Nation briefs 1/17/04

Pope meets Israeli rabbis in reconciliation effort

VATICAN CITY -- Pursuing his goal of reconciliation among religions, Pope John Paul II received Israel's chief rabbis Friday in a 35-minute Vatican audience and assured them of his commitment to Catholic-Jewish cooperation. The pope met Israel's previous chief rabbis in the Holy Land in 2000, a visit he called one of the highlights of his papacy. No pope has reached out to Jews and Muslims as has the 83-year-old pontiff, who grew up in a heavily Jewish town in Poland. John Paul has visited a synagogue in Rome and a mosque in Damascus, Syria, making him the first pope to visit Jewish and Muslim houses of worship.

Cheney's former firm gets Iraq oil contract

WASHINGTON -- Despite a Pentagon probe into alleged overcharging for fuel delivered to Iraq, the Army awarded Vice President Dick Cheney's former company a contract Friday to rebuild Iraq's oil industry. Halliburton won a competitive bid to rebuild the oil industry in southern Iraq, a contract worth up to $1.2 billion over two years, the Army Corps of Engineers said in a statement.

U.S. seeks deals on air marshals with Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The United States will try to strike deals with individual European nations to place armed sky marshals on trans-Atlantic flights, a top U.S. official said Friday. Asa Hutchinson, U.S. undersecretary for transportation security, sought to convince European civil aviation officials that armed guards are needed to thwart terrorist attacks in planes. While Britain and France were open to the idea, other European nations were not. Hutchinson said Washington would therefore move "with urgency" to pursue deals with individual European nations to tighten security on trans-Atlantic flights, including when and how air marshals would be used.

More than 40,000 members quit AARP

WASHINGTON -- At least 45,000 people have quit the AARP over its support for Medicare legislation last year, association president William Novelli said Friday. The nation's largest seniors' organization provided a key boost to Republicans who led the effort to revamp the Medicare program for older and disabled Americans and provide insurance coverage for prescription drugs. AARP's endorsement unleashed a torrent of criticism from Democratic lawmakers and seniors across the nation accusing AARP of allowing its business relationship with insurers to drive its decision. Novelli has called the criticism baseless.

Hubble telescope first casualty of space initiative

WASHINGTON -- NASA is canceling all space shuttle servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope, a decision that, in effect, will cause the powerful observatory to slowly degrade and eventually become useless, officials said Friday. John Grunsfeld, NASA's chief scientist, said NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe made the decision to cancel the fifth space shuttle service mission to the Hubble when it became clear there was not enough time to conduct it before the shuttle is retired. The servicing mission was considered essential to enable the orbiting telescope to continue to operate. He said the decision was influenced by President Bush's new space initiative, which calls for NASA to start developing the spacecraft and equipment for voyages to the moon and later to Mars.

Northeast cold sends power usage soaring

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Record cold pushed power usage toward all-time highs around the Northeast on Friday, and utilities asked customers to conserve power as a precaution against blackouts. No major blackouts had been reported by Friday afternoon. Electricity suppliers sought voluntary cutbacks to make sure that they had enough natural gas to run their generators and that their equipment didn't go down from overuse. New Jersey Natural Gas Co. said natural gas use was 50 percent higher than normal on Thursday, and Con Edison on Thursday beat the record set just a day earlier in the New York area.

-- From wire reports