SPB News for Thursday.

ABC: Emanuel To Meet With Senate GOP Leaders Thurs.

Rep. Cole Withdraws, Leaving NRCC Chair For Sessions

Judge Lets Franken Access Rejected Absentee Ballot Info

8 More Banks Announce $1.5B Of Bailout Participation

China No. 1 holder of US treasuries

$585 billion worth tops Japan's $573, US Treasury Department reports.

Mystery surrounds CIA Somalia trip Operatives from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have entered the Somali breakaway region of Puntland under a cloud of suspicion. The CIA agents arrived in the town of Bossaso on Wednesday and are holding meetings with Puntland's high-ranking officials, a Press TV correspondent reported. An international advocacy group blasted Washington in its recent report, saying US air strikes in the Horn of Africa country had caused devastation for aid workers on the ground.

Iraq war illegal, former U.K. lawyer says Justification used by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to support the U.S.-led of invasion of Iraq in 2003 was flawed, Iranian state media said Tuesday. Baron Thomas Henry Bingham, former head of the judicial branch of the House of Lords, told the British Institute of International and Comparative Law that lawmakers had not provided sufficient evidence to the former premier to justify the invasion of Iraq, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday.

The Hidden Enemy --Iraq plant coordinator: KBR knew sodium dichromate was at the plant. Ed Blacke was the Health, Safety and Environmental Coordinator at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant near Basra, Iraq. Blacke arrived in June of 2003 and remained through the middle of August 2003. His Houston-based company, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) was contracted to rebuild the facility after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and toppled Saddam's government... Ed Blacke claims KBR knew sodium dichromate was at the plant. He says KBR was negligent by not giving the Indiana National Guard soldiers protective gear.

Did U.S. push detention of American without charges? An American Muslim subjected to several years of intense FBI scrutiny and questioning about links to terrorism has been held without charges, access to a lawyer or contact with his family for nearly three months by the security services of the United Arab Emirates. The case of Naji Hamdan, coupled with FBI interrogations of an American citizen secretly detained without charges in East Africa, raises the question of whether the Bush regime has asked other nations to hold Americans suspected of terrorism links whom U.S. officials lack the evidence to charge.

Pakistan seeks $7.6bn in IMF bailout Pakistan has asked the International Monetary Fund for a $7.6bn (£5.2bn) standby loan in return for economic reforms, said the country's de facto finance minister. The terms of the loan require Pakistan tocut the government's fiscal deficit to below 4 per cent of gross domestic product, from more than 7 per cent in the financial year to June, said Shaukat Tarin, finance adviser to the prime minister.

Kerry expected to get top foreign affairs panel post Senator John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) is widely expected to be named the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a position that will give him enormous influence over international relations.

Last-minute Bush abortion ruling causes furor A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job-discrimination laws. The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their "religious beliefs or moral convictions." Three officials from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including its legal counsel, whom President [sic] George W. Bush appointed, said the proposal would overturn 40 years of civil rights law prohibiting job discrimination based on religion.

Prop. 8 gay marriage ban goes to Supreme Court — The California high court will review legal challenges to Prop. 8. A hearing is set for March. Prior to a ruling, gay weddings will not be allowed to resume. — REPORTING FROM SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court agreed …

Election surprise: Obama won Salt Lake County voters' nod

NAPOLITANO TO HEAD HOMELAND SECURITY

Feds: Woman kept indentured servant

Californian accused of forcing captive immigrant to work without pay.