrat Barack Obama, discussed the 1974 Jackson-Vanick amendment during talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and other leaders. "I have offered legislation this year and before for a repeal of Jackson-Vanick as it pertains to Ukraine. On this occasion we are as far along as agreement in the Senate," he told a news conference. "There are still some objectors...

President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko and US Senator Richard Lugar discussed abolition of Jackson-Vanik amendment concerning Ukraine, the WTO membership, status of market economy and Euroatlantic integration. Senator Barak Obama, US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst and the first deputy State Secretary of Ukraine Alexander Motsik also took part in the meeting. President underlined that according to expert estimation “Ukraine looses about eight milliard USD annually” because it is not a WTO member of and does not have a status of a country with market economy. The head of the country expressed a hope that US authority will support Ukraine...

MOSCOW — A plane carrying two U.S. senators was detained for several hours Sunday while trying to leave Russia, before being permitted to leave the country for Ukraine, according to spokesmen for the lawmakers. Sens. Richard Lugar (search), R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Barack Obama (search), D-Ill., who had both been visiting storage sites for weapons of mass destruction, were held at an airport in the Ural Mountain city of Perm for several hours, but were allowed to leave after talks between U.S. and Russian officials. "I am in Ukraine with Sen. Lugar," Lugar's spokesman, Andy...

A plane carrying two U.S. senators was detained for several hours Sunday while trying to leave Russia, before being permitted to leave the country for Ukraine, according to spokesmen for the lawmakers. Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., who had been visiting storage sites for weapons of mass destruction, were held at an airport in the Ural Mountain city of Perm for several hours but were allowed to leave after talks between U.S. and Russian officials. "I am in Ukraine with Sen. Lugar," Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Lugar's spokesman, Andy Fisher, said in a message sent from a...

MOSCOW --Two U.S. senators visiting sites where weapons of mass destruction are being stored were held for several hours Sunday at a Siberian airport while trying to leave Russia, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson said. Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., were held at the airport in Perm but allowed to leave after discussions between U.S. and Russian officials, the embassy spokesperson said on condition of anonymity.

Libya has opened a new phase in its journey from pariah state back to the international fold by calling for US President George W. Bush to visit and pledging action on human rights. The moves are the latest in a dramatic turnaround by the oil-rich nation, which was bombed by the United States in the 1980s, since Tripoli renounced its quest for weapons of mass destruction.