The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Troops could go to Pakistan, Bush builds international support, government ready to help airlines, markets may improve, Nimda virus strikes, nets back off WTC footage:

• The Pentagon could begin deployment of U.S. troops "within weeks" to bases in Pakistan that would be used as "staging grounds for raids into neighboring Afghanistan," the Washington Post reports. Pentagon officials said no decisions have been made yet.
• "The United States assured Pakistan Wednesday that it will provide the country with economic and political assistance if it supports a possible U.S. military campaign against Afghanistan," UPI reports.
• Taliban leader Mohammad Omar has "rebuffed a demand by Pakistani officials to surrender alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden to avert a U.S. military attack," the Washington Post reports.
• The Taliban wants proof bin Laden was behind the attacks, and Taliban leaders said the United States should "be patient" while the investigation continues and to turn over evidence about bin Laden to an Afghan court, CBSNews.com reports.
• During French President Jacques Chirac's visit with President Bush at the White House on Tuesday, Chirac "pointedly declined to accept Mr. Bush's characterization of the campaign against terrorism as a 'war,'" the New York Times reports.
• But Chirac did support "Bush's call for an international coalition to 'smoke out' terrorists," UPI reports.
• Bush will meet with dignitaries from Asia, Europe and Russia at the White House today to gain support for "what he calls a global war against terrorism," Reuters reports. "President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population," will "likely tread more gingerly in offering support" during her meeting with Bush today.

• On Tuesday the Justice Department announced that it would expand its policy to "detain immigrants suspected of crimes, including new rules prompted by last week's terrorist attacks that would allow legal immigrants to be detained indefinitely during a national emergency," the New York Times reports.
• AP has a transcript of Attorney General John Ashcroft's comments Tuesday.

• Sources told CNN on Tuesday that the White House and Congress are "nearing agreement on a $15 billion bailout for the airline industry" that could reach the House floor as early as Friday.
• President Bush on Tuesday signed "a $40 billion emergency spending package" to help with costs associated with last week's attacks, and he signed a "joint congressional resolution authorizing the use of military force to retaliate," CNN.com reports.
• "Congressional staff and the White House hope to reach agreement by week's end on a budget framework for fiscal 2002," the Washington Times reports. "Lawmakers are already planning a two-week stopgap spending bill for the first weeks of October to keep the government's doors open."
• Immigration experts say congressional proposals "to ease border restrictions are likely to die" and "are expected to be replaced by get-tough bills that seek to better monitor the entry of noncitizens into the country," the Boston Globe reports.
• Insurance industry officials "continued to reassure congressional leaders and the White House Tuesday that [their businesses are] "robust and in no immediate need of federal assistance," CongressDailyAM reports.

• "An Iraqi intelligence official met secretly with one of the airline hijackers a year ago, raising the likelihood of Iraqi government involvement in last week's terrorist attacks in the United States," the Washington Times reports.
• Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz sent a letter of condolences to the United States Wednesday in Iraq's "first public expression of grief" over the attacks, UPI reports.
• An "informed" Iranian Foreign Ministry official "strongly denied" a Canadian newspaper report that Iran will support a possible U.S. military attack on Afghanistan, Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency reports.

• Federal authorities said yesterday that "they were investigating the possibility that terrorists might have plotted to commandeer two more commercial flights on the day that four planes were hijacked and used in attacks on New York and the Pentagon," the New York Times reports.
• FBI investigators "have determined that half a dozen hijackers, including the five men who slammed a Boeing 757 into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, made suburban Maryland their base in the days and perhaps weeks leading to the attack," the Washington Post reports.
• Federal investigators "are increasingly sure" that "Mohamed Atta, an urban planner who became an urban terrorist, was the leader of the gang of hijackers who have brought the United States to the brink of war," the Boston Globe reports.
• Investigators "believe there may be at least 80 other terrorists in the country -- operating out of 12 separate cells tied to Osama bin Laden," the Boston Herald reports.
• The FBI is seeking five men for questioning who "booked tickets on a flight this Saturday from San Antonio to Denver and then from Denver to San Diego," Knight Ridder reports. "Investigators are concerned the men may be part of a plan for additional hijackings."
• A grand jury in New York "already is considering federal indictments in last week's World Trade Center attacks, raising the possibility that bin Laden could be prosecuted in the United States for mass murder" if caught, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. "Other possibilities include turning him over to be tried in a third country or killing him on sight."

• Today the European Commission will "unveil a package of counter-terrorism measures... as part of efforts to boost security in Europe in the wake of last week's terrorist strikes in New York City and near Washington," UPI reports.
• "The Israeli Defense Ministry said Tuesday it is canceling all offensive operations against the Palestinians after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reaffirmed his determination to honor a cease-fire," CNN.com reports.
• Israel also began withdrawing its troops from around the West Bank towns of Jericho and Jenin, Bloomberg reports.

• "Tokyo stocks opened higher on Wednesday after investors gave a cautious thumbs-up to the Bank of Japan's latest monetary easing in a joint effort with U.S. and European central banks to avoid global recession," Reuters reports.
• AP reports that "the dollar rose slightly against the yen."
• The U.S. stock market is expected to improve today after a slight decrease Tuesday, CNNfn.com reports.
• Boeing Co. announced Tuesday it will lay off 20,000 to 30,000 commercial airplane workers by the end of next year, AP reports.
• "After pledging to back the United States in its diplomatic campaign to unite the world against terrorism, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung Wednesday asked for all-out national efforts to ease the fallout on Asia's third largest economy from international security concerns," UPI reports.
• Bush aides said Tuesday the administration is considering another round of tax cuts to help revive the U.S. economy, Reuters reports.
• And Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan will meet today with congressional leaders "to discuss how to help the economy rebound from last week's terrorist attacks," Bloomberg reports. "On the table are new tax and interest rate cuts, financial bailouts for airlines and larger tax write-offs for capital losses, according to lawmakers and administration officials."

• The FBI is investigating the new computer worm "W32.Nimda," which is similar to the "Code Red" worm and "had affected 'thousands, possibly tens of thousands' of targets by midday Tuesday," AP reports.
• Meanwhile, a group of hackers "has taken matters into its own hands and defaced some 200 to 300 Middle Eastern government Web sites and those of Palestinian Internet service providers," USA Today reports.

• "Officials acknowledged yesterday that it was unlikely that anyone in the buildings, even in the underground concourses, had survived the inferno" in the World Trade towers after the attack, the New York Times reports.
• Although New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) "had rejected the notion of remaining in office when asked about it earlier," he "hedged slightly Tuesday night on CNN's Larry King Live," AP reports.
• A group of "architects, planners, and critics, saying that the World Trade Center attack has prompted a backlash against skyscrapers, is laying the groundwork for a post-skyscraper urban landscape," the Boston Globe reports.
• "As experts warn of the rising possibility of terrorist attacks with biological weapons, New Yorkers are scooping up gas masks as fast as stores can stock them," the New York Post reports.

• "FBI agents and Dulles International Airport police surrounded, grounded and searched a Northwest Airlines jetliner bound for Amsterdam last night after a report of a possible hijacking that turned out to be a mistake," the Washington Post reports.
• A pair of F-16 warplanes escorted an American Airlines jet back to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Tuesday night, the Chicago Tribune reports. A broken radio had prevented the pilot from responding to calls from air-traffic controllers.

• ABC News will no longer show replays of two planes crashing into the World Trade Center, the Washington Post reports. CNN, NBC News and Fox News announced they will cut back on playing the footage, while CBS made no commitment.
• Clear Channel Communications, which owns 1,170 radio stations nationwide, asked its stations to not play 150 songs because of last week's attacks, the New York Times reports. Some listed songs are the Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb on Me," Soundgarden's "Blow Up the Outside World" and Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire."
• Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro and Bruce Springsteen "are among the megastars who have agreed to appear on an unprecedented" telethon Friday night that will air on four networks to "raise money for relief and recovery" from last week's attacks, the New York Post reports.

• Virginia gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner (D) wants to revamp the state's "troubled transportation system," including "$2.25 billion in new highway funding, much of it from local tax increases that Northern Virginia voters would have to impose on themselves," the Washington Post reports.
• Trucking executive John Kane "canceled his fledgling bid for the Republican nomination" for Maryland governor, the Washington Post reports. Rep. Robert Ehrlich (R) last week "hinted that he was finally ready" to run, but he refuses to talk politics in the wake of last week's attacks.
• Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer (D) has "endorsed former Gov. James Blanchard [D] for governor in the 2002 election," the Detroit Free Press reports.
• Former Illinois state Attorney General Roland Burris (D) "on Sunday will make official his decision to seek the state's Democratic gubernatorial nomination, trying to build on support in the African-American community to move past a crowded field in next year's primary," the Chicago Tribune reports.
• A law signed by California Gov. Gray Davis (D) requiring "campaigns to report contributions of $5,000 or more to the secretary of state within 10 days" gave "a new glimpse into the fervent fund-raising already under way for the 2002 governor's race," AP reports. Former Los Angeles Mayor and potential gubernatorial candidate Richard Riordan (R) "raised at least $385,000 in large contributions."

• Dennis Cardoza, "the favorite to secure the Democratic nomination" in California's 18th District seat -- currently held by Rep. Gary Condit (D) -- "yesterday faced accusations of being unfit for office after it emerged he ran a bar offering 'soft porn' mud-wrestling nights," the Washington Times reports.
• Illinois Republicans "on Tuesday predicted a decade of political catastrophe for their party if a Democratic plan to redraw legislative districts is approved, as expected, by a state redistricting commission," the Chicago Tribune reports.