SPB News for Monday

Dem. lieutenant governor candidate Cohen exits Ill. race

Obama invites GOP to health-care summit — President Obama made a dramatic attempt to jump-start the stalled health care debate Sunday, inviting Republicans in Congress to a half-day summit on the subject to be televised live later this month. — The president made the offer in an interview …

Female Iraq election candidate shot dead in Mosul: police A woman planning to stand in Iraq’s March 7 general election was gunned down Sunday in the restive northern city of Mosul, police said, just days before campaigning is officially due to start. Suha Abdul Jarallah, a candidate on the list of pro-Western former prime minister Iyad Allawi, was shot dead as she left a house in the Ras al-Jadda neighbourhood in central Mosul, 350 kilometres (218 miles) north of Baghdad.

Ahmadinejad orders 20% uranium enrichment Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has tasked the country's atomic chief with enriching uranium to 20 percent, in order to meet the demands of the country's cancer patients. Speaking at the exhibition of Laser Science and Technology Achievements in Tehran, the president called on Ali Akbar Salehi, to start the process.

US rejects EU diplomacy over Iran N program Leading US senators Joseph Lieberman and John Kerry inveigh against a top EU official for supporting further diplomatic talks with Iran over its nuclear program. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, the two US officials criticized the European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashto who threw her lot with more dialogue over Iran's nuclear program.

Think-tanks take oil money and use it to fund climate deniers --ExxonMobil cash supported concerted campaign to undermine case for man-made warming 07 Feb 2010 An orchestrated campaign is being waged against climate change science to undermine public acceptance of man-made global warming, environment experts claimed last night. The attack against scientists supportive of the idea of man-made climate change has grown in ferocity since the leak of thousands of documents on the subject from the University of East Anglia (UEA) on the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit last December.