SPB News for Tuesday.

Bush Administration Plans To Gut The Endangered Species Act

Musharraf "misappropriated" US aid worth $700 M: Zardari In a fresh salvo against beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's ruling PPP chief has accused him of "misappropriating" a whopping USD 700 million of American aid to Islamabad for supporting the war on [of] terror and said "rogue" ISI members could have benefitted from it. The serious allegation levelled by Asif Ali Zardari against Musharraf may form a key part of the charge against Musharraf... Zardari claimed that the American aid might have gone to fund "rogue" members of the military intelligence, the ISI, who were last week accused by the US of assisting Taliban and other militant groups rather than rooting them out.

Brown issues coded threat to Putin on G8 status Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has condemned Russia's actions in Georgia as "unjustified" and warned that the escalation in tension risked destabilising the entire region. In a strongly worded statement, he signalled that Moscow was putting its international reputation on the line with its "continued aggression" against the independent country. That remark will be interpreted as a coded warning about Russia's status as a G8 member.

'Oil, Israel and Iran' Among Factors that Led to Georgia War Analysis of the war in Georgia points to a fight over a major oil route as the main reason for hostilities, but also to an Israeli connection. Channel 2's expert on the Muslim world, Ehud Ya'ari, told viewers of the central evening newscast that Russia and neighboring countries were vying for control of a strategic oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. Israel is expecting to receive oil and gas through the pipeline. By using the ethnic Russian population in South Ossetia to destabilize Georgia, Russia was making a play for the pipeline, he said. The Georgian move against South Ossetia was motivated by political considerations having to do with Israel and Iran, according to Nfc. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili decided to assert control over the breakaway region in order to force Israel to reconsider its decision to cut back its support for Georgia's military.

Two Australians injured in Afghanistan Two Australian soldiers serving in Afghanistan have been wounded, one seriously, as their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device (IED) on a road in the southern Oruzgan province. A third Australian soldier suffered slight injuries when a rescue helicopter was involved in a "hard landing" at the explosion scene yesterday, defence authorities said.

DHS, Rejecting Advice, Puts Mississippi on Shortlist for Facility --World's most virulent biological threats to be studied The Department of Homeland Security swept aside evaluations by government experts and named Mississippi -- home to powerful U.S. lawmakers with sway over the agency -- as a potential location for a $451 million national laboratory to study create some of the world's most virulent biological threats, according to internal documents obtained by the Associated Press. Researchers would study foot-and-mouth disease, African swine fever, Japanese encephalitis, Rift Valley fever, and the Hendra and Nipah viruses.

FDIC Fund Strained by Bank Failures May Lift Premiums The failure of IndyMac Bancorp Inc. and seven other banks this year may erase as much as 17 percent of a government insurance fund and raise premiums for all banks. The closing of IndyMac in July, the third-biggest U.S. bank failure, may cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s fund $4 billion to $8 billion, in addition to an estimated $1.16 billion for seven closures through Aug. 1. Premiums for insuring deposits will likely rise, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said in a July 30 interview.