Bush asks Democrats to back bill

WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Saturday pressed Senate Democrats to stand up to the challenge of terrorism by agreeing to his proposal for a Homeland Security Department with broad power to "move people and resources to meet new threats."

Bush, in his weekly radio address, said the bill now before the Senate was unacceptable and he favored a compromise by Sens. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, and Zell Miller, D-Ga. Bush said their measure would meet his demands for flexibility while adequately protecting the 170,000 federal workers expected to staff the new department.

"The enemy is still at large, threatening our safety and security," Bush said in promoting the compromise. "Defeating terrorism requires constant vigilance and preparation by our citizens and by our government."

Presidential guards enter new training

KABUL, Afghanistan -- With Afghanistan's army short on funding and weapons, Turkish peacekeepers launched a new training program Saturday for more than 400 presidential guards.

The men received their first round of training earlier this year from British peacekeepers, who had preceded the Turks as leaders of the International Security Assistance Force deployed by the United Nations to protect Kabul, the Afghan capital.

Despite being called presidential guards and being deployed to the presidential palace following their training by the British, the men were not given any work by the defense ministry, nor were they ever paid by the Afghan government.

Nearly 600 men were trained by the British, but only about 400 remain.

The soldiers were originally to be the vanguard of Afghanistan's new multiethnic army, even though the defense ministry said it didn't have automatic rifles to give the presidential guards.

But the international community has put its hopes in a new multiethnic army to replace the current mostly Tajik military. Western diplomatic sources say they have run into resistance from Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, who is an ethnic Tajik.

Window cutouts of falling bodies insensitive, not art, residents say

NEW YORK -- A second artistic rendering of people falling from the World Trade Center towers after the terrorist attacks last year has outraged residents who called the works insensitive.

"This is a time for healing, not opening wounds," said Helen Marshall, the Queens borough president, about an art center that decorated its windows with white cutout images of people plunging from the twin towers.

Earlier in the week, Rockefeller Center removed from display a bronze sculpture called "Tumbling Woman" that had been presented as a memorial.

At the Queens Center for the Arts and Learning, the art by Israeli immigrant Sharon Paz was installed Sept. 10, a day before the anniversary of the attacks.

"We didn't intend to be controversial," said Alexander Campos, the center's executive director. "This is a difficult subject matter. We take the responsibility to provide for new forms of discussion."

The exhibit is open through Oct. 5, and a discussion group will meet Oct. 1.

The center has organized other workshops using art to help people deal with traumatic experiences, Campos said.

In other news...

AL-QAIDA SUSPECTS QUESTIONED: Yemen questioned three al-Qaida suspects who were detained after a fire fight in San'a that killed two alleged members of the terror network, an official said Saturday. Two Yemeni soldiers and a woman in a nearby house were wounded in the gunfire late Friday, which erupted when security forces stormed a one-story house in the suburb of Rawdah. Their condition wasn't known.

INDONESIA ALERT: The United States warned Americans traveling to Yogyakarta, a popular tourist area in Indonesia, to be vigilant, saying it has received credible information that Westerners may be the target of violence. The notice was issued last week following the closure of the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta for four days.

TREASURY OFFICIAL IN AFGHANISTAN: U.S. Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday and will meet Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani and other officials in the capital, Kabul, before traveling Tuesday to the western city of Herat, embassy spokesman Alberto Fernandez said. He will discuss reconstruction efforts and the upcoming introduction of a new Afghan currency.

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