Iraqis approve new constitution in a split vote

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s proposed… Iraqis approve new constitution in a split vote

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s proposed constitution won voters’ approval, election officials announced Tuesday, even as the results showed that the minority Sunni Muslim Arabs overwhelmingly rejected the document, which was billed as a consensus-building charter.

The announcement of the results came as the U.S. military announced the death of a soldier in San Antonio – Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas – from wounds sustained in Iraq, bringing the total of American dead since the war started to 2,000.

The split constitutional vote left some wondering whether the document would succeed in drawing Sunni Arabs into the political process and away from the violent insurgency, as Iraqi and U.S. officials had hoped.

In largely homogenous Shiite Muslim provinces, up to 99 percent of voters approved the document. In Anbar, a Sunni stronghold, 97 percent rejected it.

Overall, 78.59 percent of voters approved the document, the Independent Electoral Commission said.

Florida takes stock of widespread damage, begins recovery

Tere Figueras Negrete, Wanda J. DeMarzo and Andres Viglucci, Knight Ridder Newspapers

MIAMI – The day after Hurricane Wilma whipped South Florida, millions of residents began an all-too-familiar ritual of recovery on a scale not seen during the past two brutal storm seasons.

From Key West to North Palm Beach, thousands of people waited in lines for hours Tuesday to collect ice and jugs of water and fill up on gas. Some home-supply stores sold out of generators, chain saws, water and propane fuel.

Millions had no electricity, and the wait for it to be restored could stretch to four weeks, officials warned. Mile after mile of the region’s precious tree canopy was frayed or destroyed.

Wilma also caused at least seven deaths, including that of a 1-year-old Miami-Dade boy fatally injured Monday when a utility pole fell on the car in which he was riding.

The storm caused billions of dollars in damage after coming ashore south of Naples on Monday morning as a Category 3 hurricane. Wilma lost little intensity as it cut a wide, destructive swath through South Florida.

Use of prescribed sleeping pills is up

Guy Boulton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MILWAUKEE – Sleeping pills – re-christened as sleep medications – are becoming an increasingly accepted and prescribed drug for young adults and even children.

The use of prescription sleeping pills among people ages 20 to 44 doubled from 2000 to 2004, according to an analysis of insurance claims by Medco Health Solutions, which administers prescription drug plans.

Further, the number of children who were on sleep medication rose 85 percent. The use isn’t widespread – an estimated 181,050 children, or 0.22 percent of the population 19 and younger, take the drugs. Still, the increase came even though none of the most popular drugs is approved for use in children.

Nationally, 8.6 million people took prescription drugs to help them sleep last year. That’s up from 5.5 million in 2000. Depending on the age group examined, that’s 2.7 percent to 6.4 percent of the population.

University presidents file suit against FCC on wiretap ruling

Yashoda Sampath, Daily Texan (U. Texas)

(U-WIRE) AUSTIN, Texas – An alliance of university presidents filed a lawsuit Monday challenging a federal ruling that would force universities to re-engineer their networks by June 2007 to make wiretapping easier.

The Federal Communications Commission ruled that universities must renovate their broadband networks to allow law enforcement officials easier access for surveillance. The American Council on Education said that the upgrades are expensive and unnecessary because a procedure already exists to install wiretaps.

“Law enforcement has a need to be able to stay current with new technology, and that applies to all communications carriers,” said Paul Bresson, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice.

In early October, the FCC granted a petition from the Department of Justice to expand the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act to include Internet communication such as e-mail, instant messaging and voice communications. The act was passed in 1994 and required phone companies to re-engineer phone lines to make the conducting of court-ordered wiretaps more efficient.

Bush picks former Princeton economics professor to succeed Greenspan

Chanakya Sethi, The Daily Princetonian (Princeton)

(U-WIRE) PRINCETON, N.J. – President George W. Bush has chosen Ben Bernanke, the top White House economic adviser and an economics professor who recently resigned from Princeton University, to succeed Alan Greenspan as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Bernanke, who was widely considered the favorite for the post, now faces what many observers predict will be a smooth Senate confirmation. If confirmed, he will take the reins at the world’s most influential economic policy job on Feb. 1, when Greenspan, who has held the post for more than 18 years, steps down.

“Ben Bernanke is the right man to build on the record Alan Greenspan has established,” Bush said Monday afternoon at an announcement in the Oval Office with Bernanke and Greenspan at his side.

“He’s built a record of excellence as both an academic and policymaker,” Bush added, citing in particular Bernanke’s service as chair of Princeton’s economics department and founder of the Bendheim Center for Finance. Bernanke resigned from Princeton in July, after 20 years on the faculty.

Speaking after the president Monday afternoon, Bernanke sought to reassure investors and the public, saying he would work to “ensure the continued prosperity and stability of the American economy.” Neither Bush nor Bernanke took questions after the announcement, and Bernanke declined via his chief of staff to comment further.