Countdown Newsletter: 8/22/05 -- Deadline Looms; Stem/Skin Cells; Mysteri

[Patsy Stone]

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Tonight on Countdown
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Reportedly backed by Kurdish negotiators, Iraq's ruling Shiite Islamists prepared on Monday to force a draft constitution through the interim parliament they dominate, brushing off fierce objections from Sunnis as they raced to beat a midnight deadline. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9005694/

After more than a week out of the public eye, President Bush is telling a veterans audience in Salt Lake City that the United States must not give up on peace and stability in Iraq. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9039395/

Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.

Scientists for the first time have turned ordinary skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells - without having to use human eggs or make new human embryos in the process, as has always been required in the past, a Harvard research team announced yesterday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9034403/

As he walked off the field on a relatively cool Colorado evening, Thomas Herrion was huffing and puffing. Still, he didn't look much different from his 49ers teammates who had been playing alongside him during the game's fast-moving final seconds. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9025480/

Australian singer Olivia Newton-John is frantic with worry following the mysterious disappearance of her longtime boyfriend, friends say. http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/newtonjohn-frantic/2005/08/22/1124562799885.html?oneclick=true

A German man who baffled police and care workers after being found wandering in a suit near a southern English beach, soaking wet and refusing to speak, has returned to Germany after four months in care. A report in the Daily Mirror newspaper said the man had finally broken his silence, revealing that he was German and had been trying to commit suicide after losing his job in Paris when he was picked up by police. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22393500.htm

That's some of what we're planning for tonight's show.

Finally,
A stalking foray atop a power pole left a lucky feline jolted, frizzled and dazed but otherwise OK after he fell off the 40-foot pole and sparked a fire outside a fire house. The firefighters believe the cat was on the pole, because a bird's nest was found on top and there was a large black spot where something had touched a relay switch on the 25,000-volt line. The cat will be put up for adoption if it is not claimed by its owner, she said. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LUCKY_FELINE?SITE=NWCN&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME
That cat still has eight lives to go.

-- Carey Fox

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More:
Settlers from the last Gaza settlement were driven out of the Gaza Strip on armored buses Monday, wrapping up Israel's historic pullout. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8931552/

Iraq's oil exports were shut down Monday by a power cut that darkened parts of central and southern Iraq, including the country's only functioning oil export terminals, Iraqi and foreign oil officials said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9038660/

Some 2,100 members of Egypt's security forces swept through the rugged desert of the Sinai Peninsula on Sunday, arresting 300 people as they searched for terrorists involved in a series of recent bombings, security officials said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9033212/

The widower of the woman killed by the blast at the 1996 Olympics confronted bomber Eric Rudolph on Monday, saying that his wife can finally rest knowing that "justice is finally being served." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9038110/

Hundreds of looters battled police all weekend at the site of a beer train wreck in violence that left one woman dead, South African police said on Monday as they kept a heavy guard on the remaining alcohol. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9039940/

The five named tropical storms recorded in July were the most on record for that month, and worldwide it was the second warmest July on record, the National Climatic Data Center reported Tuesday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8973827/

At long last, the Fishers are at peace. As 'Six Feet Under' is laid to rest, fictional family finally sheds fear, gloom. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8999770/