Morning News Roundup (28 August)

Middle East Sturm und Drang

• “The majority of U.S. service members charged in the unlawful deaths of Iraqi civilians have been acquitted, found guilty of relatively minor offenses or given administrative punishments without trials,” the Washington Post finds. [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• The death toll mounted in Iraq Monday as clashes between Shiite militiamen and U.S.-backed Iraqi forces in a southern city killed at least 23 and injured 70 while a suicide bombing in the capital killed 15, including 8 policemen. U.S. forces, meanwhile, have lost nine soldiers since Saturday, the military said in press releases, making it a lethal weekends for them as well. [WaPo]
  
  
• An ambitious military sweep appears to be dramatically reducing Baghdad's homicide rate, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Sunday — even as violence nationwide killed at least 80 people, including six U.S. soldiers in and around the capital. Last month, the Baghdad morgue received more than 1,800 bodies, a record high. This month, the morgue is on track to receive less than a quarter of that.
  [...]
  Though the U.S. military has not issued a timetable for ending the sweep, officials say that patrolling Baghdad indefinitely would create dependency among Iraq's nascent security forces and tax U.S. resources and manpower. The U.S. military, with 138,000 troops, is stretched thin in Iraq; many units are on their third deployments. Last week, the Pentagon announced an involuntary recall of as many as 2,500 Marines reservists. The Army has issued recall orders to 10,000 soldiers. [LATimes]
  
  
• Just after Iran's Ahmadinejad opens a heavy water plant that could aid the production of nuclear weaapons, the Iranian navy test-fires a long-range missile from a submarine in the Persian Gulf. [Foreign Policy's Passport]
  
  
• “Analysts across the political spectrum say the Bush Doctrine — preventive war, choking the roots of terrorism by planting democracy, and brandishing power to force others into line — has failed.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]

Climate Crisis

• For years, most industry groups have fought any effort to limit carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming, warning of dire consequences for the U.S. economy. But with growing public anxiety about climate change, major corporations are increasingly preparing for -- and in some cases lobbying for -- Congress to regulate emissions of heat-trapping gases.
  
  The industry's response is evolving in spite of opposition by the Bush administration to limits on carbon dioxide.
  
  But businesses are reading the political tea leaves. Legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions is gaining ground in Congress with members of both parties. States, especially California and those in the Northeast, are moving forward with climate-change regulations. Two likely presidential hopefuls for 2008 -- Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York -- have called for reining in greenhouse gases. [Seattle P-I]
  
  
• Scientists say earlier springs and later autumns are proof that global warming is responsible for altering the timing of the seasons in Europe. The Guardian reported Saturday on what is believed to be the world's largest study of seasonal events, such as the flowering of plants, autumnal leaves falling and insect behavior, that have caused scientists to believe that spring now arrives six-to-eight days earlier across Europe than it did in the early 1970s. And warmer temperatures have delayed autumn by an average of three days in the past 30 years. [UPI]
  
  
• Britain is at "the bottom of the heap" in recycling its rubbish, according to a study of the green credentials of European Union countries. Of the EU's 25 member states, only Greece and Portugal recycle a smaller proportion of their waste than Britain. The report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and Green Alliance, which revealed the EU league table, called on local authorities to be given powers to charge a "pay-as-you-throw" fee for collecting non-recyclable rubbish. [The Independent]
  
  
• Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged better care for the environment, saying it was being endangered by lifestyle choices causing its deterioration. Such deterioration, the pontiff said during his traditional Sunday blessing, "make the lives of poor people on earth especially unbearable." Benedict remarked that the Italian Catholic Church has chosen Sept. 1 to celebrate it first Earth Day. "Along with Christians from all denominations, we must commit to taking care of creation, without squandering its resources and sharing them in a convivial manner," the pope said. [ENN]

Domestic Potpourri

• Of the 59 Democrats in hotly contested House and Senate races, a majority agree with the Bush administration that it would be unwise to set a specific schedule for troop withdrawal, and only a few are calling for substantial troop reductions to begin this year, according to a Washington Post survey of the campaigns.
  
  The large number of Democrats opposed to a strict timeline for ending the military operations runs contrary to the assertion by President Bush and top Republicans that Democrats want to "cut and run" amid mounting casualties and signs of civil war. At the same time, the decision by many Democrats to refrain from advocating a specific plan for withdrawal complicates their leaders' efforts to convince voters that they offer a clear new direction for the increasingly unpopular war. [WaPo]
  
  
• The NYT says that the median hourly wage for American workers has fallen 2 percent in the last three years once inflation is factored in—which is surprising, considering that the economy has been strong overall and the average worker's productivity has increased. Benefits are also shrinking. "Although the economy continues to add jobs, global trade, immigration, layoffs and technology—as well as the insecurity caused by them—appear to have eroded workers' bargaining power," the story says. Political analysts suggest that growing income inequality could create a favorable electoral climate for Democrats. [Slate's Today's Papers]

Misc.

• Unless you are currently breastfeeding and traveling via airplanes these days, you may not have thought much about breast milk counting as one of the liquids banned from carry-on luggage. Lugging the pump around, finding a place to get half-naked and keeping the milk refrigerated seemed challenging enough at work, didn't it? But due to the new ban on liquids in carry-on airplane luggage, taking a breast-pump and milk on business trips has gotten a lot more complicated. [WaPo's On Balance blog]