Washington, D.C.
Bush chokes, faints briefly
President Bush fainted briefly Sunday in the White House residence after choking on a pretzel while watching a National Football League playoff game on television, White House physician Dr. Richard Tubb said.
The doctor, an Air Force colonel, said Bush quickly recovered and was doing well.
"He fainted due to a temporary decrease in heart rate brought on by swallowing a pretzel," Tubb said. "I do not find any reason that this would happen again."
Bush, 55, suffered an abrasion on his left cheek the size of a half dollar and a bruise on his lower lip, apparently from falling onto the floor from a couch. Bush said he had been feeling under the weather Saturday and Sunday.
Australia
Video shows militants planning assassinations
Al-Qaida militants practiced carrying out a mass assassination of world leaders, according to a video obtained in Afghanistan and broadcast Sunday on Australian television.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp. aired parts of videotapes recorded at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan, which showed what the network said were Arab, Pakistani and African fighters rehearsing hostage-takings and assassinations.
The drills, using live ammunition, appeared to be aimed at potential Western targets, ABC said.
The exercises included detailed plans to attack a motorcade on what appeared to be a road system in Washington, D.C., and a mass assassination of national leaders at a golf tournament.
Afghanistan
More detainees depart for Cuban prison base
Another 30 Taliban and al-Qaida detainees departed late Sunday by plane for Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, three days after the first group of prisoners was transferred to the high security facility.
The prisoners, shackled and with white caps covering their faces, shuffled in the darkness into a C-17 transport plane for the flight to eastern Cuba. Lights at the U.S. base at the Kandahar airport were shut off except for red low-intensity lights and green chemical lighting.
Security was tight with attack dogs and Humvees with 50-caliber machine guns patrolling the area.
Washington, D.C.
National ID card proposal to be presented today
State motor vehicle officials plan to ask Congress today for up to $100 million to create a national identification system that would include high-tech driver's licenses and a network of tightly linked databases of driver information.
The appeal by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators represents the most concerted push for a national identification system since authorities determined that some Sept. 11 hijackers used false identities and obtained driver's licenses illegally.
Today, an association task force plans to issue a report that calls on states to standardize their licensing procedures, improve their authentication of drivers and otherwise close gaps that might be used by terrorists and fraud artists, officials said.
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