Last-minute agreement boosts chances for passage of Intelligence Authorization Bill
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on May 16th, 2011 4:35 am by HL
Last-minute agreement boosts chances for passage of Intelligence Authorization Bill
An annual bill authorizing the nation’s intelligence activities could be headed for approval for the first time in six years following a last-minute agreement to restore funding for an increase in the number of CIA counterterrorism analysts.
Partisan wrangling has prevented the passage of an intelligence authorization bill since 2005. As a result, the House and Senate appropriations committees have reached a tentative deal on legislation that sets spending priorities for the 17 agencies in the intelligence community.
Endeavour fueled, astronauts ‘charged up’ for next-to-last space shuttle launch Monday morning
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA fueled Endeavour for a Monday morning liftoff on the next-to-last flight of the space shuttle era, confident an electrical problem that grounded the mission more than two weeks ago had been fixed.
The mission commander is Mark Kelly, the astronaut husband of wounded Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who’s back for the second launch attempt.
“Who’s ready for the best show on Earth? Giffords’ staff said in a Twitter update hours before liftoff.
Warming Arctic opens way to competition for resources
NUUK, Greenland — Here, just south of the Arctic Circle, where the sea ice is vanishing like dew on a July morning, the temperature isn’t the only thing that’s heating up.
Across the region, a warming Arctic is opening up new competition for resources that until recently were out of reach, protected under a thick layer of ice. As glaciers defrost and ice floes diminish, the North is being viewed as a source of not only great wealth but also conflict, diplomats and policy experts say.
In recent months, oil companies have begun lining up for exploration rights to Baffin Bay, a hydrocarbon-rich region on Greenland’s western coast that until recently was too ice-choked for drilling. U.S. and Canadian diplomats have reopened a spat over navigation rights to a sea route through the Canadian Arctic that could cut shipping time and costs for long-haul tankers.
