The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Saudis sever Taliban ties, Bush meets with Congress, Senate votes on base closings, Bush to release limited evidence, Putin offers support, airlines cancel National flights, Ark. and NYC vote today, new e-mail virus cites attack:

• Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with the Taliban on Tuesday, Bloomberg reports.
• The move "leaves Pakistan as the only country to maintain diplomatic relations with the Taliban, and hands the United States a major success in its bid to isolate the hard-line Islamic Taliban militia over their refusal to surrender Osama bin Laden," AP reports.
• The "key question for U.S. policymakers putting together a global coalition against terrorism is whether prosperous Saudi Arabia, America's main ally in the Gulf and a key source of oil, is also the main supplier of fighters in Mr. bin Laden's holy war against the U.S.," the Wall Street Journal reports.
• On Monday the Taliban "threatened to execute any U.N. worker who uses computers and communications equipment in Afghanistan, forcing a near halt to the remaining relief work in the country," AP reports.
• Osama Bin Laden released a statement Monday calling "on Pakistan's Muslims to fight 'the American crusade,'" AP reports.
• Talks will continue today between a U.S. delegation and Pakistani officials regarding the fight against terrorism and how the two countries can cooperate, Pakistan's The News reports.
• The United States is planning "to attack the Taliban's front line north of Kabul before sending airborne troops to secure the large former Soviet base at Bagram," the London Telegraph reports. "The base, Afghanistan's only all-weather airfield, would make an ideal forward operations base for American and British special forces who are expected to be sent in to snatch Osama bin Laden."

• Today President Bush will meet with House and Senate leaders to discuss the "particulars" about the fight against terrorism and bin Laden, Reuters reports. On Monday Bush sent members of Congress a letter "broadly outlining how forces already have been deployed in the Middle East and Asian and Pacific regions."
• Bush will also meet today with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at the White House, AP report. Koizumi "is planning to discuss a possible role for Japanese forces as a non-belligerent in the event of a U.S. military response to the terrorist attacks."
• On Thursday Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz is expected to meet with NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Belgium, to "lay out evidence linking bin Laden and his al Qaeda network to the attacks," CNN.com reports.

• Bush on Monday froze the U.S. assets of 27 people and organizations with ties to terrorism, and he "threatened similar action against foreign banks that serve as financial vessels for terrorists," the Miami Herald reports.
• The people named on Bush's list "have few if any assets" in America, USA Today reports.
• The list shows that bin Laden raises money for terrorist activities through "bogus relief organisations," the London Times reports.
• A "Pakistani charity that claimed to be providing bread to 600 poor families in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul is among 27 groups and individuals whose financial assets the United States is seeking to seize," the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
• Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday they will release only limited information linking bin Laden to the attacks because the information is classified, USA Today reports.

• "More than 350 people have been swept up in the massive dragnet for witnesses and suspects cast since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and nearly 400 others are still being sought for questioning," the Washington Post reports. "None of the detainees has been charged with a crime directly related to the attacks."
• Federal investigators "have not yet identified any knowing accomplices in the United States or uncovered a broad support network that assisted the 19 hijackers," the New York Times reports. The "key to unraveling the plot might lie in Germany, not the United States."
• "Federal prosecutors yesterday charged an Arlington, Va. man with helping five of the hijackers in the deadly attack on America fraudulently obtain Virginia driver's licenses and identification cards," the Washington Times reports.

• After U.S. officials grounded crop-dusting planes Monday, NATO "is warning governments to be alert to the risk of chemical or biological attacks" and to "speed up their preparations for possible germ warfare attacks in the wake of the terror attacks on the US," Britain's ITN news network reports.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday night that "Russia would open its airspace to what he called 'humanitarian' aid to U.S. forces pursuing terrorists blamed for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon," the Baltimore Sun reports.
• Today Putin will speak to the lower house of the German parliament, where he will "offer his view of the future of Europe and a world radically changed by the U.S. hijack attacks," CNN.com reports.
• "A Kurdish Islamic group, directed by supporters of Osama bin Laden, killed more than 20 prisoners it took Sunday" in Iraq, UPI reports.
• A European Union delegation is in Pakistan today to show support for that nation's decision to back the U.S. fight against terrorism, UPI reports.
• The United States is "exploring whether Iran could be brought into a coalition against terrorism, a development that could significantly boost the U.S. campaign against Osama bin Laden and his Afghan backers but prove highly divisive in both the United States and Iran," the Washington Post reports.
• Pope John Paul II "said Monday that the Catholic Church respects 'authentic Islam,' making the distinction with the fanaticism that some fear will stigmatize the religion in the wake of terrorist attacks in the United States," AP reports.

• "The House voted Monday to speed $582 million in back dues to the United Nations, acting just hours after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the international organization to play a major role in the fight against terrorism," AP reports.
• Attorney General John Ashcroft today will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee to lay out the administration's anti-terrorism plan, ABCNews.com reports. On Monday, Ashcroft testified before the House Judiciary Committee, "where he heard concerns from congressmen about the administration's appeals for greater power in investigating suspected terrorist activity."
• Congress is "nearing final approval of a bill keeping federal agencies open until mid-October as Bush administration officials and top lawmakers near a pact covering next year's spending for schools, the military and other programs," AP reports.
• Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, "is planning to introduce a bill today making $71 billion available to renovate Amtrak's infrastructure and help it move toward high-speed rail," CongressDaily AM reports.
• Senators argued Monday over whether the government should go ahead with the Bush administration's plan for military base closings, the Los Angeles Times reports. They will vote today over on the plan.

• American, Delta, United and Continental airlines have "canceled all flights out of National through the end of the month," the Washington Post reports.
• Senate Democrats are working on legislation that would set aside $1.5 billion to "provide health care, job training and extended benefits to 100,000 laid off airline workers and others," CongressDailyAM reports.
• The Air Line Pilots Association today will "recommend to a House subcommittee that pilots be allowed but not required to carry firearms," the New York Times reports. Federal Aviation Administration chief Jane F. Garvey said "she is open to the idea but that it poses practical problems."
• "Airplane traffic at local airports has bounced back to near-normal levels in some cases -- but many of those planes are flying out half-empty," the New York Post reports.
• "Faced with mounting evidence that terrorists had shown unusual interest in agricultural planes, federal officials are considering new restrictions on the export of crop-dusting and other aerosol equipment that could be used in chemical or biological weapons," the Los Angeles Times reports.

• "The Dow Jones industrial average posted its fifth-biggest point gain Monday as investors shrugged off war and recession worries and piled into beaten-down stocks," USA Today reports.
• The market is not expected to rally again today, CNNfn.com reports.
• Oil and energy stocks "plunged" Monday, the New York Times reports.
• Many media companies expect "slower growth in earnings and revenues this year" because of decreasing advertising, AP reports.
• "Afghan farmers are ready to swamp world markets with heroin amid signs that the Taleban has dropped its ban on opium growing," the London Times reports.

• New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) "said yesterday that short of a miracle it was unlikely that any more survivors would be found in the wreckage of the World Trade Center," the New York Times reports.
• The number of "confirmed dead at the World Trade Center rose" to 276 "with 6,453 people listed as missing or dead," AP reports.
• "Restoring the proper name to each scrap of bone and flesh found in the rubble of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center here is expected to require what experts in the field say will be the largest forensic identification effort ever conducted in this country," the Los Angles Times reports.

• "Voter turnout is generally expected to be low" for Tuesday's 3rd District special election, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. "Pre-election polls indicated a runoff election will likely be necessary in the Republican primary. The outcome of the Democratic primary was less clear." Runoffs would be Oct. 16.
• New York City "voters were scheduled to return to the polls today for an all-but-forgotten mayoral primary that was sidetracked by the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack," Long Island Newsday reports. Turnout "is expected to be weak."
• Key state legislators "in Albany and New York City yesterday flatly rejected extending" Giuliani's term, "even as members of the mayor's inner circle split over whether he should try to remain in office past Dec. 31," the New York Post reports.
• But on Monday "Giuliani again refused to end speculation that he may seek a third term at City Hall," Long Island Newsday reports.

• Virginia gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner (D) "told a candidates forum sponsored by the Virginia chapter of AARP he would appoint a 'secretary for older Virginians' to better coordinate meeting needs facing the state's fastest-growing population segment," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
• New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler (R) "yesterday proposed a $414 million program that would reduce property-tax bills for thousands of senior citizens by $1,200 or more a year," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
• Schundler and Democratic candidate Jim McGreevey have both "released advertisements offering their somber reflections on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11," the Newark Star Ledger reports.

• Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., yesterday "said his desire to contribute to the country's war on terrorism made him decide to seek another six-year term next year," the Nashville Tennesseean reports.
• Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Bill Farmer "said there is no clear opponent for Thompson," AP reports.

• A new e-mail virus, named the "Voter Virus," is spreading across the Internet, ABCNews.com reports. "The bug arrives in an e-mail titled, 'Peace Between America and Islam,'" and "when recipients start the attached file called WTC.EXE, the program will send an e-mail with a copy of the bug to everyone listed in their Microsoft Outlook e-mail program. It will then proceed to delete files from the computer's hard drive."
• "Twice in the past week a thief broke into the Red Cross office, probably looking for money donated for victims of the terrorist acts," the St. Petersburg Times reports. The thief stole "petty cash, video equipment and $2,400 in travelers checks."

• A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that "only 6 percent of the 595 gynecologists and 1 percent of 195 family practice doctors surveyed said they prescribed" Mifepristone, "the much-heralded 'abortion pill' approved a year ago this Friday by the Food and Drug Administration," the Washington Times reports.
• "The number of people killed by drunken drivers increased last year for the first time in five years," AP reports.