Nation briefs 9/9/04

No vote on expiring assault weapons ban

WASHINGTON -- Congress will not vote on an assault weapons ban due to expire Monday, Republican leaders said Wednesday, rejecting a last-ditch effort by supporters to renew it. "I think the will of the American people is consistent with letting it expire, so it will expire," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., told reporters. The 10-year ban, signed by President Clinton in 1994, outlawed 19 types of military-style assault weapons.

Pentagon: Terror suspect not 'enemy combatant'

WASHINGTON -- Two-and-a-half years after he was captured in Afghanistan and detained by the U.S. military as an "enemy combatant," a prisoner at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been told he will be allowed to go home, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. A three-person military panel determined after reviewing his case that he does not fit the definition of an enemy combatant, Navy Secretary Gordon England told a Pentagon news conference.

Commission wants 'no-fly' expanded to trains, ships

WASHINGTON -- The government should check travelers' names against terrorist watch lists before they board passenger trains or cruise ships, the Sept. 11 commission recommended Wednesday. Airlines now check their passengers' names against such a list.-- From wire reports

Bill Clinton out of intensive care

NEW YORK -- Former President Bill Clinton was moved Wednesday from intensive care to a hospital room following his heart surgery, his office said. Clinton walked with assistance, sat up in bed and sat in a chair while continuing to recover from surgery he had Monday to bypass four severely clogged arteries, the office said in a statement posted on his Web site. Clinton will continue to recuperate in the hospital for the next several days, his office said.

-- From wire reports