Dodd won’t seek re-election
Connecticut senator’s move adds to loss of N.D.’s Dorgan
WASHINGTON — Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd, a five-term Democrat whose political stock began falling after the financial meltdown and his failed 2008 presidential bid, has decided not to seek re-election in November, officials told The Associated Press early Wednesday.
Dodd was expected to make an announcement Wednesday. The officials who disclosed his plans would speak only on condition of anonymity. The Washington Post first reported Dodd’s decision.
Word of his retirement comes hours after North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan announced he will not seek re-election.
Dodd, 66, is chairman of Senate Banking Committee, which was at the center of efforts to deal with the economic meltdown. And he has played a prominent role in the debate over overhauling health care, taking over for his friend Ted Kennedy during his illness and then after his death.
Dodd, who has taken heat for a discounted VIP mortgage loan he got from a subprime lender, has been consistently behind potential GOP challenger Rob Simmons in Connecticut polls. Simmons, a former House member, has his own challenger in World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon, who is also seeking the Republican nomination for Dodd’s seat.
Among the early favorites to replace Dodd is longtime Connecticut state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is seen as one of the state’s most popular politicians.
Dodd ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, moving his family to Iowa for weeks before the caucuses and angering Connecticut constituents. He dropped out after a poor showing in Iowa.
As chairman of the Senate banking panel, Dodd has come under fire for his reliance on Wall Street contributions. He drew criticism for his role in writing a bill that protected bonuses for executives at bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc., and for allegations he got favorable treatment on two mortgages with Countrywide Financial Corp.
The Senate ethics panel cleared Dodd of breaking rules by getting the Countrywide mortgages.
Boycott, new construction add to housing standoff
SALFIT, West Bank — Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad throws a package into a bonfire Tuesday to mark the launch of a boycott of products made in Jewish settlements. Meanwhile, Israel approved construction of four apartment buildings in disputed east Jerusalem, officials said. The latest project is potentially even more contentious than others because it is not in an established Jewish neighborhood, but rather in a predominantly Arab area of the city.
NATION
Democrats put overhaul bill for heath on fast track
WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama began work in earnest Tuesday on difficult issues still standing in the way of their national health care overhaul after months of tortuous debate. Topping the list: how to help Americans pay for insurance premiums.
At a White House meeting that stretched into Tuesday evening, the president and Democratic congressional leaders agreed on fast-track negotiations that would bypass the need for a formal conference to resolve differences between the House and Senate health care bills.
Republicans were not invited, and they complained that the Democrats intended to deliberate behind closed doors — though lawmakers often do so in the final stages of such complex legislation.
Separately, the head of C-SPAN, the nonpartisan public affairs network, called for letting the sun shine in on the discussions — as Obama once had promised.
The network released a letter Tuesday from CEO Brian Lamb to congressional leaders asking for the talks to be opened to cameras.
House Democrats face the virtual certainty that they will not get the government-run insurance plan liberals had sought, a point Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California acknowledged.
“There are other ways to do that, and we look forward to having those discussions,” she said.
WORLD
Iraq frees militant leader linked to British hostages
More Top Picks Why Do My Eyes Hurt After A Day At The Screen
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government has released the leader of a militant Shiite group linked to the 2007 kidnapping of five Britons, a spokesman said Tuesday.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said Qais al-Khazali was freed Sunday, following his transfer several days earlier from U.S. to Iraqi custody.
Al-Khazali is the head of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous. He was detained after an attack killed five U.S. soldiers in January 2007 in the city of Karbala.
In May 2007, men wearing military uniforms seized Peter Moore, 36, a British computer expert, and his four bodyguards in a daring daytime raid.
The bodies of three of the bodyguards have been handed over to British authorities. Moore was released alive last Wednesday, but the fate of the final hostage remains unknown.
The kidnappers had demanded the release of Shiite militiamen, including al-Khazali and his brother Laith al-Khazali, in exchange for the British hostages. Laith al-Khazali was released in June.
Bomber kills 3 in Kashmir
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan — A suicide bomber killed three soldiers Wednesday morning in Pakistan’s part of Kashmir, police said.
Javed Iqbal, the police chief in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, said the attack was at an army barrack near the town of Rawalakot. He said 11 additional soldiers were wounded in the attack.
More than 500 people have been killed in attacks by militants, many of them targeting the government, since mid-October, when the army launched a major offensive against the Pakistani Taliban’s stronghold of South Waziristan in the northwest part of the country.
U.N. suspends food aid
HARGEISA, Somalia — The U.N. food agency on Tuesday suspended the distribution of desperately needed aid in southern Somalia because of attacks on its staff, a decision affecting up to 1 million people.
At least 43 aid workers were killed from January 2008 through fall 2009, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Four humanitarian workers remain in the hands of their captors.