SPB news for Saturday.

State GOP seeks Blagojevich-Obama tie

Repubs will try to discount fall ballot with governor's corruption charges

Israel threatens war on Gaza and Iran Israel braced itself for conflict on two fronts against militants in Gaza and an Iranian government persisting with its nuclear programme. Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, said the "pendulum is closer" to a large scale military operation in Gaza after another Israeli civilian was killed by a mortar fired from Gaza on Thursday.

Turkey, Iran launch coordinated attacks on Kurds Turkey and Iran have been carrying out coordinated strikes on Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, a top Turkish general said Thursday in the first military confirmation of Iranian-Turkish cooperation in the fight against separatists there. Gen. Ilker Basbug, Turkey's land forces commander, said the two countries have been sharing intelligence and planned more coordinated attacks in the future against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and PEJAK, the group's Iranian wing.

U.S. to reopen Canadian's torture case --Homeland Security's inspector general says new evidence suggests officials may have broken laws by sending Maher Arar to Syria. Top Department of Homeland Security investigator said Thursday that his office would reopen an inquiry into the case of a Canadian engineer who was sent secretly by the U.S. to his native Syria for interrogation because of suspected ties to 'Al Qaeda.' Inspector General Richard L. Skinner, who spoke at a congressional hearing in Washington, said new evidence had emerged that U.S. officials may have broken laws related to torture in the case of Maher Arar... "Senior American officials ought to go to jail for this," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on constitution, civil rights and civil liberties, who has access to the classified version of a redacted inspector's general report on the government's actions.

In Afghanistan, theft still plagues U.S. military --Two years after the U.S. military took steps to get the problem under control, the smuggling of equipment and sensitive material from U.S. bases in Afghanistan continues. At the market outside Bagram in late May, the Tribune found shops selling everything from army medical kits to small computer memory devices, known as "thumb drives" or "flash drives," containing military records, soldiers' Social Security numbers, maps and other documents labeled with security warnings. The culprits are likely Afghans who work for the Americans inside the base, and the fear is that the lost equipment or information could wind up in the hands of 'insurgents' and therefore pose a danger to U.S. forces.

U.S. House approves $3 trillion FY09 budget The Democratic-controlled Congress on Thursday adopted a $3 trillion U.S. budget for next year as the House of Representatives put the finishing touches on the measure... The Senate approved an identical measure on Wednesday, embracing Bush's continuation of a military buildup that sets aside more than $500 billion for national 'defense' next year.

Homeland Security officer charged in sex assault of 15-year-old girl A 25-year-old Olney man [Troy Daniel Fisher], a security officer with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has been charged with third-degree sexual offense for having sex with a 15-year-old Gaithersburg girl, according to charging documents filed in Montgomery County District Court. The girl reported to police that she told the man to "stop," according to the documents.

DNC will refuse funds from lobbyists, PACs Barack Obama put his stamp on the party Thursday, announcing the Democratic National Committee would no longer accept donations from political action committees or federal lobbyists. That brings the party in line with his campaign's policy. The DNC also brought in Paul Tewes, who directed Obama's come-from-behind victory in Iowa, to oversee party operations.

Intel Said to Face Antitrust Investigation The Federal Trade Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation of Intel, the world’s largest maker of computer microprocessors, for anticompetitive conduct, government officials and lawyers involved in the proceeding said Friday.

Convicted steroids dealer who gave names to NFL found dead A convicted steroids dealer who recently met with NFL security officials and gave them names of players he said bought steroids from him has been found dead in his home. Early Thursday morning, Plano police made a welfare check and found David Jacobs and Amanda Jo Earhart-Savell dead. Both had been shot. According to ESPN the Magazine senior writer Shaun Assael, who had been in contact with Jacobs throughout May, Jacobs was reticent and nervous about the information he had and the people it implicated. When explaining why he did not want to go public, Jacobs said: "The kinds of people I know about could put a bullet in the back of my head."