Stories Making Headlines Right Now

SEVERE WEATHER
    Tornado kills 8 in southern Oklahoma

A large, violent tornado ripped through a
southern Oklahoma town late Tuesday evening, killing eight people
and injuring dozens of others, authorities said. Severe weather
also caused damage and power outages in metro Oklahoma City and
western Texas.
    Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman
Michelann Ooten says the death toll in the town of Lone Grove rose
to eight early Wednesday and 14 people sustained serious injuries.
    Chester Agan, assistant emergency manager for Carter County,
says structures have been damaged or destroyed throughout the town
of about 4,600, located some 100 miles south of Oklahoma City.
    Agan says search and rescue crews are combing through rubble to
find victims.

CONGRESS-STIMULUS
    Negotiators seek quick resolution in talks with House

The White House and key congressional
Democrats are trying to hammer out a final compromise on an
economic stimulus package.
    The negotiators, including White House Chief of Staff Rahm
Emanuel, held a lengthy meeting at the Capitol to begin working out
the differences between the $838 billion version passed by the
Senate Tuesday and the House version.
    Democratic officials say it appears the bill that will arrive on
the president’s desk may be in the range of $800 billion to keep
the support of Senate Republican moderates. The officials also say
key details are still unresolved.
    The president wants to restore money to build and repair schools
and to give cash-starved states more help with their budget
problems. Almost $60 billion for those two programs alone was cut
at the insistence of GOP moderates. They are demanding that the
final bill resemble the Senate measure.

BAILOUT-BANK CEOS
    Bankers: Bailout funds helped, repayment coming

Several CEO’s at major banks that received
emergency capital from the federal government last fall say they
made more loans as a result of the infusions. And they are vowing
to pay back the taxpayer money over time.
    They also say that they and their employees took significant
reductions in compensation last year and that no government money
was used to pay bonuses or dividends.
    The accounting comes in prepared testimony to be delivered
Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee.
    The executives represent eight of the nine banks that the
Treasury Department selected last fall to participate in a $125
billion taxpayer-financed stock purchase plan.
    The money was part of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief
Program that Congress approved last fall.

OBAMA-LAS VEGAS MAYOR
    Mayor: Obama should apologize for Vegas trips quip

The mayor of Las Vegas wants President Barack
Obama to apologize for saying companies shouldn’t visit the city on
the taxpayer’s dime.
    Oscar Goodman told KLAS-TV it’s “outrageous” that a company
might cancel an event in his city at the suggestion of the
president.
    Las Vegas tourism officials worry that increased scrutiny on
business travel will discourage meetings and conventions.
    Goldman Sachs says it has moved a three-day conference from the
Las Vegas Strip to San Francisco. It had accepted $10 billion in
federal bailout funds.
    Last week, Wells Fargo, which received a $25 billion infusion,
canceled a planned employee recognition conference in Las Vegas.
    The White House says it’s reviewing the mayor’s comments.

SALMONELLA OUTBREAK
    NEW: House seeks testimony from Peanut Corp. president

The head of a small, family-owned peanut
company at the heart of a salmonella investigation has been
summoned to Congress by lawmakers seeking answers.
    Stewart Parnell, president of Peanut Corp. of America, was
subpoenaed for a hearing today of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee. The committee investigation is starting to zero in on
the question of who was responsible for the outbreak that has
sickened at least 600 people and may have contributed to eight
deaths.
    Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak says he wants know how Peanut
Corp. managed to sell allegedly tainted goods month after month
without triggering action by state and federal health authorities.
    The company, now under FBI investigation, makes only about 1
percent of U.S. peanut products. But its ingredients are used by
dozens of other food companies.

AFGHANISTAN
    Official: 17 killed, 46 wounded in Kabul attacks

A spokesman for the Defense Ministry says 17 people
were killed and 46 wounded in multiple attacks on government
building attacks in Kabul.
    Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi says that eight attackers also died in
the attacks outside the Justice Ministry and other government
buildings Wednesday. He says all attackers had suicide vests, but
only three assailants set them off.
    The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks.
    The coordinated attacks - in the heart of the city and a stone’s
throw from the presidential palace - come ahead of a visit by
President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the region.
    The Taliban regularly use suicide bombings in their assaults on
Afghan and foreign troops, but the capital had been largely spared
of major attacks recently.

AUSTRALIA-WILDFIRES
    Residents return to destroyed homes in Australia

Australian authorities now believe
the death toll from the nation’s worst-ever wildfires will exceed
200.
    Stunned residents have been allowed back in to some communities
to get their first look at the damage.
    A man who’s lived in the all-but-destroyed town of Kinglake
found nothing left of his house except a blackened pile of wood,
bricks and twisted metal. He says he wants to rebuild but doesn’t
have insurance.
    Australia’s Victoria state was hit by more than 400 fires
Saturday, fed by high winds, record heat and severe drought.
    Some towns remain sealed off as recovery crews continue the task
of collecting bodies. Investigators also want to avoid disturbing
what are considered crime scenes because police suspect some of the
blazes were deliberately set.

ZIMBABWE
    NEW: Mugabe swears in longtime rival Zimbabwe premier

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has
sworn in his longtime rival Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister in
a new unity government.
    Mugabe’s sharing power was seen as an extraordinary concession
after three decades of virtually unchallenged rule.
    Many had pressed Mugabe to step down altogether, but he remains
president in the power-sharing coalition.
    Tsvangirai and Mugabe will be under pressure to act quickly to
alleviate the suffering of impoverished Zimbabweans. The country’s
economic collapse has led to the world’s highest inflation rate,
left millions dependent on international food aid and caused a
cholera outbreak that has killed some 3,400 people since August.

ISRAEL-POLITICS
    Inconclusive election puts Israel, peace in limbo

The results are nearly all in, but the future
of Israeli politics is far from settled.
    Both moderate Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hard-line leader
Benjamin Netanyahu have claimed victory in Tuesday’s parliamentary
elections. Livni’s Kadima Party won 28 seats, just one more than
Netanyahu’s Likud. But with neither party winning a clear majority,
neither can govern alone. Gains by right-wing parties give
Netanyahu a better chance of forming a coalition.
    The results have set the stage for what could be weeks of
negotiations. Israeli media is reporting that the first meetings
are scheduled for today.
    The unclear results are clouding prospects for Egyptian-led
attempts to broker a truce between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas leaders
after Israel’s devastating offensive last month.

PLANE SPLASHDOWN-LETTERMAN
    NEW: Flight 1549 crew gets laughs on ‘Letterman’

The hero pilot who safely ditched his crippled
airliner on the Hudson River has talked to the president, the mayor
of New York and now, David Letterman.
    Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and his fellow crew members
from US Airways Flight 1549 got to have a little fun with the
dramatic story last night on CBS’ “Late Show with David
Letterman.“
    According to the show’s transcript: Letterman mentioned a
passenger who opened a door in the rear of the plane, letting in
river water until it was closed again. Sullenberger jokingly
replied, “I think it was Steve Martin who did that,“ referring to
the comedian.
    The captain even poked a bit of fun at himself, talking about
his nickname, “With a name like Chesley, Sully is just going to
have to happen.“