Iran supreme leader orders probe of vote fraud

EHRAN, Iran – Iran's state television says the supreme leader has ordered an investigation into claims of fraud in last week's presidential election.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is ordering the powerful Guardian Council to examine the allegations by pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims widespread vote rigging in Friday's election. The government declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner in a landslide victory.

It is a stunning turnaround for Iran's most powerful figure, who previously welcomed the results.

Mousavi wrote an appeal Sunday to the Guardian Council, a powerful 12-member body that's a pillar of Iran's theocracy. Mousavi also met Sunday with Khamenei.

Mousavi's backers have waged three days of street protests in Tehran.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's supreme leader has ordered an investigation into claims of fraud in last week's presidential election, state television reported.

Red River drops more, feeding optimism in Fargo

FARGO, N.D. – Flood waters have fallen below most of the sandbag levees protecting Fargo, feeding optimism that the city had tamed the Red River, at least for now.

By early Wednesday, the river had fallen to 37 1/2 feet — still far above flood stage but below the top of the city's permanent floodwalls, which are topped with another 5 feet of sandbags.

"This should give us a sigh of relief," Mayor Dennis Walaker said.

While the lower water levels took pressure off the floodwalls, engineers and National Guard troops braved a blinding snowstorm Tuesday to monitor the dikes for signs of stress.

Officials insist the city isn't safe just yet. Forecasters say the river could begin rising again in coming days, when more snow begins to melt. But even future crests aren't expected to approach the levels feared over the weekend.

Frigid temperatures are limiting the amount of snow and ice that would normally melt and flow into the waterway, the National Weather Service said.

But the storm added to the challenge of monitoring the dikes by dumping about 10 inches of snow in Fargo, producing a messy mix of mud and ice. Engineers in hard hats, life vests and steel-toe boots walked along earthen dikes, struggling to see through the blowing snow as they conducted inspections.

In neighboring Moorhead, Minn., National Guard members went door-to-door in flood-prone areas to make sure sandbags were not leaking.

Trucks with snow plows rolled through Fargo despite having hardly any visibility. Snow blowers rumbled through the day. And cars slid all over the icy roads, including one driven by a teenager who slammed into a sheriff's department vehicle and nearly plummeted into the river.

Homeowners kept a constant vigil over pumps to make sure ice did not clog discharge hoses.

"I lived in North Dakota all my life. After a while, you just get tired of it," said Ryan Such, 26, who was operating a pickup truck equipped with a plow. He had been out removing snow since 2 a.m.

The mayor's message to the city was simple: "The word of the day is hunker, hunker down. That means stay snug in your areas and please do not travel."

Authorities also warned people to stay away from the dangerous river. Late Monday, a man was arrested for driving a snowmobile on a dike, and one brave soul was caught paddling a canoe up the river.

Earlier in the week, a woman was accused of drunken driving after she attempted to drive over a levee in her van and got stuck.

Analysis: Dems punt hard choices on Obama budget

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in Congress are taking only baby steps with his budget, putting off crucial decisions on his ambitious plans to expand health care, curb global warming and raise taxes on the wealthy.

Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and both Bushes all got far stronger assists from Congress on their first budgets. Nonetheless, Obama, is counting on votes approving budget outlines this week to give him some semblance of momentum.

"If we don't pass the budget, it will empower those critics who don't want to see anything getting done," Obama told House Democrats Monday, according to a House aide who required anonymity to reveal what was said at the closed-door meeting.

Risk-averse Democrats, however, are merely kicking the can down the road rather than using the budget to give a real push to the president's agenda. On health care, global warming and even Obama's signature "Making Work Pay" tax cut, the pending House and Senate budget plans offer no clues as to how those big ideas might advance.

The House and Senate are expected to pass separate versions of the budget resolution by week's end, then reconcile differences after their spring break.

Budget resolutions are not law. They don't have to be signed by the president. They are nonbinding outlines paving the way for future legislation. Often, they only determine the amount of money that can be spent on departments' operating budgets that Congress must pass each year.

But they are an early measure of political strength. And especially in the first year of a presidency — when most of the heavy lifting is done on a president's agenda — they have far more importance.

Votes taken during budget resolution debates can put members on record in favor of particular policies — tax cuts or increases, cost curbs on federal health care programs, or welfare reform, for example. Presidents use political capital in winning such votes, and the lawmakers casting them tend to buy into the ideas involved.

At a comparable stage in 1981, Ronald Reagan broke the back of the Democratic House leadership in winning a key budget vote in favor of his tax cut agenda.

And in 1993, debate on Bill Clinton's deficit-cutting plan put his Democratic allies on record in support of higher taxes. That made subsequent votes to actually impose those tax hikes easier.

Budget resolutions also ratified a key 1990 budget pact between President George H.W. Bush and Democrats in which Bush broke his "read my lips" pledge not to raise taxes.

Key Senate budget votes in 2001 and 2003 limited the size of George W. Bush's tax cuts — but made sure they advanced.

To be sure, Obama's plans for global warming and health care are still so fuzzy that it's difficult to translate them into numbers in a congressional budget plan. And rather than overload Republicans now, it could make sense for Democrats to hold off on detailed assumptions in hopes of building bipartisan consensus later.

Still, the budget proposal that Obama sent to Congress in February did present some difficult choices:

_Fewer itemized tax deductions for the wealthy, providing money to help buy health care insurance for tens of millions of Americans who don't have it.

_Cuts in government payments to insurance companies and health care providers.

_An expensive and highly controversial plan to combat global warming through a "cap-and-trade" scheme that calls for auctioning off pollution permits for nearly $650 billion. The Senate, during budget debate Tuesday, voted to instead devote any revenues from the scheme to help consumers pay higher gasoline and electric bills that energy companies will pass on to them.

Both the House and Senate budget writers, for the most part, ignored all of Obama's big ideas when crafting their fiscal plans, sapping his agenda of momentum.

Indeed, key lawmakers are already playing "taps" over his proposals to chip away at wealthy people's ability to deduct charitable donations and mortgage interest at higher rates.

Instead, they designed a host of so-called reserve funds that give some modest procedural help to Obama initiatives but do nothing concrete to really advance them.

As a result, lawmakers can cast symbolic votes in favor of Obama's agenda — even if those votes don't say anything about the depth of that commitment. In fact, they can at the same time say they are voting for Obama's agenda even as they distance themselves from key elements of it, like his tax increases or the higher energy bills that would result from his global warming curbs.

The detail-free approach protects lawmakers from difficult votes. Its defenders also say it provides lawmakers with leeway when writing follow-up legislation.

"The strength of reserve funds, from my perspective, is you give the committees full flexibility to write the best legislation they can," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad told reporters.

But flexibility can also indicate a lack of direction. How will Democrats find $1 trillion or more over the next decade to pay for health care reforms? Is Obama's cap-and-trade initiative too unpopular to advance?

For now, there are only guesses.

"They're not putting their cards on the table," said GOP lobbyist Rich Meade. He knows how this works; he's a former staff director of the House Budget Committee.

Pakistan: Suspected US missile kills 12 militants

ISLAMABAD – A suspected U.S. drone fired two missiles Wednesday at an alleged hide-out connected to a Taliban leader who has threatened to attack Washington, killing 12 people and wounding several others, officials said.

The attack came a day after Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a police academy in the eastern city of Lahore, saying it was retaliation for U.S. missile strikes on militant bases on the Afghan border.

Mehsud also vowed to launch an attack on Washington or even the White House in phone interviews with The Associated Press and local media.

The FBI, however, said he had made similar threats previously and there was no indication of anything imminent.

A local intelligence official told The Associated Press that the compound attacked Wednesday in a remote area of the Orakzai tribal region near the Afghan border belonged to one of Mehsud's commanders. Up to 30 suspected militants were at the compound when it was hit, and the Taliban have moved the dead and injured to an undisclosed location, he said.

Two other senior intelligence officials said they believe the 12 people who were killed included close associates of Mehsud. But it was difficult to confirm the exact identities of those involved because the Taliban surrounded the area shortly after the attack, they said.

The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Liaquat Ali, a local government official in Orakzai, confirmed the attack but could not provide casualty figures or the identities of the people targeted.

Wednesday's attack was believed to be the first such drone strike in Orakzai, although the U.S. is suspected of having carried out nearly three dozen other attacks near the Afghan border.

Pakistan, a key U.S. ally, opposes such drone attacks because it believes they are a violation of the country's sovereignty and kill innocent civilians. However, the U.S. has said they are a critical tool for countering militants in Pakistan who are launching attacks on U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan says the attacks are counterproductive because they anger local residents and generate sympathy for the militants.

Mehsud has no record of striking targets abroad, although he is suspected of being behind a 10-man cell arrested in Barcelona in January 2008 for plotting suicide attacks in Spain.

The U.S. has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Pakistan's former government and the CIA consider him the prime suspect behind the December 2007 killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistani officials accuse him of harboring foreign fighters, including Central Asians linked to al-Qaida, and of training suicide bombers.

Washington has stepped up pressure on Pakistan crack down on militants operating in its territory that pose a threat to U.S. and NATO forces. Militants have also been increasing attacks within Pakistan, threatening to destabilize the nuclear-armed country.

Monday's attack on a police academy on Lahore's outskirts left at least 12 people dead, including seven police, and sparked an eight-hour standoff with security forces that ended when black-clad commandos stormed the compound. Some of the gunmen blew themselves up.

Analysts doubt that Taliban fighters carried off Monday's raid on the Lahore academy on their own, saying the group is likely working more closely than ever with militants based far from the Afghan frontier.

It's a constellation that includes al-Qaida, presenting a formidable challenge to the U.S. as it increases its troop presence in the region, not to mention Pakistan's own stability.

Obama faces high-stakes China, Russia meetings

LONDON – Stepping onto the world stage for the first time in his two-month presidency, Barack Obama is holding face-to-face talks with the leaders of the two nations — Russia and China — most aggressively challenging the U.S. position atop the global order.

But first up for Obama was a sit-down with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the host of the London summit of the world's top 20 economies. The U.S. president and first lady Michelle Obama arrived Wednesday morning at 10 Downing Street, where Brown and his wife, Sarah, greeted them and the four smiled broadly.

On a busy day, Obama is meeting separately later with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao. Officials in both countries have called for a new global currency to end the dollar's dominance.

Dramatic in itself, the suggestion is also a sign of broader questions about whether U.S. status in the world could be threatened by the rise of a competing power bloc.

It's not likely that the new currency idea will gain immediate traction. But Steven Schrage, an international business expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it could eventually if the Obama administration doesn't tackle the perception that the wave of massive stimulus spending in the United States could create unsustainable debt levels.

"People will be very closely reading the tea leaves," Schrage said.

That's one reason the public will see little of the meetings. Both are being held at the U.S. ambassador's residence, with the news media only allowed into the room before the talks take place and without the ability to ask questions.

The Obamas had a low-key arrival in Britain Tuesday night to launch an eight-day, five-country European tour.

The central focus is the summit on the global economic meltdown. Obama's preparations continued even as he flew across the Atlantic. He consulted by phone with the summit host, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The meetings open with a working dinner Wednesday night and continue throughout Thursday.

Obama and Brown will cap their own meetings with a joint appearance before the press.

With Brown's political future in doubt, Obama is later squeezing in talks with Brown's main rival — David Cameron, the leader of Britain's opposition Conservative Party.

In the afternoon, Obama heads to Buckingham Palace for an audience with Queen Elizabeth II.

With U.S.-Russia relations having deteriorated in recent years to lowest point since the early 1980s, the Obama administration has announced its desire to "press the reset button." The Kremlin has made clear it believes it is up to Washington to open the effort with concessions.

Obama has indicated less enthusiasm than predecessor George W. Bush for a proposed new U.S. missile defense system based in Eastern Europe, an idea that has enraged Russia. Another key area of discussion is the possible replacement of the dying 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which limited the world's two largest nuclear arsenals. START expires Dec. 5. Obama and Medvedev are expected to announce talks on a new pact.

They would be the first major arms control negotiations since 1997. But a thicket of disputes makes meeting the deadline unlikely.

With Moscow eager to boost its battered prestige, Reginald Dale, a CSIS Europe scholar, said Obama can't afford to employ the soft touch with Russia.

"Medvedev will be taking the measure of Obama," Dale said. "It's not enough just to say, 'Let's be friends.' ... They think, oh, here's someone I can lead up the garden path."

But, said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs: "Nobody believes that change in our relationship means giving everyone all they want. ... That's certainly not the intention of the president."

Obama's talks with Hu are sure to address Beijing's concerns about the safety of its position as Washington's biggest foreign creditor, with about $1 trillion in U.S. government debt. For the U.S., there are fears that any Chinese flight away from those investments would erode the U.S. ability to spend more on recession-fighting.

For China, unusually forthright of late in challenging the U.S.-led global order, its goal is a greater say in how international finance is regulated and managed.

Beijing and Washington also have sparred over military matters.

Obama treads lightly in meeting with Canada's PM

OTTAWA – President Barack Obama courted warmer relations with America's snowy northern neighbor Thursday, declining to ask war-weary Canada to do more in Afghanistan, promising he won't allow a protectionist creep into U.S. trade policy and talking reassuringly around thorny energy issues.

Obama-happy crowds cheered Obama's seven-hour visit, his first outside U.S. borders as president, and he returned the compliment with a quick stop at an indoor market where he delighted shopkeepers by picking up pastries and souvenirs for his daughters.

"I love this country and think that we could not have a better friend and ally," Obama said as he appeared side-by-side with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at gothic Parliament Hill. He later slipped slightly as he walked to his plane and joked that the weather reminded him of Chicago.

Harper in turn rolled out the red carpet for the new U.S. president. The Conservative leader had been close to President George W. Bush, personally and on policy. But he made clear with subtle jabs backward that he was casting his and his country's lot now with the vastly more popular Obama.

"As we all know, one of President Obama's big missions is to continue world leadership by the United States of America, but in a way that is more collaborative," Harper said, an apparent reference to Bush's go-it-alone diplomatic style.

Still, rhetorical niceties aside, there are some sharp differences between the U.S. and its largest trading partner and biggest supplier of oil. On several topics, where Obama came armed with reassurances, Harper offered mini-lectures, albeit gently delivered.

On the 7-year-old Afghanistan war, for instance, the Canadian leader said that NATO and U.S. forces fighting a resurgent Taliban insurgency are not "through our own efforts going to establish peace and security in Afghanistan." With Obama's administration undertaking a broad review of the U.S. strategy there, Harper suggested that any new policy "have the idea of an end date, of a transition to Afghan responsibility for security, and to greater Western partnership for economic development."

On Canada's massive oil-rich tar sands, Harper suggested that the kind of emissions regulations that environmentalists would like Obama to support would be unfair, making a comparison to the U.S. coal industry. "It's very hard to have a tough regulatory system here when we are competing with an unregulated economy south of the border," Harper said.

On trade, Obama stuck to his pledge to eventually seek changes in the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement to increase enforcement of labor and environmental standards — but said he intended to do so in a way "that is not disruptive to the extraordinarily important trade relationships that exist between the United States and Canada."

Harper said he might be willing to negotiate, but not by "opening the whole NAFTA and unraveling what is a very complex agreement."

He sounded a similar warning on a "Buy American" clause that Congress added to the $787 billion economic stimulus package. The provision's passage fits into a larger fear among free-trading Canadians that America is cultivating a protectionist streak as its economy tanks and hemorrhages jobs.

"We expect the United States to adhere to its international obligations," Harper said. "I can't emphasize how important it is that we do that."

Another point of contention is the post-Sept. 11 security enhancements required by the U.S. along the two country's borders that have made crossings more arduous. Harper suggested no one needed to teach Canada lessons on that score: "Not only have we, since 9/11, made significant investments in security and security along our border, the view of this government is unequivocal: Threats to the United States are threats to Canada."

Obama repeatedly took a non-confrontational approach.

On trade, he declared that he had told Harper: "I want to grow trade and not contract it."

On Afghanistan, Obama said unprompted that he had not asked the prime minister for any more Canadian commitments. Just a handful of nations, including Canada, are doing the heavy lifting there by fighting in the country's dangerous southern and eastern provinces. Canada, which has lost more than 100 people in Afghanistan, is withdrawing its 2,500 combat forces out of the volatile south by 2011.

"We just wanted to make sure that we were saying thank you," Obama said.

The president announced earlier this week that he is sending 17,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to augment the 33,000 already there. It was just over half the increase that U.S. commanders have requested, and Obama left the door open to additional increases once the strategy review is finished in late March.

On the oil sands issue, Obama probably scored points with his hosts by linking the environmental problems of the Canadian industry with those in the U.S. coal industry.

Industry officials estimate the northern Alberta sands could yield as much as 175 billion barrels of oil, making Canada second only to Saudi Arabia in crude oil reserves. But the extraction process produces a high amount of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change. Environmental groups want Obama to resist Harper's efforts to exempt them from regulation.

Obama instead focused on the idea of developing carbon capture and storage to help turn the sands into a clean source of power, a largely unproven and not yet cost-effective technology that would bury harmful emissions underground.

The topic was the only one to produce an announcement, though a minor one. The leaders said they had decided to begin a new clean-energy dialogue to advance carbon-reduction technologies and the development of a modern electric grid.

Presidents send signals with their choices of their maiden international trips, and by coming here Obama meant to show that energy and Afghanistan are at the top of his list.

But with the U.S. economy in free fall, he chose not to make a long visit, not even staying for dinner.

The Canadian public didn't seem to care, with many spending hours on buses to come to the snowy capital in hopes of just a glimpse. The crowd of many hundreds that had started gathering at 4 a.m. in the square outside Parliament erupted in a deafening cheer when the U.S. leader waved for a moment from behind a partition before disappearing inside with Harper. Along his motorcade route, a woman held up a "Yes We Canada" sign, a playful reference to Obama's campaign motto.

There was one small Obama slip. During his joint appearance with Harper, Obama started out by remarking his great pleasure at being in what he clearly started to say was "Iowa." He quickly corrected himself to say "Ottawa."

The day afforded Obama his first experience with many of the pomp-filled ingredients of a presidential journey abroad.

With a light snow falling at the airport, a double line of Royal Canadian Mounted Police in their bright red coats stood at attention. Obama was greeted by the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, Michaelle Jean, who took him inside the terminal for a brief discussion. Obama later met in the same room at the end of his visit with Liberal opposition leader Michael Ignatieff. Throughout his visit, American flags fluttered alongside Canadian ones.

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Draft mandate for fed jobs ruled unconstitutional

Tue Jan 27, 6:41 pm ET

BOSTON – Henry Tucker had worked for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for 17 years when he was told he was going to lose his job — because he hadn't registered for the military draft when he was 18.

Tucker was offered another job as a budget analyst at the National Institutes of Health, but that was withdrawn when the agency learned he never registered.

Tucker, now 38, said when he was 18, he didn't know he had to register for Selective Service.

"There hasn't been a draft since I was a child. To all of a sudden say this is an issue, that is unfair," said Tucker, of Washington, D.C.

A federal judge in Boston agreed, ruling in a case brought by Tucker and three other men that a 1985 law that bans most federal employment for men who knowingly fail to register for the military draft is unconstitutional.

The Military Selective Service Act requires men to register between the ages of 18 and 26.

U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock ruled Monday that a separate law that bans employment at federal executive agencies for men who fail to register is an unconstitutional "bill of attainder," an obscure Constitutional provision that prohibits the legislative branch from punishing people without a judicial trial.

Woodlock rejected the argument that the Military Selective Service Act, because it applies only to men, is discriminatory and violates the Constitution's equal protection guarantees.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said the U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing the ruling and had no immediate comment.

The ruling means the lawsuit may move forward, possibly to trial. The men are seeking reinstatement to their jobs and back pay.

Attorney Harvey Schwartz said he will seek to have the case certified as a class-action lawsuit to represent thousands of federal employees who have been fired because they failed to register.

"Hopefully, it will restore jobs for ... men who were fired not because they couldn't do their jobs, but because they hadn't done something when they were 18 years old," he said.

Obama pledges new start with Muslims

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama promised to improve U.S. ties with the Muslim world in his inauguration address on Tuesday, after tensions that followed the September 11 attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect," said Obama, who became the first black president of the United States.

Obama, a practicing Christian, spent several years of his childhood in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation. His American mother, Ann Dunham, married Muslim Indonesian Lolo Soetoro after the end of her marriage to Obama's Kenyan father.

"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist," Obama said.

Under President George W. Bush, U.S. relations with Muslim nations have often been fractious, particularly after the September 11 attacks.

Many Muslims were angered by the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the opening of a prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, widely seen as a symbol of human rights abuses of mostly Muslim prisoners carried out in the name of the "war on terrorism."

The Council on American Islamic Relations welcomed Obama's promise on seeking better relations with Muslim nations.

"We hope this encouraging statement, coupled with a change in America's previous policies toward the Muslim world, will help improve our nation's image and promote a safe and prosperous future for all of humanity," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the council.

The first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress, Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, said Obama's words were an important signal of goodwill to Muslims in the United States as well as the rest of the world.

"I do believe it could undermine recruiting for al Qaeda," he told Reuters, because "their message depends on trying to demonize the United States as a country that is somehow hostile to Islam and the Muslim world."

Ellison said Obama's outreach would make it hard for al Qaeda to sustain its anti-American message.

Many Muslims are already excited about Obama, he said.

"If you were to go to Damascus, or Cairo, or Jerusalem today, you could find an Obama tee shirt. People are excited about the possibilities for what this means around the globe."

The population of Ellison's district is three or four percent Muslim, he said. Since his election to Congress in 2006, another Muslim has also been voted in: Democrat Andre Carson of Indiana.

About 300 young Muslims from 76 countries signed a letter published in the Washington Post on Tuesday, urging the new president to make policy changes that could improve relations between the Muslim world and the West.

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; editing by Patricia Zengerle)

Aretha Franklin: Headed for Greatness From Inauguration to the Internet: The Web Responds

From on the ground to online, folks have been seeking out delectable details as the day unfolds. Here are some of the most popular look-ups.

Hat's off!
What better way to kick off the festivities ushering in the first African-American president than being serenaded by the "Queen of Soul," Aretha Franklin. The singer bedazzled with her voice, but she had some competition with what was on her head. The enormously bowed topper spurred fans to search on "Aretha Franklin hat," "Aretha Franklin at inauguration," and "Aretha Franklin inauguration hat."

What's for lunch?
There's nothing like a swearing-in ceremony to work up a powerful appetite. And the luncheon with Congress with presidential and vice presidential guests of honor had some searchers hungering for the menu. As Sen. Dianne Feinstein mentioned, the luncheon recipes were the most popular section of the Presidential Inaugural Committee website The multi-course menu included duck, pheasant, and apple cinnamon sponge cake. Searchers wanted to crash the meal with look-ups on "molasses sweet potatoes," "inaugural luncheon," and "inaugural luncheon menu." You can see the full menu and wine pairings here. Read it and weep.

He has words for you
Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, the civil rights leader who worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered the benediction. The speech proved not only popular in the stands, but in search, with look-ups for the entire speech, including "Lowery benediction," "Lowery benediction text," "Reverend Lowery's speech," and "transcript of inaugural benediction." The reverend began his text by quoting a verse from what's known as the "Negro National Anthem," a poem set to music titled "Lift Every Voice and Sing," originally performed in commemoration of Lincoln's birthday at a segregated school in 1900. The text spurred additional look-ups for "negro national anthem" and "negro national anthem lyrics."

Serious speech for serious times
While the crowd was joyful, President Barack Obama's inaugural address was not, intoning phrases such as "In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned." Searches on "obama's speech" and "Obamas inaugural speech" immediately spiked. A critical review said the somber words invoked FDR. Newsweek said the speech reflected Obama's "zeal to remake America's image in the eyes of the world." The New York Times called the speech "good, not great." As the Buzz Log reported earlier, the inaugural address touched on themes of sacrifice, change, personal responsibility, and of course, hope.

Suspected US Missile strike in Pakistan kills 8

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – Suspected U.S. missile strikes killed at least eight people Monday in volatile northwest Pakistan, officials and witnesses said.

Bakht Janan, a local security official at a check post, said an unmanned drone aircraft began circling over the village of Kari Khel around 3 a.m., then fired missiles at two vehicles several hours later. Witnesses told The Associated Press that one of the vehicles had been blasting away with an anti-aircraft gun at the drone.

Four people were killed as missiles hit the vehicle and an adjacent, fortlike house, while four others died and one was injured in the second vehicle five miles (eight kilometers) away by dirt track.

Janan said an unexploded missile was found on the ground near the first vehicle.

Yar Mohammad, a villager, said local Taliban pulled out bodies from the rubble while cordoning off the scene about 10 miles (15 kilometers) south of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border.

The U.S. has carried out a series of more than 30 missile strikes since August in Pakistan's lawless, semiautonomous tribal areas, targeting al-Qaida and Taliban militants blamed for attacks in Afghanistan. While the missile strikes have killed scores of militants, Pakistani officials have criticized them as an infringement of its sovereignty and say they undermine their own war on terror.

Most of the missiles are believed to have been launched from unmanned spy planes that take off from Afghanistan. Washington rarely confirms or denies the attacks.

High-flying Bryant going low-cut with shoes

Bryant unveiled his latest Nike signature shoe Friday night—a low-cut sneaker the league’s reigning MVP donned in a game for the first time when his Los Angeles Lakers visited the Miami Heat. At 11.6 ounces, Nike says it’s the lightest basketball shoe it has created, and Bryant is convinced the switch makes the most sense for his game.

“It feels great, feels great,” Bryant said. “I’m excited about it.”

Many NBA players now use braces on their ankles to prevent sprains, and virtually the entire league plays in mid-cut or high-top shoes. But Bryant is sticking with plain old athletic tape for ankle support, and says that’s enough.

“High-tops really don’t do much for you,” Bryant said Friday. “If you’re going to roll your ankle, you’re going to roll it. It kind of is what it is. If you come down on somebody’s foot, nothing you can do really about that. I wanted to have more mobility in the ankle, more movement at the foot and a lighter weight shoe, and I got it.”

Lakers coach Phil Jackson has no qualms about Bryant’s decision, which is understandable.

After all, he played in low-cuts.

“The only thing about low-cuts, I think some people started saying low-cuts are a detriment to the game because if you get stepped on on the heel, they can come off on the floor,” Jackson said. “But I wore low-cuts, taped. A ton of players had low-cuts and taped their ankles. It doesn’t really matter.”

Some Heat players raised their eyebrows when told of Bryant’s switch, with a few saying they wouldn’t feel comfortable without the extra protection that a high-top shoe might provide.

Miami forward Shawn Marion, though, said he wore low-tops in high school. He no longer does in games, but said there’s some advantages to the lighter shoe.

“Low-cut shoes, they support an ankle more than high-tops,” Marion said. “You’ve got all that high-top coming over the ankle, but you’ve got more stability to move around a little more quickly in low-tops.”

Bryant was directly involved in the design of the shoe, which will be available in stores in February.

He said he didn’t consult any other players who have worn low-cuts, either now or in the past, about the specifications of the sneaker, which he said has special technology to keep a player’s heel in place—something that was among his most important requests, he said.

“It’s more about what I needed as an athlete, me, myself,” Bryant said. “When I play, how do I feel when I wear the shoe? When I wear high-tops, how did I feel? What would I like to see improve in the shoes? What would I like to see perform better? From that, in our meetings, I would just throw all this stuff to them and they would come back with the technology necessary.”

Obama plans US terror trials to replace Guantanamo

WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama's advisers are crafting plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and prosecute terrorism suspects in the U.S., a plan the Bush administration said Monday was easier said than done. Under the plan being crafted inside Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and others would be charged in U.S. courts, where they would receive constitutional rights and open trials.

But, underscoring the difficult decisions Obama must make to fulfill his pledge of shutting down Guantanamo, the plan could require the creation of a new legal system to handle the classified information inherent in some of the most sensitive cases.

Many of the about 250 Guantanamo detainees are cleared for release, but the Bush administration has not able been to find a country willing to take them.

Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren't final.

The plan being developed by Obama's team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But as details surfaced Monday, it drew criticism from Democrats who oppose creating a new legal system and from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. mainland.

Obama foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough said the president-elect wants Guantanamo closed, but no decision has been made "about how and where to try the detainees, and there is no process in place to make that decision until his national security and legal teams are assembled."

Obama seeks a break from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday that President Bush has faced many challenges in trying to close the prison.

"We've tried very hard to explain to people how complicated it is. When you pick up people off the battlefield that have a terrorist background, it's not just so easy to let them go," Perino said. "These issues are complicated, and we have put forward a process that we think would work in order to put them on trial through military tribunals."

But Obama has been critical of that process and his legal advisers said finding an alternative will be a top priority. One of those advisers, Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, acknowledges that bringing detainees to the U.S. would be controversial but said it could be accomplished.

"I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else," Tribe said. "We can't put people in a dungeon forever without processing whether they deserve to be there."

The tougher challenge will be allaying fears by Democrats who believe the Bush administration's military commissions were a farce and dislike the idea of giving detainees anything less than the full constitutional rights normally enjoyed by everyone on U.S. soil.

"I think that creating a new alternative court system in response to the abject failure of Guantanamo would be a profound mistake," Jonathan Hafetz, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represents detainees, said Monday. "We do not need a new court system. The last eight years are a testament to the problems of trying to create new systems."

Senate Judiciary Committee member John Cornyn, R-Texas, said it would be a "colossal mistake to treat terrorism as a mere crime."

"It would be a stunning disappointment if the one of the new administration's first priorities is to give foreign terror suspects captured on the battlefield the same legal rights and protections as American citizens accused of crimes," Cornyn said Monday, noting that the Senate overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding Senate bill last year opposing bringing detainees to the U.S.

Obama did not vote on that measure. He has said the civilian and military court-martial systems provide "a framework for dealing with the terrorists," and Tribe said the administration would look to those venues before creating a new legal system. But discussions of what a new system would look like have already started.

An Obama administration will want to avoid the criticisms that have marked the Bush administration's military commissions. Human rights groups and defense attorneys have condemned the commissions for lax evidence rules and intense secrecy. Some military prosecutors have even quit in protest.

"It would have to be some sort of hybrid that involves military commissions that actually administer justice rather than just serve as kangaroo courts," Tribe said. "It will have to both be and appear to be fundamentally fair in light of the circumstances. I think people are going to give an Obama administration the benefit of the doubt in that regard."

Some weren't so sure.

"There would be concern about establishing a completely new system," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Judiciary Committee and former federal prosecutor who is aware of the discussions in the Obama camp. "And in the sense that establishing a regimen of detention that includes American citizens and foreign nationals that takes place on U.S. soil and departs from the criminal justice system — trying to establish that would be very difficult."

Though a hybrid court may be unpopular, other advisers and Democrats involved in the Guantanamo Bay discussions say Obama has few options.

Prosecuting all detainees in federal courts raises many problems. Evidence gathered through military interrogation or from intelligence sources might be thrown out. Defendants would have the right to confront witnesses, meaning undercover CIA officers or terrorist turncoats might have to take the stand, jeopardizing their cover and revealing classified intelligence tactics.

That means something different would need to be done if detainees couldn't be released or prosecuted in traditional courts. Exactly what remains unclear.

"I don't think we need to completely reinvent the wheel, but we need a better tribunal process that is more transparent," Schiff said.

According to three advisers participating in the process, Obama is expected to propose a new court system and may appoint a committee to decide how such a court would operate. Some detainees likely would be returned to the countries where they were first captured for further detention or rehabilitation. The rest could probably be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts, one adviser said. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks, which have been private.

One challenge will be figuring out what to do with the 90 or so Yemeni detainees — the largest group in the prison. The Bush administration has sought to negotiate the release of some of those detainees as part of a rehabilitation plan with the Yemeni government. But talks have so far been fruitless.

Waleed Alshahari, who has been following Guantanamo issues for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, said the plan being discussed by the Obama team was an improvement over the current system. But he said he expects most detainees to be released rather than stand trial.

"If the U.S. government has any evidence against them, they would try them and put them in jail," Alshahari said. "But it has been obvious they have nothing against them. That is why they have not faced trial."

Whatever Obama decides, he should move quickly, Tribe said.

"In reality and symbolically, the idea that we have people in legal black holes is an extremely serious black mark," Tribe said. "It has to be dealt with."

Bushes and Obamas: All smiles at the White House

WASHINGTON – All smiles and compliments, President-elect Obama and his wife, Michelle, called on President Bush and first lady Laura Bush Monday in a White House visit that was part political ritual, part practical introduction and a striking symbol of the historic transfer of power to come.

The president and Obama talked war and financial crisis. Laura Bush and Michelle Obama talked about raising daughters in the nation's most famous house.

Then Obama flew back to Chicago to work on setting up the new administration that will take over on Jan. 20.

Mrs. Obama went out hunting a new school for the kids, visiting two of the capital city's best-known private schools.

If first impressions matter, Obama and his wife displayed one similarity to the super-punctual Bushes, pulling up to the White House's South Portico 11 minutes early. The couples traded warm and easy greetings in the crisp autumn sunshine, with the wives exchanging pleasantries about the fall hues each wore — Mrs. Bush in a brown dress and Mrs. Obama in a red one.

While Obama and Bush, in business suits, proceeded waving and smiling down the White House Colonnade for nearly two hours of private talks, Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Bush had their own agenda: talk of raising children in most unusual circumstances. Mrs. Bush conducted a tour of the living quarters of the historic mansion and made introductions to the army of residence staff who look after first families.

Michelle Obama had toured the White House before with daughters Malia, who is 10, and Sasha, who is 7. But the two women had never met.

The 43rd president and the man who will be the 44th — and first black — commander in chief met alone in the Oval Office, with no handlers or staff. It was Obama's first time in the storied workspace, even though he had been to the White House previously for events.

Neither the Bushes nor the Obamas spoke to reporters, and details about their meetings were few.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the two men "talked extensively" about the economic situation and foreign policy.

"Obviously the topics that came up are what you've seen and heard about in the news recently and about what a number of transition officials spoke about on the Sunday (TV talk) shows," he said.

Topics included the housing industry and foreclosures as well as "the need to get the economy back on track," Gibbs said.

Obama's aides said the president-elect pushed for urgent action to help the ailing auto industry. "It was a discussion about the broad health of the industry," Gibbs said, and was not just limited to just one of the nation's three largest car makers.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have said the administration should consider expanding the $700 billion financial bailout to include car companies. At a news conference Friday, Obama said he hoped the Bush administration would "do everything it can to accelerate the retooling assistance that Congress has already enacted."

As for Obama's first glimpse of the Oval Office, Gibbs said: "He said it was a very, very nice office."

White House press secretary Dana Perino said that Bush described the meeting as "constructive, relaxed and friendly," covering problems at home and abroad, and that he personally pledged a smooth transition. Bush gave Obama a sneak peek at White House highlights, such as the Lincoln Bedroom and the president's office in the residence, after their hour-plus in the Oval Office.

Such White House meetings have a history going back decades. They are discussions that can range wherever the two men choose, whether focused on specific issues, how best to make decisions, the extraordinary resources that accompany any American president, the special weight of the office or even the secrets about the building that few people are privy to. It's also a chance to establish personal rapport between near-strangers, though that is by no means guaranteed.

Michelle Obama arrived in Washington before her husband and stayed awhile after left, checking out schools.

In the morning, she visited Georgetown Day School. Then in the late afternoon she toured Sidwell Friends School, which Chelsea Clinton attended when her parents were in the White House.

The Obamas' children now attend a private school in Chicago.

At the White House, while Bush and Obama talked, parallel confabs went on all around the building.

Bush chief of staff Josh Bolten and Obama transition manager John Podesta, himself a former White House chief of staff under President Clinton, held their own talks after standing off to the side together in the Rose Garden watching their bosses walk by. Obama's likely White House press secretary, Gibbs, got a glimpse of the West Wing digs he probably will occupy — including a fancy bank of television screens on one wall.

Outside, crowds built throughout the day with people pressing their noses through the fencing around the White House complex in hopes of getting a glimpse of the first family to be. Street vendors operating nearby were already stocked with Obama-related merchandise.

Obama traveled the streets of Washington and up the White House drive in a motorcade upgraded from campaign mode to full-blown presidential level. There were the two identical black, heavily armored limousines — one a decoy — like those Bush rides in, only without the seal or flying flags. There was also a hazardous materials truck, a communications vehicle and an ominous-looking, armed-to-the-teeth counterassault team filling the seats of an open-windowed Suburban.

Obama's staff, most in suits, remarked they had needed to buy "grown-up clothes" that better befitted a White House visit than the smart casual look they had adopted for the campaign plane. Even the entourage's ever-cheerful luggage handler donned a coat and tie for the day, though he didn't come along to the White House.

And there was one small but unmistakable sign that it will be Obama who will be in charge before too long: He put his left hand on Bush's back as they went inside the building from Obama's motorcade, as if he was guiding the president into his own house.

Later, as he sat on his plane waiting for takeoff, he was heard to say into his cell phone: "I'm not going to be spending too much time in Washington over the next several weeks."

These White House sessions hare designed to put the presidency above politics, temporarily at least. This year's took place less than a week after Election Day, giving less time than usual for raw campaign words to fade.

But both Bush and Obama have set a tone of graciousness and cooperation that has surprised — and pleased — many observers.

Obama has shown no inclination for gloating. And Bush has been notably generous in his comments since the election.

On a practical — and sober — level, Obama is taking office with the economy in deep turmoil and two wars that are far from won, among other problems.

Comity aside, there are plenty of tension points.

Bush and Obama met as the main transition news of the day was the Democratic team's preparations to rescind many of the incumbent's executive orders. Podesta said Obama's aides were poring over all of them and will make such reversals among the new president's first acts.

"We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set," Podesta said, delivering a concrete rebuke of Bush only about 24 hours before the two men sat down together.

Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said in a statement that Obama "will honor the commitment he made during the campaign to review all executive orders, but this process has not yet begun and no decisions have been made. The President-elect has pledged to run an open and inclusive government, so before he makes any decisions on potential executive or legislative actions, he will be conferring with congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle, as well as interested groups."