National and International News-Friday, Feb. 2nd

PARIS (AP) - The head of the U-S delegation to an international conference on climate change isn't saying if the report might change administration policy. She says it will be valuable tool for policymakers. The report says global warming is man-made and will continue for centuries no matter what humans do.

VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) - An 18-mile stretch of the Mississippi River has been shut down after a barge carrying crude oil hit a railroad bridge and caught fire. Nobody was hurt. The extent of the
spill near Vicksburg is not clear, but environmental officials from Mississippi and Louisiana have arrived to assess the situation.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq doesn't say whether what's going on in Iraq amounts to civil war. But The Washington Post reports the document describes an increasingly perilous situation in which the U-S has little control.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The U-S military says it's looking into reports of a U-S helicopter going down north of Baghdad. Police and witnesses report at least one helicopter was shot down near an air base. The military also says a U-S soldier has died in a vehicle accident.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan is about to reinforce its mountain border with Afghanistan by building 22 miles of fencing. The statement by Pakistan's president also acknowledges for the first time that Pakistani frontier guards may have allowed suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fighters to cross.