Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee are now the frontrunners in the in the White House race after yesterday's caucuses in Iowa. Obama had the support of 38 percent of voters while Huckabee earned 34 percent. Falling behind Obama was John Edwards who came in second place and Senator Hillary Clinton who fell to third. On the Republican side, Mitt Romney trailed Huckabee and Fred Thompson took third place. Next week, the presidential hopefuls square off in the New Hampshire primary.
Meanwhile, two White House hopefuls are calling it quits after last night's results. Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd are abandoning their bids for the Democratic presidential nomination. Both candidates received less than one percent in the Iowa caucuses.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is defending himself against accusations that he had a role in former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination. Musharraf says Bhutto ignored government warnings, saying the former prime minister was informed of the threat to being at the park where she was killed last week. He also says he's not satisfied with the investigation into her death. A team of Scotland Yard investigators arrived in Islamabad today to help in the probe of her death.
There are more delays in store for space shuttle Atlantis. NASA says the shuttle will be grounded until late January, or more likely, February, to replace a suspect connector in the fuel tank. The connector is believed to be responsible for a series of launch postponements last month. NASA faces a 2010 deadline for retiring its three shuttles and completing the space station.
The CIA reportedly destroyed tapes of terror suspect interrogations. CIA Director Michael Hayden says the interrogations were videotaped in 2002 and then destroyed in 2005...fearing the footage would be leaked to the public. The Agency apparently wanted to protect the identities of the questioners. Senator Patrick Leahy called the destruction "troubling." Hayden says the House and Senate intelligence committee leaders knew of the tapes and knew that the CIA planned to get rid of them. He added that the interrogation practices were all legal.
President Bush has unveiled a plan to help struggling homeowners. Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said yesterday the plan will help about 1.2 million Americans facing possible foreclosures. It will reportedly freeze interest rates on many adjustable rate mortgages for many homeowners. Those who will be affected by the plan are those with loans agreed to from January 2005 through July 2007 that are expected to adjust between January of next year and July 2010.
NASA says the Atlantis space shuttle will stay grounded until at least Saturday. The crew planned on taking off yesterday afternoon but had to be delayed because of problems with the fuel gauges. Mnagers of the space mission have decided to wait until the weekend giving engineers more time to carefully fix the problem. Atlantis is set to visit the International Space Station to deliver a European lab module...used to increase research capabilities.
Shopping malls around the U.S. are expected to start looking at ways to keep shoppers safe. This comes after a man opened fire at a Nebraska mall killing 8 people and himself. A spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Malls says there are often copycats in situations like this and it's important to consider having extra security officers and securing entrances.
