National and International News - Saturday Jan. 20

UNDATED (AP) - Road crews are pulling an all-nighter in New Mexico and National Guard troops are on weekend duty in Texas because of the latest winter storm sweeping the southern Plains. More than 100-thousand homes and businesses in the region still lack power from earlier bouts of ice and snow.

WHITE HOUSE (AP) - President Bush huddles with his top aides today to discuss the plan for boosting troop numbers in Iraq. Aides also say the president's State of the Union address next Tuesday won't be confined to the war. They say he'll also spend time on health care, energy and immigration. The White House calls comments made by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the quick surge of U-S troops in Iraq "poisonous." Pelosi said yesterday the president is in a hurry to put more troops "in harm's way" because he knows Congress won't cut off the resources after they're deployed.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A private security contractor has filed a countersuit against the attorney representing the estates of four employees killed in Iraq. Blackwater U-S-A is seeking ten (m) million dollars, saying the families breached the security guards' contracts by suing them.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California may move up the date of its presidential primary. Some state lawmakers hope moving it from June to February would give the nation's biggest and most influential state more clout in picking White House nominees. A similar measure was abandoned two years ago.

UNDATED (AP) - Positioning himself as a true conservative, Sam Brownback plans to announce his candidacy for president today. He's a Republican senator from Kansas. Tomorrow, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson announces he's officially thinking about a run, setting up a presidential exploratory committee.

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) - A college football player accused of stabbing another player has been ordered to stand trial for attempted murder. Mitch Cozad, the backup punter at Northern Colorado is charged with stabbing starter Rafael Mendoza in his kicking leg in September. Police allege Cozad did it to move up to the first team.

TOKYO (AP) - There's another sign of progress toward resolving the impasse over North Korea's nuclear program. An American envoy says the U-S and North Korea have agreed to "get going" on a new round of international talks. He says one-on-one talks this week proved "very useful."

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - FEMA plans to extend by six months its transitional housing assistance program for Gulf Coast residents displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The program was scheduled to expire next month, potentially displacing more than 100-thousand households from FEMA-funded homes.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A Rhode Island teen-ager, who is a fan of the Middle Ages, will have his senior picture, in which he poses with a sword, published in a high school yearbook. School officials said the photo violated a zero-tolerance policy against weapons. But the state education commissioner reversed the school.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A lawmaker in California wants to make it a crime to spank a child. Democrat Sally Lieber says anybody who spanks, hits or slaps a child under four should probably go to jail.

NEW YORK (AP) - Gasoline is less expensive since the first of the year but experts say cheaper crude oil is only part of the story. The price as of Friday was two-20 a gallon, down 13 cents this year.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A judge has ordered O.J. Simpson to limit his spending to "ordinary and necessary living expenses." The ruling comes after the family of murder victim Ron Goldman, who won a multi (m) million-dollar civil judgment against Simpson, raised concerns the former football star is shopping another book deal.

OYADAO, Cambodia (AP) - A 27-year-old woman has emerged from the jungles of Cambodia after allegedly spending 19 years there. Dubbed "jungle woman" she was found a week ago grunting and walking bent over. She is staying with a local family who say she's their daughter who disappeared at age eight.