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CNN) - As the nation's homeland security czar extended the state of high alert Friday, President Bush urged passage of a GOP-backed stimulus package to get the jolted U.S. economy back on its feet.
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said a state of high alert issued Monday - in response to nonspecific but "credible" terrorist threats on U.S. interests at home and abroad - has been extended indefinitely.
Reacting to the largest one-month loss of U.S. jobs in 21 years, Bush called on Congress to pass a bill aimed at expanding unemployment benefits to those affected by the September 11 terrorist attacks and preventing further loss of jobs.
Meanwhile, severe weather caused a U.S. Special Forces search and rescue helicopter to crash-land in Afghanistan on Friday, the Pentagon said. An accompanying U.S. helicopter picked up the crashed chopper's four crew members and flew out of Afghanistan, officials said.
The four crew members from the first helicopter were injured in the crash-landing, the Pentagon said, but none of the injuries were life-threatening. Because the helicopter went down in Afghanistan, U.S. F-14 fighter jets were dispatched and destroyed it to keep it out of enemy hands, officials said.
U.S. B-52s continued to target Taliban forces Friday, carpet-bombing frontline positions near the Afghan capital, Kabul. Northern Alliance commanders said more of their troops were moving toward the front, adding that the B-52 attacks may pave the way for an advance on Kabul within days.
Latest developments
• Addressing reporters Friday alongside Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Bush said the United States is making progress on "two visible fronts -- one in Afghanistan and one in America." Bush indicated military operations would not slow down during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that begins in mid-November, and said heightened U.S. alerts raise the risks for terrorists.
• Concerned that the U.S. Capitol Police force is stretched thin by weeks of heightened security, congressional leaders and the U.S. Capitol Police Board decided Friday that National Guard military police will begin patrolling the Capitol beginning next week, House Administration Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Ney, R-Pennsylvania., told CNN. About 100 uniformed and armed guardsmen, wearing "MP" arm bands, will patrol the perimeter of the Capitol, working three daily shifts of 33 to 35 guardsmen per shift.
• California Gov. Gray Davis on Friday defended his decision to reveal an FBI warning about a terrorist threat to major bridges in the West, dismissing grumbling from some federal officials who appeared to suggest he had over-reacted.
• The Federal Aviation Administration is banning flights near the Arizona ballpark where the World Series will be held Saturday night, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. The directive, issued Friday evening, prohibits aircraft that are flying according to visual flight rules from being under 18,000 feet within 25 nautical miles of the Phoenix Vortac.
• A rally by New York firefighters protesting the city's scale-back of police and firefighters working on Ground Zero recovery operations amid the rubble of the World Trade Center erupted into a fistfight with police Friday. Authorities said five officers were injured and a dozen demonstrators arrested.
• The U.S. House of Representatives broke an impasse over airport security legislation late Thursday, passing a Republican-backed bill that calls for federal oversight of private security screening companies. Passage came after the defeat of a Democratic-supported bid to make airport security screeners federal employees.
The defeated bill was identical to a bill the U.S. Senate passed unanimously last month. House-Senate conferees now will meet to iron out differences between the bills and then send the measure to Bush.
• Security will be tighter and bystanders won't be allowed to pass out water to thirsty participants when the New York City Marathon is run on Sunday. Days ahead of the 26-mile race, runners are already having their identifications checked and re-checked.
• The United Nations' nuclear watchdog meets Friday in Vienna, Austria, amid warnings that an act of nuclear terrorism is more likely than previously thought. Experts from many of the member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency are gathering in special session to look at how to protect atomic installations against attack following the September 11 strikes.
• U.S.-led forces are not out to destroy Osama bin Laden but instead the Taliban government and its Muslim legal system, a Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan said Friday. Akhtar Mohammad Usmani also denied the Taliban are forcing the conscription of youths. The U.S.-led coalition launched its offensive October 7 after the ruling Taliban refused to hand over members of the al Qaeda terror network, which is suspected of orchestrating the September 11 attacks in the United States that killed nearly 5,000 people.
Attacks rattle Kandahar
October 31, 2001 Posted: 1:56 AM EST (0656 GMT)
U.S.-led airstrikes are at the midpoint of their fourth week
By CNN's Nic Robertson
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A large explosion rattled the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan early Wednesday as U.S.-led airstrikes reached the midpoint of their fourth week.
Earlier in the overnight hours, jet fighters could be heard roaring through the skies above the city. Explosions were heard and flashes could be seen on the northern horizon.
In addition, CNN's Nic Robertson reported hearing what he said sounded like C-130 transport aircraft flying low over the city.
A Taliban spokesman said two civilian houses were hit overnight in the air raids, adding there were some casualties, including a medical team.
In developments Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the United States has "a modest amount of ground troops" in Afghanistan to help coordinate the air campaign against Taliban and al Qaeda targets.
He said the U.S. troops were operating primarily in the north, and assisting with the re-supplying efforts as well as targeting coordination.
'Combat forces'
Military Desk: Seizing air base key
RESOURCES
Bases for coalition operations
U.S. Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem, however, referred to the troops as "combat forces".
"We are taking an element of risk in putting combat forces on the ground but it's a measured risk," he said.
The assistance of the U.S. troops was requested by the Northern Alliance, but Stufflebeem said they would not direct the opposition forces in their war against the Taliban.
Stufflebeem also said the battle for Mazar-e Sharif is "a difficult and tough fight" waged by numerous anti-Taliban forces, including the Northern Alliance.
The "outcome is uncertain" at Mazar-e Sharif, he said, but the coordination provided by U.S. ground troops is helping the effort.
If the opposition forces gain control of Mazar-e Sharif, the United States has indicated it might set up an air base at a nearby airfield.
Musharraf hopes for 'quick conclusion'
In a signal that the bombing would not halt any time soon, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said Tuesday during a broadcast interview that he accepted that the military campaign had to continue.
The statement followed a meeting Monday with the commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Tommy R. Franks, who runs the massive day-to-day operations of the U.S. military in the area.
Some preparations are being made for a Northern Alliance offensive
Musharraf, who has been under heavy domestic pressure for his support of the airstrikes in neighboring Afghanistan, said he would not press the United States to halt the bombing during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Musharraf has said he hopes the operation will be brought to a "quick conclusion".
On Monday about 70 U.S.-led aircraft were involved in strikes against 13 planned target areas in Afghanistan, as well as targets in several engagement zones, Stufflebeem said during Tuesday's military briefing.
Those targets included terrorist and Taliban bunkers, tunnels, an airfield and Taliban military forces aligned against opposition forces.
Also, 34,000 humanitarian daily rations were dropped and the same amount was planned for Tuesday, which would bring the total number of rations dropped to more than a million.
CNN
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PASADENA, California
NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey snapped its first picture of Mars on Tuesday, one week after the spacecraft safely arrived in orbit around the red planet.
The test image, slated for release later this week, shows a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer)-wide swath of the planet's south pole, including portions of its frozen cap of water and carbon dioxide ice, scientists said.
"We haven't had much time to think about what it means scientifically, we have been so busy saying how cool it looks," said Philip Christensen of Arizona State University at Tempe. Christensen is the scientist in charge of the instrument, the thermal emission imaging spectrometer -- or THEMIS -- that captured the image.
The thermal infrared picture shows varying temperatures on Mars' surface, with sharp differences between areas warmed by the sun and those plunged into frigid darkness.
In regions illuminated by the sun, the surface temperature hovered at the freezing point; in the dark, it plummeted to minus 184 degrees Fahrenheit.
The image, which has a resolution of about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) per picture element, or pixel, was made while the unmanned Odyssey satellite was roughly 17,000 miles (27,350 kilometers) from Mars as it followed an elliptical path around the planet. By February, the robotic spacecraft will have settled into a circular mapping orbit just 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the surface.
Greg Mehall, the THEMIS mission manager at Arizona State, said the instrument will snap its next thermal image then. Scientists will use THEMIS to detect and map minerals across Mars, as well as seek out the thermal signature of hot springs that might bubble up to the surface. It will also keep tabs on the atmosphere of Mars, monitoring the global dust storms that occasionally envelop the planet.
The $297 million Odyssey mission will also remotely prospect for chemicals, hunt down frozen stores of water and, later, serve as a communications relay satellite for future Mars spacecraft.
