Bush to request line-item veto

President Bush plans to send proposed legislation to Congress today that would allow him to control spending by vetoing specific items in larger bills, a Bush administration official said.

The president, who has not vetoed any legislation during five years in office, asked Congress in his State of the Union address to give him line-item veto power.

Bush plans to announce that the proposed bill is headed to Congress during his remarks at the morning swearing-in ceremony for the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement has not been made.

Atlanta

AT&T announces bid for BellSouth

AT&T Inc. is buying BellSouth Corp. for $67 billion in stock in a bid that further consolidates the telecommunications industry and would give AT&T total control of their growing joint venture, Cingular Wireless LLC.

The proposed purchase, announced Sunday, also goes a long way toward resurrecting the old Ma Bell telephone system, which was broken apart in 1984.

The merged company would have 70 million local-line phone customers, 54.1 million wireless subscribers and nearly 10 million broadband subscribers in the 22 states where they now operate.

The deal appears to be the largest yet among U.S. telecom players and is subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.

Lagos, Nigeria

Nigerian militants promise oil attacks

Militants threatened more attacks on Nigeria’s oil facilities and vowed Sunday to cut daily oil exports by 1 million barrels, adding to concerns for OPEC as it prepares for a strategy meeting this week.

Oil is already more than $60 a barrel, and the markets are nervous about potential disruptions to the supply from this OPEC member, which is Africa’s largest producer of crude oil.

In attacks on Nigerian pipelines and oil facilities, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has reduced the country’s production by 455,000 barrels a day. Nigeria normally exports 2.5 million barrels daily.