WASHINGTON

Bernanke nominated for Fed Chair

President Bush yesterday selected Ben Bernanke, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, to replace Alan Greenspan as Fed chairman, an administration official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the nomination had not yet been announced. Bush was to announce his choice at 1 p.m. EDT, said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Greenspan, who took over in August, 1987, wraps up his term as chairman Jan. 31. Asked about Greenspan's successor, Bush said, "We'll be making an announcement soon."

Bernanke, 51, is a former member of the Fed board. He also was a professor at Princeton University and chairman of the economics department.

Bernanke and Greenspan differ on whether the Fed should set targets for inflation, but otherwise they share a similar philosophy. In fact, while he was at the Fed, market observers would often look at Bernanke's speeches for insight into Greenspan's thinking.

 

Report looks into deaths of detainees

WASHINGTON (AP) - At least 21 detainees who died while being held in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were killed, many during or after interrogations, according to an analysis of Defense Department data by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The analysis, released yesterday, looked at 44 deaths described in records obtained by the ACLU. Of those, the group characterized 21 as homicides and said at least eight resulted from abusive techniques by military or intelligence officers, such as strangulation or "blunt force injuries," as noted in the autopsy reports.

The 44 deaths represent a partial group of the total number of prisoners who have died in U.S. custody overseas; more than 100 have died of natural and violent causes.

In one case, the report said, a detainee died after being smothered during interrogation by military intelligence officers in November 2003. In another case cited by the report, a prisoner died of asphyxiation and blunt force injuries after he was left standing, shackled to the top of a door frame, with a gag in his mouth.

 

Bush will not release conversation records

President Bush said yesterday that he will not release any records of his conversations with Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers that could threaten the confidentiality of the advice that presidents get from their lawyers.

And a Democratic senator called on the beleaguered nominee to give the Senate her income tax records.

Both Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding more documents about Miers, including from her work at Bush's counsel.

"It's a red line I'm not willing to cross," Bush said of White House records.

 

JERUSALEM

Palestinian fugitive killed in West Bank violence

Israeli troops killed a top Palestinian fugitive and a close accomplice in a West Bank shootout yesterday, prompting threats of "unprecedented" revenge by the violent Islamic Jihad group.

The wanted man, Luay Saadi, was the leader of Islamic Jihad's military wing in the West Bank and was blamed for the deaths of 12 Israelis in a series of attacks in recent months. Saadi, 30, was killed in a hail of bullets as he fired on troops during an attempted escape from a hide-out, an Israeli army commander said.