State
Fire danger in northern NM unseasonably high
SANTA FE (AP) - The peak of New Mexico's fire season has long passed, but federal, state and county officials say the danger of fire in northern New Mexico remains unseasonably high.
They blame lingering drought and the bark beetle for the tinder situation.
Dead pinons that retain their needles - known as "red-needled pinons" - are more volatile than dead trees that have already shed their needles, said Santa Fe County Fire Marshal Hank Blackwell.
Mixing stressed, still-living pinons and juniper with the red-needled pinons is likely to increase the heat of any wildfires that might make a run in northern New Mexico come spring's wildfire season, Blackwell said.
National
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White House to comply with prewar investigation
WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House reversed itself and promised the Senate Intelligence Committee access to all materials requested for its inquiry into prewar intelligence on Iraq, the committee chairman said Sunday. A White House spokesman remained noncommittal, promising "a spirit of cooperation" but no specifics. Spokesman Trent Duffy reiterated administration doubts about the committee's jurisdiction over the White House.
Church welcomes its first openly gay bishop
DURHAM, N.H. (AP) - After anguished debate, Episcopalians gathered Sunday to consecrate openly gay cleric V. Gene Robinson as a bishop - a first for any major Christian denomination and perhaps the beginning of the end for their denomination in its current form. After a musical prelude, participants singing a hymn began filing into the University of New Hampshire sports arena where the ceremony was being held before an audience of about 4,000 people. Outside, a handful of anti- and pro-gay demonstrators were kept apart by police.
Weather helps Calif. fire victims to return home
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) - A second wave of residents displaced by Southern California's wildfires returned home Sunday as a weekend of cooler, calmer weather helped firefighters begin to get the upper hand. As the threat began to diminish, authorities also sent home some of the thousands of firefighters who have been battling blazes scattered from San Diego County to the suburbs of Los Angeles.
International
Tehran leader threatens to back out of agreement
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's supreme leader said Sunday that "excessive demands" from abroad could prompt Tehran to retreat from a recent commitment to give inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog more access to its atomic facilities. The warning by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency evaluates a dossier on Iran's nuclear program that Tehran supplied to meet an Oct. 31 deadline to prove it is not developing atomic weapons - as U.S. officials believe.
