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A Dubai-owned company Dubai Ports World is backing away from a plan to manage terminal operations at six key U.S. ports. Responding to pressure from U.S. Congress, the company says it will transfer its interest in the ports to an unspecified American "entity."
President Bush is still frustrated over the scandal, believing that the uproar over the deal further tarnishes the U.S's reputation in the Middle East.
AX:
I'm concerned about a broader message that this issue could send our friends and allies around the world. In order to win the world on terror, we have got to strengthen our relationships and friendships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East.
Critics of the deal, who include Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, are leveraging the controversy to erode Republican advantage in homeland security issues.
Chile's first female president, Michelle Bachelet, will be inaugurated on Saturday. Bachelet is a former pediatrician, a single parent with three children, and was a political prisoner during the right-wing government of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is attending the inauguration.
Chile us traditionally labeled a conservative society. Only 4% of senators are women and divorce was legalized last year. Two men stood between Bachelet and the presidential palace. The 54-year-old was the sole candidate for the ruling centre-left coalition, which has held power since the return of democracy in 1990.
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel would impose a West Bank border largely along the route of its current separation barrier and move all Jewish settlers to the Israeli side. Olmert is the front-runner in March 28 elections - and candidates are usually vague about their plans for the West Bank out of fear of losing potential voters. The Palestinians called for an immediate resumption of peace talks. But that is unlikely since Hamas, which Israel considers a terrorist organization, won the recent elections. Olmert said he would not negotiate with a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.
Is there life out there in the big black void? Are we really all alone? Maybe one of Saturn's moons has the answer. Scientists have found signs of liquid water on Saturn's fourth largest moon, Enceladus. NASA's Cassini spacecraft has beamed images of ice crystal eruptions near the moon's south pole, as it literally flew through them. Water, heat, and carbon molecules are the building blocks of life, and scientists speculate that all three might be present on the gas giant's moon. The spacecraft was launched in 1997 and went into orbit around Saturn in 2004,
In other extraterrestrial news, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, an updated super hi-tech space probe reaches Mars today. But unlike the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers, the probe will not land on the planet's rust covered surface. The machine is designed to examine Mars' atmosphere, surface and underground layers from a low altitude of 200 miles, and will send home up to 10 times as much data per minute as any previous Mars mission.
There have been over 36 attempted missions to Mars, but most have failed. Fook Lee of NASA's jet propulsion laboratory is relieved the orbiter has survived its 300,000,000 million mile journey.
AX: Mars
If you look back at the history of the exploration of mars, and all of the missions that all of the nations have sent since the history of space age travel…if you look at these numbers, they might be great for baseball batting averages, but for us, these are very sobering numbers.
And back to earth for local news- well, it looks like Punxsutawney Phil, the U.S's unofficial groundhog was wrong this year when he predicted six more weeks of winter.
It's partly sunny in New York today- with record highs of 73 degrees. Tomorrow's high will be 61, and Sunday will also reach the lower 60s. There might be a light thundershower on Monday, but no worries, there's still plenty of great weather to roll out the grill and kick off those early St Patrick's Day celebrations.
Joseph Chaney, Columbia Radio News