Local
Guards concerned about power outages
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Guards at Albuquerque's 2,100-bed jail say persistent power outages are a safety threat.
"Nothing works," said Steve Perkins, president of the union that represents corrections employees. "The doors, the power, nothing. If they built a house this way, no one would put up with it."
The jail's backup generator also fails, showing it's an internal malfunction and not an outside problem, Perkins said.
The $90 million jail west of Albuquerque officially opened last December, but leaky shower drains delayed the transfer of all prisoners from the old jail in downtown Albuquerque. Authorities finished transferring inmates in June.
State
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Law enforcement center may train Iraqi police
ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) - The International Law Enforcement Academy in Roswell wants the fledgling campus to help train Iraqi police.
David Williams, a member of the school's advisory committee, said the academy submitted a proposal recently to the State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs to make Roswell's campus a principal partner in the training.
The plan, prepared by campus managers at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, would double training at the school, adding a set of classes to train Iraqi law enforcement officers. Williams said that means the campus would train 80 instead of 40 students a month.
New state regulations cover abortion pill use
SANTA FE (AP) - The state is covering the $90 cost of a so-called abortion pill under changes in the state-run Medicaid program.
Previously, vaguely worded regulations prevented coverage of all nonsurgical abortion methods - even when deemed medically necessary. That denied patients access to RU486, a pill that induces a miscarriage.
Gov. Bill Richardson reworded the state Medicaid regulations in August to mandate coverage of RU486 and other nonsurgical methods.
The new regulations cover the procedure when it is deemed medically necessary, said Carolyn Ingram, state Medicaid director.
"The new regulations allow coverage of all oral medications for pregnancy termination," she said. "We worded it that way to cover anything new that comes down the pipe."
National
Bremer summoned to D.C. for talks on Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) - Frustrated with the U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council, President Bush's national security advisers questioned the top American administrator in Iraq on Tuesday about how to break a political logjam in Baghdad and speed planning for the nation's political future. L. Paul Bremer was summoned unexpectedly from Baghdad to a White House meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and other key officials.
International
Iraqi fear of Saddam hinders intelligence
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - America's top soldier in Iraq said Tuesday a "blanket of fear" that Saddam Hussein will return prevents Iraqis from giving U.S. troops intelligence vital to curb the growing insurgency - stepped up attacks underlined by a late night barrage on the heart of Baghdad. Late Tuesday, insurgents fired mortars toward the U.S. headquarters compound, known as the "Green Zone," in Baghdad. The Coalition Provisional Authority said there was no damage to coalition headquarters, located in the Republican Palace. After one detonation, white smoke could be seen rising from an area just north of the palace.
