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Palestinian Leader Arafat Dies at 75
14 minutes ago
By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), the guerrilla leader turned Nobel Peace Prize winner who forced his people's plight into the world spotlight, died Thursday at age 75 — still reviled by many as a terrorist.
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Slideshow: Yasser Arafat Dies at 75

Arafat died at 3:30 a.m. in a French military hospital. His last days were as murky and dramatic as his life. Arafat was flown to France on Oct. 29 after nearly three years of being penned in his West Bank headquarters by Israeli tanks.
He initially improved but then sharply deteriorated as rumors swirled about his illness. Neither doctors nor Palestinian leaders would say what killed Arafat.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured into the streets of the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) in a spontaneous show of grief. Dozens of gunmen fired into the air, and marchers waved Palestinian flags.
Mosques blared Quranic verses and children burned tires on the main streets, covering the skies in black smoke. People pasted posters of Arafat on building walls.
Palestinian Parliament Speaker Rauhi Fattouh was to be sworn in as Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) president until elections are held in 60 days, according to Palestinian law. Officials said they want to ensure a smooth transition, despite uncertainty and a behind-the-scenes power struggle to assume the Arafat mantle.
President Bush (news - web sites) issued a statement of condolence to the Palestinian people.
"We express our condolences to the Palestinian people. For the Palestinian people, we hope that the future will bring peace and the fulfillment of their aspirations for an independent, democratic Palestine that is at peace with its neighbors," the president said.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres (news - web sites), who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Arafat and assassinated Israeli leader Yitzak Rabin, said:
"The biggest mistake of Arafat was when he turned to terror. His greatest achievements were when he tried to build peace."
Palestinian flags at Arafat's battered Ramallah compound were lowered to half staff. Television broadcast excerpts from the Quran with a picture of Arafat in the background.
"He closed his eyes and his big heart stopped. He left for God but he is still among this great people," said senior Arafat aide Tayeb Abdel Rahim, who broke into tears as he announced Arafat's death.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said he was saddened by Arafat's passing.
"President Arafat was one of those few leaders who could be instantly recognized by people in any walk of life all around the world. For nearly four decades, he expressed and symbolized in his person the national aspirations of the Palestinian people."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) sent condolences to the Palestinian people.
"President Arafat came to symbolize the Palestinian national movement. ... (and) led his people to an historic acceptance and the need for a two-state solution," Blair said.
Top Palestinian officials flew in to check on their leader while Arafat's 41-year-old wife, Suha, publicly accused them of trying to usurp his powers. Ordinary Palestinians prayed for his well being, but expressed deep frustration over his failure to improve their lives.
Arafat's failure to groom a successor complicated his passing, raising the danger of factional conflict among Palestinians.
A visual constant in his checkered keffiyeh headdress, Arafat kept the Palestinians' cause at the center of the Arab-Israeli conflict. But he fell short of creating a Palestinian state, and, along with other secular Arab leaders of his generation, he saw his influence weakened by the rise of radical Islam in recent years.
Revered by his own people, Arafat was reviled by others. He was accused of secretly fomenting attacks on Israelis while proclaiming brotherhood and claiming to have put terrorism aside. Many Israelis felt the paunchy 5-foot, 2-inch Palestinian's real goal remained the destruction of the Jewish state.
Arafat became one of the world's most familiar faces after addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York in 1974, when he entered the chamber wearing a holster and carrying a sprig. "Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun," he said. "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."
Two decades later, he shook hand at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (news - web sites) on a peace deal that formally recognized Israel's right to exist while granting the Palestinians limited self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites). The pact led to the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for Arafat, Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
But the accord quickly unraveled amid mutual suspicions and accusations of treaty violations, and a new round of violence that erupted in the fall of 2000 has killed some 4,000 people, three-quarters of them Palestinian.
The Israeli and U.S. governments said Arafat deserved much of the blame for the derailing of the peace process. Even many of his own people began whispering against Arafat, expressing disgruntlement over corruption, lawlessness and a bad economy in the Palestinian areas.
A resilient survivor of war with Israel, assassination attempts and even a plane crash, Arafat was born Rahman Abdel-Raouf Arafat Al-Qudwa on Aug. 4, 1929, the fifth of seven children of a Palestinian merchant killed in the 1948 war over Israel's creation. There is disagreement whether he was born in Gaza or in Cairo, Egypt.
Educated as an engineer in Egypt, Arafat served in the Egyptian army and then started a contracting firm in Kuwait. It was there that he founded the Fatah (news - web sites) movement, which became the core of the Palestine Liberation Organization (news - web sites).
After the Arabs' humbling defeat by Israel in the six-day war of 1967, the PLO thrust itself on the world's front pages by sending its gunmen out to hijack airplanes, machine gun airports and seize Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics (news - web sites).
"As long as the world saw Palestinians as no more than refugees standing in line for U.N. rations, it was not likely to respect them. Now that the Palestinians carry rifles the situation has changed," Arafat explained.
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MGM Mirage plans $4bn Las Vegas ‘metropolis’By Amy Yee in New YorkPublished: November 10 2004 16:14 Last updated: November 10 2004 16:14
MGM Mirage, owner of the Bellagio and MGM Grand casinos, on Wednesday unveiled a $4bn plan to build a 66-acre “urban metropolis” that will introduce a residential area to the Las Vegas strip.
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The new site, called Project CityCenter, will match the combined size of Times Square, SoHo and Rockefeller Center in New York.
The new complex will consist of a 4,000-room hotel and casino as well as three boutique hotels, 1,650 condominiums and a sprawling shopping, dining and entertainment space.
Wynn Resorts also announced a $900m expansion to its new Wynn Las Vegas casino.
The news reflects booming real estate prices and the success of Las Vegas in becoming the top tourist destination in the US. The city has announced plans to revitalise its downtown while the University of Nevada Las Vegas plans to develop surrounding neighbourhoods into a new “midtown”.
The latest development follows a spate of acquisitions in the gaming industry. MGM Mirage this June agreed to buy Mandalay Bay Resorts in a deal worth nearly $8bn.
The deal, expected to close early next year, will make MGM Mirage the world’s second-largest gaming company behind Harrah’s Entertainment, which agreed to buy Caesars for $9.5bn in July.
Jim Murren, MGM Mirage chief financial officer, said, “As real estate prices continue to soar on the Strip, we intend to maximise the economic value of this land by making this development the newest icon for Las Vegas.”
The company, which is also planning significant investment in the UK following the anticipated overhaul of gaming legislation, did not give details on how it would finance development. But Mr Murren added: “Through the proceeds generated from residential sales as well as the equity contributions of our partners, we expect to rapidly de-leverage while providing significant new high-margin income streams.”
Wynn Resorts on Monday evening announced plans for a $900m expansion of its $2.7bn Wynn Las Vegas complex, which is scheduled to open next April. The new 20-acre development, tentatively called Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, is expected to open in 2007 and may include a 1,500 suite hotel, additional casino, spa, retail and convention space.
The company expects the project to be funded by new debt or equity financing.
Shares in MGM Mirage edged up 1 per cent to $60.31 in midday trade. Shares in Wynn Resorts rose 2 per cent to $62.20.

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Microsoft Sees $100 Million First Day for 'Halo 2' Game
Tue Nov 9, 5:23 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - First-day sales of Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) new video game "Halo 2" will reach $100 million, a senior Microsoft games executive said on Tuesday.
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Slideshow: Halo 2 Released
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"I'm calling a $100 million day on 'Halo' today," Peter Moore, a corporate vice president in Microsoft's games division, said at the Harris Nesbitt investment conference in New York.
The launch would be one of the largest in gaming history and would dwarf the first-day figures of even the biggest historical hits in the movie and music businesses.
"In the first 24 hours we'll have an opening that's (more) popular than any motion picture has ever had in history," Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates (news - web sites) said at a shareholder's meeting on Tuesday.
The game, in which a super-soldier called "Master Chief" must save the earth from aliens, went on sale around the world on Tuesday, with thousands of stores opening their doors to eager customers just after midnight.
In addition to around 1.5 million pre-sold units, Moore said one retailer sold 8,500 units in the first 11 minutes of sales, while another sold 200,000 units by daybreak Tuesday.
Moore said in total, $78 million of the $100 million came from pre-sales. There are two versions of the game, the regular edition for $49.99 and a "Collector's Edition" in a custom case with a "making-of" DVD for $54.99.
Analysts expect "Halo 2" to sell a total of about 10 million units, with some projecting up to half of those sales coming in November. The original "Halo" sold 5 million units and remains the best seller on the Xbox (news - web sites) to date.
"We think that this will be the biggest launch in the history of EB, perhaps the biggest launch in the history of video games," said Jeff Griffiths, chief executive of games retailer Electronics Boutique (Nasdaq:ELBO - news), at the Harris Nesbitt conference. (Additional reporting by Franklin Paul in New York)
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today's papersCabinet Redesign By Eric UmanskyPosted Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2004, at 12:23 AM PT
Everybody continues to lead with Fallujah, where troops have pushed into the center of the city and as of yesterday 10 American service members and two Iraqi soldiers had been killed.
Much of the overview material comes courtesy of a press conference in which a top U.S. commander said the operation is "on or ahead of schedule." The Los Angeles Times relies on Marines, presumably closer to the fight, to say there's less resistance than expected.
The embed reports from Fallujah paint a more mixed picture. The Washington Post says one neighborhood was unexpectedly quiet, except some "units reported being fired on by women and children armed with assault rifles." One sergeant told the LAT, "We've seen fire every step of the way." The New York Times' Dexter Filkins says the Marines he's with were pinned down for hours—"insurgents were firing from an entire row of buildings"—but eventually moved on and deep into town.
The WP says airstrikes and artillery in two neighborhoods appear to have "destroyed more than half of the houses." Explaining the use of heavier bombs, one Army captain said, "Usually we keep the gloves on. For this operation, we took the gloves off."
Everybody notes the above top commander's speculation that insurgent leaders skedaddled before the assault. The NYT actually talks to one Iraqi who ID'd himself as a midlevel rebel fighter and said it's more than leaders who've left. "From a military point of view, if a city is surrounded and bombarded, then the result of the battle is preordained," said the former major in the Iraqi army. "So we told half of our fighters to leave the city and the other half to stay and defend it."
A quasi-spokesman for the guerrillas told the Post, "The foreign fighters won't stay here and die. They lost the battle. They spread in other places."
The papers all stuff word that in response to the Fallujah offensive, the largest Sunni political party quit the interim government, and top Sunni clerics urged a boycott of the coming elections. The industry minister was a member of that party, but he quit it rather than resign his job, explaining, "Iraq is larger than any party."
Elsewhere in Iraq: Two GIs were killed in the northern city of Mosul, where the NYT says "government authority appears to be ebbing." In the once "pacified" city of Ramadi, the Wall Street Journal says "hundreds of fighters took to the streets," and the U.S. responded with airstrikes. Three Iraqis were killed by a car bomb in Kirkuk. And a top government official was assassinated in Baghdad. The NYT says the military reported 130 attacks Monday, well above the purported average of 80.
The Post, alone, fronts a peace agreement on Darfur, in which Sudan promised to disarm the rampaging Janjaweed militia and to allow aid in. It's not clear Sudan will stick to the deal.
Everybody fronts the resignations of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans. Ashcroft has some health problems and Evans might run for governor in his home state, Texas. Bush praised both men. But one "longtime friend" of Ashcroft didn't buy the group hug. Ashcroft "was something to offer to evangelicals," the friend told the Post. The White House "used him, and now they're done with him and he's being tossed aside."
The papers point to former Deputy AG Larry Thompson as the leading contender to replace Ashcroft. At a recent ceremony celebrating the Patriot Act, the president told Thompson, who's now at Pepsi: "Larry, we miss you over there. Don't get too comfortable." If Thompson is appointed, he'd be the first African-American AG. The Post cites "officials" saying Thompson isn't interested. A really ... knowledgeable chart in the Journal lists Cabinet members, putting them into such informative categories as "may stay," "may leave," "not known," and "up to Bush."
Next! In his letter of resignation, Ashcroft explained his work is done, "The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." Eric Umansky writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@hotmail.com.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2109430/

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U.S. Forces Hold 70 Percent of Fallujah
16 minutes ago
By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer
FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. forces cornered insurgents Wednesday in a small section of Fallujah after a stunningly swift advance that seized control of 70 percent of the militant stronghold. An Iraqi general said troops found "hostage slaughterhouses" where foreign captives had been killed.
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U.S. Forces Hold 70 Percent of Fallujah(AP Video)

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Car Bomb Targeting Iraqi Police Kills 10 AP - 12 minutes ago
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U.S. Forces Hold 70 Percent of Fallujah AP - 16 minutes ago
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U.S. Takes 'Half Falluja,' Allawi's Cousin Abducted Reuters - 18 minutes ago
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The abandoned houses had hostages' documents, CDs showing captives being killed, and black clothing worn by militants in videos, Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan said.
But it appeared troops did not find any of the at least nine foreigners still in kidnappers' hands — including two Americans. "We have found hostage slaughterhouses in Fallujah that were used by these people," Mohan said. But he said he did not know which hostages' documents were uncovered.
Al-Jazeera television, meanwhile, broadcast a videotape with a militant group claiming to have captured 20 Iraqi soldiers in Fallujah. Men wearing Iraqi uniforms were shown with their backs to the camera.
A masked militant read a statement on the tape, but the Qatar-based station did not carry the audio. The station said the militants promised not to kill the prisoners shown on the tape but threatened to kill others captured in the future.
The videotape showed armed men pointing rifles toward men wearing Iraqi National Guard uniforms. The faces of the uniformed men were not visible.
Al-Jazeera said 20 guardsmen had been captured, but the camera panned so quickly it was difficult to verify the number. It appeared only about a dozen were visible.
The speed of the U.S. drive in Fallujah may indicate that most Sunni fighters and their leaders abandoned the city before the offensive and moved elsewhere to carry on the fight, officers said. The most notorious kidnapper, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is believed to have fled the city.
Mohan, the commander of Iraqi troops in Fallujah, said fighters are still trying to escape the tight encirclement. He said people were seen earlier trying to slip away by swimming across the Euphrates River.
Guerrillas accelerated attacks outside Fallujah in an attempt to open up new fronts to divert U.S.-Iraqi forces, with at least 28 people killed in violence across the country Wednesday — including 10 people killed when a car bomb targeted a police patrol in Baghdad after sunset.
Gunmen also kidnapped three relatives of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi from their Baghdad home — his cousin, Ghazi Allawi, the cousin's wife and their daughter-in-law, Allawi's spokesman said. A militant group calling itself Ansar al-Jihad claimed in a Web posting to be holding them threatened to behead them in 48 hours unless the Fallujah siege is lifted. The claim's authenticity could not be verified.
Authorities clamped a curfew on the northern city of Mosul as U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with gunmen there. Fierce fighting also took place in and around Baghdad and in Ramadi, a Sunni stronghold where explosions shook the city as U.S. troops and gunmen battled near the main government building. One U.S. soldier was killed by a bomb north of the capital.
Still, U.S. and Iraqi troops were pushing ahead in Fallujah. Some fighters have sought to surrender, government spokesman Thair al-Naqeeb told reporters, offering an amnesty to those who have not committed "major crimes."
Mohan vowed to finish uprooting Sunni gunmen, pointing to guerrilla slayings of Iraqi security forces in the past.
"For this, the Iraqi armed forces don't want revenge, but they want to get rid of insurgents, the evil, the murderers," he told a press conference alongside Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Sattler said insurgents had been reduced to "small pockets, blind, moving throughout the city. And we will continue to hunt them down and destroy them." Maj. Francis Piccoli, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said U.S. forces now control 70 percent of the city.
At least 71 militants have been killed by early Wednesday, the third day of intense urban combat, the military said. As of Tuesday night, 10 U.S. troops and two members of the Iraqi security forces had been killed. Marine reports Wednesday said 25 American troops and 16 Iraqi soldiers were wounded.
U.S. and Iraqi forces seized Fallujah's city hall compound before dawn after a gunbattle with insurgents who hit a U.S. tanks with anti-armor rockets. Iraqi soldiers swept into a police station in the compound and raised a flag above it.
Gunmen fired on troops from a mosque minaret, sparking a battle there, BBC's embedded correspondent Paul Wood reported. Marines said the insurgents waved a white flag at one stage but then opened fire, prompting the Marines to call in airstrikes, Wood said.
Tank gunners opened fire on insurgents in a nearby five-story apartment building, and flames shot from several windows of the building.
Residents reported heavy clashes and artillery shelling in the Jolan and Jumhuriya neighborhood, along the central highway.
Dead bodies lay on the streets of Jumhuriya, with dogs hovering around them, witnesses said. Residents said they were running out of food in a city that had its electricity cut two days ago.
The speed of the U.S.-Iraqi advance in the city suggested most insurgents likely fled before the assault began so they could fight elswhere, officers said Wednesday. Iraqi and U.S. commanders had been warning for weeks that they invade Fallujah to re-establish government control.
"That's probably why we've been able to move as fast as we have," said one officer from the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, who asked not to be named.
Fallujah's defenses have crumbled faster than U.S. commanders expected, With their command networks broken down, bands of three to five guerrillas were left fighting for self-preservation rather than as part of a larger force, officials said.
About 100 men, women and children made their way to American positions in the south of the city and gave themselves up Wednesday, an officer from the Army's 1st Cavalry Division said. The group was to be searched for weapons and questioned, and all military-age men would be detained, the officer said.
Most of Fallujah's 200,000 to 300,000 residents are believed to have fled the city before the U.S. assault. Civilian casualties in the attack are not known, though U.S. commanders say they believe they are low.
The U.S. advance in Fallujah was more rapid than in an offensive in April, when insurgents fought a force of fewer than 2,000 Marines to a standstill in a three-week siege. It ended with the Americans handing over the city to a local force, which lost control to Islamic militants.
This time, the U.S. military has sent up to 15,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops into the battle, backed by tanks, artillery and attack aircraft.
If reports that most gunmen fled the city are true, it indicated that while the new offensive may cost the insurgency its strongest bastion, the fighters will seek to continue their campaign of violence elsewhere.
In Mosul, the curfew came after a series of clashes including two attacks against American military convoys, U.S. Capt. Angela Bowman said. A foreign contractor was killed in one of the attacks, Bowman said, without giving details.
Smoke was seen rising above the rooftops as residents reported fighting in western districts. Three Iraqi policemen and an Iraqi National Guard soldier were killed, hospital and security officials said.
In Baghdad — where Allawi this week imposed a nighttime curfew for the first time in a year — a car bomb exploded, targeting a police patrol in the eastern Zaytouna neighborhood. Ten people were killed and 15 others wounded, police officer Qahtan Jumaygh said.
Six people were killed and four others wounded during clashes between U.S. soldiers and insurgents in Latifiyah, south of Baghdad. A bomb killed six Iraqi soldiers in northern Iraq (news - web sites).
A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad on Wednesday. The military also announced that a U.S. soldiers was killed by a gun attack on a patrol in Baghdad on Tuesday.
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Jim Krane near Fallujah; and Tini Tran, Sameer N. Yacoub, Mariam Fam, Sabah Jerges, Katarina Kratovac and Maggie Michael in Baghdad
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Battle rages in centre of Falluja
US marines have taken the mayor's office in central Falluja and say they now control 70% of the Iraqi city, with rebels hemmed into a narrow strip.
US officials say insurgents are now in "small pockets", moving blindly through the city, while fighting continues to rage for control of the centre.
According to US estimates, hundreds of rebels were killed on Wednesday alone and at least one more marine died.
The Red Cross has urged both sides to allow access for medical workers.
The fighters are simply moving from street to street, attacking US troops where they can and allowing them through where they can't Fadhil Badrani journalist in Falluja
The BBC's Paul Wood, embedded with US marines who re-took the mayor's office, said that on Wednesday morning, no civilians could be seen on the streets, shops were shuttered and black smoke was rising all around.
Fadhil Badrani, a journalist in Falluja who reports for the BBC World Service in Arabic, compared the city to Kabul, the Afghan capital largely reduced to rubble after years of warfare.
One marine officer, Maj Francis Piccoli, said the rebels had been squeezed into a strip of the city bordering the main east-west road, which splits Falluja.
Another officer, Lt Gen John Sattler, said of the insurgents: "They are now in small pockets, blind, moving across the city. We will continue to hunt them down and destroy them."
Iraq's government has offered an amnesty to any armed groups in Falluja who surrender and are not found to have committed any "major" crimes.
In another development, the chief spokesman for the joint US-Iraqi operation in Falluja, Maj Gen Abdul Qader Mohan, told reporters that Iraqi troops had found houses where hostages had been held and "slaughtered".
Elsewhere in Iraq on Wednesday:
Militants abduct a first cousin of Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and two of his family members in Baghdad, reportedly threatening to kill them unless the Falluja siege is lifted
The governor in Mosul imposes an indefinite curfew after militants kill four members of the Iraqi security forces and a foreign contractor
A car bomb in the residential area of Zayouneh in east Baghdad kills at least seven people
Attacks at Balad, Baiji, Karbala and Tuz leave 12 members of the Iraqi security forces and one US soldier dead.
Bodies in the streets
In Falluja, marines backed by tanks met little opposition when they blasted their way into the mayor's compound, which also houses a police station, early on Wednesday.
However, they later came under sustained fire from the minaret of a mosque, says our correspondent, whose reports are subject to military restrictions.
According to marines, the rebels waved a white flag at one stage but opened fire from three directions when a marine interpreter tried to begin talks. The marines then called in air strikes.
Fadhil Badrani told the BBC News website that the battle was particularly fierce in the district of Jolan, just north of the centre.
FALLUJA ASSAULT FACTS
Up to 15,000 US and Iraqi troops involved
Estimated 3,000 Iraqi insurgent and foreign fighters in city
Estimated 50,000 civilians remain out of usual population of some 300,000
He said he had counted the bodies of at least six US soldiers lying in the streets of the city's Hasbiyyah area overnight, along with the remains of many dead rebels. He had also found two disabled US tanks and three destroyed Humvee jeeps.
The journalist said he doubted the truth of US claims that marines were in control of 70% of the city.
The US military's total death toll for the Falluja operation rose to 11 Americans and two Iraqi government soldiers on Wednesday.
'Total destruction'
US commanders say rebel leaders such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - America's most wanted man in Iraq - appear to have fled before the assault began.
URBAN WARFARE
In Washington, President George W Bush praised the US-led forces in Falluja for their "hard work... for a free Iraq".
Aid agencies have highlighted the plight of civilians in Falluja where up to 50,000 people remain out of a pre-war population of 300,000.
The Red Cross has urged all combatants to guarantee passage to the wounded.
An unnamed man claiming to be a rebel fighter told the BBC's Today programme that the destruction in Falluja was "total".
"The Americans are bombing everywhere," he said, adding that water and electricity had been cut off.
The assault on Falluja, a hotbed of Sunni resistance, is officially aimed at stabilising Iraq ahead of January's poll.
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Dear Yahoo!:
Why isn't there a Channel One on TV?
MarcusReston, Virginia
Dear Marcus:
We found the answer to your question at The Straight Dope, a wonderful resource for those "Hey, what about..." types of questions. Cecil Adams writes that there was in fact a Channel One when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) first allocated broadcast television frequencies in 1945.
The FCC is responsible for regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. By 1945 most television signals were transmitted through microwave relay stations, and the FCC had to divvy up the frequencies.
In 1947 the FCC decided to allocate the Channel One band, which ranges from 44 to 50 MHz, to radio. In 1952, the FCC added 70 new UHF channels (14 to 83) to the jam-packed VHF channels (2 to 13). Then came cable, and all bets were off.
Bob Cooper also provides a detailed analysis of the decision to assign Channel One to radio. It's fairly lengthy, but the article does an excellent job of describing the government and commercial wrangling over available airways that's still going on today.
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Rove: Marriage issue and role of money were big
2 hours, 38 minutes ago
By Jeff Zeleny Washington Bureau
Karl Rove, the architect of President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election campaign, said Tuesday the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts had "captured and colored the national imagination" and resonated throughout the country with Republicans and Democrats alike.

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"People would be well advised to pay attention to what the American people are saying," Rove said, noting the 11 states that approved bans on gay marriage last week were split in the presidential race. "It shows the strength of this issue."
In a rare, wide-ranging session, Rove said the campaign finance reform law designed to limit the influence of money in politics failed. He accused wealthy individuals on both sides of trying to "derail American democracy" by using hundreds of millions of dollars to influence the race.
"Would our system have been better off if the 527s had not been players? I think so," Rove said, referring to the political organizations named after a section of the tax code that played a key role in the 2004 campaign. "I'm a fervent believer in strong parties, and things that weaken the parties and place the outcomes of elections in the hands of billionaires who can write checks and political consultants who can get themselves hired by billionaires who can write checks gives me some concern."
In a luncheon meeting with reporters on Tuesday, hosted by the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, Rove listed the influence of money as one of biggest surprises of the race. The election's outcome, he said, turned on three issues: security, values and the economy.
Rove also said the election underscored the gains Republicans have made across the country.
"There are big swaths of the country where Democrats are becoming less and less competitive," said Rove, referring to the electoral map that shows the majority of the country's surface area covered in red (Republican) and not blue (Democrat).
The elevation of moral issues--driven in part by the Massachusetts court decision to legalize same-sex marriage and the San Francisco mayor's decision to grant same-sex marriage licenses--helped Republicans, Rove said.
"This is an issue about which there is a broad general consensus," he said. "People do not like the idea of the concept of marriage as being a union between a man and a woman being uprooted and overturned by a few activist judges or a couple of activist local elected officials who assume unto themselves the right to do so."
With a folder of election returns at his fingertips, Rove ticked through a state-by-state list of results he said offered evidence that the president had won a mandate of the American people in his 51 percent to 48 percent win over Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites). Critics disagree, saying the victory was too narrow to be deemed a mandate.
Rove, whom the president praised last week in his victory speech to the nation, has been the top political strategist for Bush since his first race for Texas governor in 1994. Rove declined to discuss specifics about the first 100 days of Bush's second term or about what the nation would look like when Bush leaves office.
When asked to speculate about the Republican presidential field in 2008, Rove demurred. With a smile, he said: "This will be the last presidential campaign that I will ever do."
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US 'identifies' terror tape man
US officials say they are confident, but not certain, missing Californian Adam Gadahn is the man who threatened al-Qaeda attacks in a recent video.
The man appeared with his face covered in a tape shown by ABC News last month, calling himself Azzam the American and claiming to belong to al-Qaeda.
Adam Gadahn has not been linked to any specific terror activities, but the FBI says it wants to question him.
In May, he was put on an FBI list of wanted suspects.
Officials concluded after technical analysis of the tape that the speaker was Mr Gadahn, who left California for Pakistan six years ago, US networks reported.
Among other steps, intelligence officials compared the voice of Azzam to footage of a teenage Gadahn discussing environmental projects nearly 10 years ago on cable television in California, ABC says.
They also spoke to his family and showed the tape to captured al-Qaeda operatives.
However, officials say they cannot be absolutely certain of the speaker's identity.
The man on the tape threatened new attacks on the US.
"After decades of American tyranny and oppression, now it's your turn to die.
"Allah willing, the streets of America will run red with blood matching drop for drop the blood of America's victims."
'Translator'
FBI Director Robert Mueller said Adam Gadahn was known to have performed translations for al-Qaeda and was associated with al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan.
He is also thought to have later trained at an Islamic militant camp in Afghanistan.
Adam Gadahn was born Adam Pearlman in 1978, the son of a 1960s psychedelic musician.
He was raised in Orange County on a goat farm, ABC says.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3999801.stmPublished: 2004/11/10 16:40:39 GMT

Battle rages in centre of Falluja
US marines have taken the mayor's office in central Falluja and say they now control 70% of the Iraqi city with rebels hemmed into a narrow strip.
Reporting from the mayoral compound, the BBC's Paul Wood says a battle is still raging in the city centre while US-led forces control the perimeter.
According to US estimates, hundreds of rebels were killed on Wednesday alone and at least one more marine died.
Relief groups say they are deeply worried about the fate of civilians.
The fighters are simply moving from street to street, attacking US troops where they can and allowing them through where they can't Fadhil Badrani journalist in Falluja
Our correspondent said that on Wednesday morning no civilians could be seen on the streets, shops were shuttered and black smoke was rising all around.
Fadhil Badrani, a journalist in Falluja who reports for the BBC World Service in Arabic, compared the city to Kabul, the Afghan capital largely reduced to rubble after years of warfare.
One marine officer, Maj Francis Piccoli, said the rebels had been squeezed into a strip of the city bordering the main east-west road, which splits Falluja.
"There's going to be a movement today in those areas," he added.
Iraq's government has offered an amnesty to any armed groups in Falluja who surrender and are not found to have committed any "major" crimes.
In another development, the chief spokesman for the joint US-Iraqi operation in Falluja, Maj Gen Abdul Qader Mohan, told reporters that Iraqi troops had found houses where hostages had been held and "slaughtered".
Elsewhere in Iraq on Wednesday:
Militants abduct a first cousin of Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and two of his family members in Baghdad, reportedly threatening to kill them unless the Falluja siege is lifted
The governor in Mosul imposes an indefinite curfew after militants kill four members of the Iraqi security forces and a foreign contractor
Attacks at Balad, Baiji, Karbala and Tuz leave 12 members of the Iraqi security forces and one US soldier dead.
Bodies in the streets
In Falluja, Marines backed by tanks met little opposition when they blasted their way into the mayor's compound, which also houses a police station, early on Wednesday.
However, they later came under sustained fire from the minaret of a mosque, says our correspondent, whose reports are subject to military restrictions.
According to marines, the rebels waved a white flag at one stage but opened fire from three directions when a marine interpreter tried to begin talks. The marines then called in air strikes.
Fadhil Badrani told the BBC News website that the battle was particularly fierce in the district of Jolan, just north of the centre.
He said he had seen the bodies of eight US soldiers lying in the streets of the city's Hammaniyya area overnight, along with the remains of many dead rebels. He had also found two disabled US tanks and three destroyed Humvee jeeps.
FALLUJA ASSAULT FACTS
Up to 15,000 US and Iraqi troops involved
Estimated 3,000 Iraqi insurgent and foreign fighters in city
Estimated 50,000 civilians remain out of usual population of some 300,000
The journalist added that rebels were moving from street to street, attacking US troops where they could and letting them pass where they could not.
He said he doubted the truth of US claims that marines were in control of 70% of the city.
The US military's total death toll for the Falluja operation rose to 11 Americans and two Iraqi government soldiers on Wednesday. On Tuesday evening, it was saying 10 Americans.
'Total destruction'
Lt Gen Thomas Metz, the multinational ground force commander in Iraq, warned of "several more days of tough urban fighting" ahead, adding that rebel leaders such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - America's most wanted man in Iraq - appeared to have fled before the assault began.
URBAN WARFARE
In Washington, President George W Bush praised the US-led forces in Falluja for their "hard work... for a free Iraq".
However, Iran voiced serious concern over Iraqi losses in Falluja.
Aid agencies have highlighted the plight of civilians in Falluja where up to 50,000 people remain out of a pre-war population of 300,000.
The Red Cross has urged all combatants to guarantee passage to the wounded.
Paul Wood notes that despite efforts by US forces to select targets carefully, their use of heavy artillery and tanks is bound to lead to civilian casualties.
An unnamed man claiming to be a rebel fighter told the BBC's Today programme that the destruction in Falluja was "total".
"The Americans are bombing everywhere," he said, adding that water and electricity had been cut off.
The assault on Falluja, a hotbed of Sunni resistance, is officially aimed at stabilising Iraq ahead of January's poll.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3998049.stmPublished: 2004/11/10 15:48:25 GMT© BBC MMIV