Tenet Takes Blame for State of the Union Miscue


CIA Director George Tenet (search) on Friday accepted responsibility for letting President Bush include inaccurate allegations about Iraqi efforts to get uranium from Africa in January's State of the Union address.

"These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the president," Tenet said in a statement released after Bush and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice (search), blamed the inclusion of the faulty intelligence on the agency.

"This was a mistake," the director's statement said.


FOX news

Read the whole story

Read Tenets statement

Mother Nature at her worst

Mosquitoes to Find Mobile Rings Annoying Too
Thu July 10, 2003 10:46 AM ET
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's top mobile phone operator is offering a new service that allows cellphone users to download a sound it says repels troublesome mosquitoes.
The sound should be capable of clearing the insects within a range of one meter, said SK Telecom Co, which claimed it had worked during tests.

Mosquitoes are a common irritant during the hot, humid summers in Korea.

Subscribers will be able to download the sound, which will cost $2.54, via the firm's wireless Internet service from Monday. The sound plays constantly and is faintly audible to the human ear.

Repelling the bugs will use up to 30 percent more of the phone's battery power, said SK, which controls more than half of Asia's third-largest mobile market.

Iran Revolution Watch
Yesterday was supposed to be a big day for the Iranian freedom movement, but it turned out to be a small day instead. Three leaders of antiregime student groups called a press conference to announce they were canceling massive protests they'd scheduled; after the press conference, Reuters reports, "a group of armed Islamic vigilantes" kidnapped the student leaders.

Despite the official cancellation, "hundreds of Iranian hardline Islamic vigilantes, police and pro-democracy youths fought sporadic street battles near Tehran University on Wednesday." One of these days, the ayatollahs will fall.

Taking Stock
A true measure of consumer and business reality.


Gallup poll taken in mid-June found that 45 percent of Americans thought the economy was improving; this compares to 40 percent in May and only 23 percent in March. In fact, the recent survey marks the first time since June 2002 when more consumers believe economic conditions are better (45 percent) then say they are getting worse (43 percent).

These poll numbers on the economy are not surprising. Since mid-March the U.S. stock market has increased 25 percent. Though most pundits don't realize it, the stock market is the nation's best overall measure of consumer confidence and business conditions.

Today's stock market is no longer just a rich person's game. In the past two elections two out of three voters owned shares. Nationwide one of every two families are investors, totaling nearly 100 million people. Hence, the stock market is not only a referendum on the economy it is also a key political barometer as well. One investor who will take great satisfaction from these results is none other than President George W. Bush.


Larry Kudlow

Read the whole article

Black ring over Texas


Chuck Fehlis captured this image on his digital camera shortly before 11 a.m. today. It shows a black ring that National Weather Service officials first believed was a halo effect produced by the sun. The weather service later determined that an 'explosion caused by lightning' produced the ring.




Read about it