Bush wants more money for military
Washington President Bush will ask Congress for $419.3 billion for the Pentagon for next year, 4.8 percent more than this year’s spending, as the administration seeks to beef up and reshape the Army and Marine Corps for fighting terrorism.
The request will not include money for military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress already has appropriated $25 billion for those efforts this year, and the White House is planning to request $80 billion more soon.
The president plans to roll out his military spending proposal Monday as part of a roughly $2.5 trillion federal budget. But documents obtained by the Associated Press on Friday show that he will request $19.2 billion more for the Defense Department than its $400.1 billion budget this year.
However, his request is $3.4 billion below the $422.7 billion the Pentagon estimated in January that it would need for next year.
Humvee production may be speeded up
Fairfield, Ohio The Army’s top general said Friday that production of armored Humvees for soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan may be stepped up beyond the current accelerated rate.
Gen. Peter Schoomaker, Army chief of staff, toured the O’Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt plant where the Humvees are armored.
The plant was producing 450 vehicles a month in December, when the Army asked the company to accelerate production. The company plans to produce 509 vehicles in February and 550 in March.
The Army has ordered 8,105 of the armored Humvees.
Schoomaker said there are more than 26,000 armored Humvees and other U.S. military vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan with some sort of armor, compared with fewer than 500 such vehicles 16 months ago.
Hope dwindles for passengers of lost jet
Kabul, Afghanistan As temperatures plunged overnight, fears grew Friday that no one would be found alive after an Afghan passenger jet carrying 104 people, including three Americans, disappeared from radar screens during a snowstorm near the mountain-ringed Afghan capital.
NATO forces suspended their ground and air search as darkness closed in and planned to resume looking today.
The Kam Air Boeing 737-200 took off Thursday from the western city of Herat bound for Kabul, but it was unable to land because of poor visibility. The airline initially said the plane was diverted to neighboring Pakistan, but officials there said it never reached their airspace.
Transport Minister Enayatullah Qasemi said the pilot last contacted the Kabul control tower about 3 p.m. Thursday to ask for a weather update. Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military base north of Kabul with overall responsibility for Afghan airspace, cleared the plane for landing, but moments later it disappeared from radar screens.
Forces close in on armed militants
Cairo, Egypt Egyptian security forces closed in Friday on a group of armed men believed to be harboring suspects in bomb attacks last year against Red Sea resorts filled with Israeli tourists, officials said.
The clashes with Islamic militants holed up in the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula have been going on since Tuesday, when security forces killed a suspect in the bombings.
About 5,000 police have surrounded 120 or so armed men near the resort town of Ras Sadr, about 93 miles southeast of Cairo. Police believe two fugitives connected to Oct. 7, 2004, bombings are with the group.
The officials said 10 policemen have been injured in the clashes.
The near simultaneous bombings at the Taba Hilton and beach resorts at Ras Shitan killed 34 people.
Five Egyptian suspects were arrested in the weeks after the attacks, which Egyptian officials have linked to public anger over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.