March 27, 2007

Earlybird Roundup

In today's Earlybird (subscription):

Mideast. "Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to begin limited, biweekly peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but balked at the request from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the negotiations encompass the entrenched three 'final status' issues which have bedeviled peace negotiators since 1979," the New York Times reports.

Attorney Firings: In an interview with NBC News Monday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales acknowledged "that he had a role in approving an aide's recommendation to dismiss several U.S. attorneys last year," the Los Angeles Times reports. And senior DOJ aide Monica Goodling "has decided against testifying before lawmakers about her role in the ousters of eight federal prosecutors," AP reports.

FBI. The Washington Post reports that "FBI agents repeatedly provided inaccurate information to win secret court approval of surveillance warrants in terrorism and espionage cases," according to DOJ and FBI officials. FBI Director Robert Mueller is set to testify this morning at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the agency.

Congress. "Republicans signaled that they would not use procedural measures to block" the war supplemental, "but would instead let the White House kill it and then urge Democrats to pass a bill that provides funding for the war without setting any dates for troop withdrawals," the New York Times reports. And "banking regulators will face a barrage of questions from House lawmakers" today "at a hearing designed to look into what went wrong in the subprime mortgage market," MarketWatch reports.

Iran. "With the impasse" over Iran's capture of 15 British sailors "entering its fifth day," British Prime Minister Tony Blair "warned of a 'different phase' if diplomatic efforts fail to secure" their release, the London Guardian reports.

See Earlybird (subscription) for more of this morning's headlines.

Posted at 8:34 AM
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