$70 billion more OK'd for Afghan, Iraq wars

WASHINGTON — House-Senate negotiators Thursday approved a new $70 billion infusion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as they wrapped up talks on a $447 billion Pentagon funding bill.

The additional war funds would bring the total approved by Congress for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001, to more than $500 billion, with another installment likely to come next spring.

The defense measure is expected to be approved by the full House and Senate next week despite widespread anxiety about how well the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are going.

Meanwhile, Congress gave final approval Thursday to a bill that would shield service members from people pushing inferior or overpriced financial-service and insurance packages.

Liberal church taking IRS to court on status

PASADENA, Calif. — A liberal church that has been threatened with the loss of its tax-exempt status over an anti-war sermon delivered just days before the 2004 presidential election said Thursday it will fight an IRS order to turn over documents on the matter.

"We're going to put it in their court and in a court of law so that we can get an adjudication to some very fundamental issue here that we see as an intolerable infringement of rights," said Bob Long, senior warden of All Saints Church. He said the Episcopal church's 26-member vestry voted unanimously to resist IRS demands for documents and an interview with the congregation's rector by the end of the month.

The church's action sets up a high-profile confrontation between the church and the IRS, which now must decide whether to ask for a hearing before a judge. IRS spokesman Terry Lemons declined to comment.

Religious leaders on the right and left have expressed fear that the dispute could make it more difficult for them to speak out on moral issues such as gay marriage and abortion.

Commerce Dept. missing computers

WASHINGTON — The Commerce Department has lost 1,137 laptop computers since 2001, most of them assigned to the Census Bureau, officials said Thursday.

The Census Bureau, the main collector of information about Americans, lost 672 computers. Of those, 246 contained some personal data, the department said. The number of people affected could not be determined; however, no personal information from any of the missing computers is known to have been improperly used, the department said.

FDA nominee faces new hurdles

WASHINGTON — Senate confirmation of President Bush's nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration remained in doubt, despite a committee's approval Wednesday of Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach.

Von Eschenbach overcame earlier stalling tactics by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., pending an agency decision to allow nonprescription sales of the morning-after emergency contraceptive pill. But now two Republican senators have pledged to block his confirmation, each for separate reasons.

Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina wants von Eschenbach to suspend sales of the abortion pill RU-486 and investigate whether it increases the likelihood of infection by a rare but deadly bacterium. Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana said he will seek to prevent a full Senate vote on von Eschenbach until the nominee backs legalizing importation of some prescription drugs — a position opposed by the Bush administration.

Von Eschenbach has headed the FDA on an acting basis for the past year. The agency has been without a permanent head for all but 18 months of the Bush administration.

Compiled from The Associated Press