Morning News Roundup (08 Mar)

• The bodies of 23 men who had been strangled or shot were found in two locations in Baghdad Wednesday morning, with 18 discovered aboard an abandoned bus in a predominantly Sunni area of the capital. [WaPo]
  
  
• Fourteen people are confirmed dead in the blasts at a Hindu temple and a railway station and more than 100 were injured in the Indian holy city of Varanasi. [BBC]
  
  
• If the U.N. Security Council is incapable of taking action to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Israel will have no choice but to defend itself, Israel's defense minister said on Wednesday. [Reuters]
  
  
• James Morris, head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) warns that more than 20 million people in the Horn of Africa are at risk of famine. The rain cycle in the area has decreased steadily over the last decade, and the WFP is running out of food for 3.5 million Kenyans who need emergency assistance. [Guardian]
  
  
• Pressed both by churches that have not received privately raised Hurricane Katrina relief funds as promised, President Bush ordered the Department of Homeland Security yesterday to create a center for faith-based and community initiatives within 45 days to eliminate regulatory, contracting and programmatic barriers to providing federal funds to religious groups to deliver social services. [WaPo]
  
  
• Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that they had reached agreement with the White House on proposed bills to impose new oversight but allow wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days. It dashes Democratic hopes of starting a full committee investigation because the proposal won the support of Senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine. The two, both Republicans, had threatened to support a fuller inquiry if the White House did not disclose more about the program to Congress. [NYTimes]
  
  
• $5.9 billion: The amount spent per month in Iraq. The Wall Street Journal notes, “War costs are rising despite Pentagon estimates of lower personnel costs.” [ThinkProgress]
  
  
• The Associated Press says that Tom DeLay has won the Republican nomination to return to his seat in the House of Representatives. With 14 percent of the precincts reporting, DeLay had 64 percent of the vote. He needs at least 50 percent to avoid a runoff election next month. DeLay likely will face former Rep. Nick Lampson in the general election in November. [Salon's War Room]