Draft asks for increased U.N. role: On Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that the United States would be submitting a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council asking for support of a “multinational force” in Iraq. However, assistance from the United Nations would still be under American command in Iraq. Powell said that the United States would remain in a dominant position because of the size and pre-existing authority of the U.S. troops currently in place in Iraq. Powell also said, “a dominant role doesn't mean the only role. There are many roles to be played.” Powell said that he thought the resolution would make it easier for countries to make more significant troop contributions. Currently, he said there are around 30 countries with troops in Iraq, but most of these forces number a few hundred. The resolution would also expand the United Nations role in such areas as “…generating reconstruction funds and helping create, and implement, an electoral system.”
Emergency rooms ease rules on patient care: The Bush administration is easing the rules on patient care in emergency rooms with a new rule that takes effect on Nov. 10. This rule specifies that hospitals aren’t required to have specialists on call at all hours, reducing “the compliance burden for hospitals and physicians.” Also, the rule should make it more difficult for patients to sue hospitals for failure to comply with federal standards. The new rule also reduces the number of regulations that specify when and where an emergency room must provide services to patients. Supporters of the law say that patients still have adequate protection, but the new law simply reduces compliance costs and creates more court defenses for hospitals and doctors.
Minister executed for killing abortion doctor: Paul Jennings Hill died by lethal injection yesterday at Florida State Prison for the murder of an abortion doctor. Nine years ago, Hill shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton and his escort outside a Pensacola clinic. Hill, a former Presbyterian minister, was “the first killer of an abortion provider to be executed in the United States.” According to a New York Times article, abortion advocates are afraid that Hill’s death will provoke a surge of violence against abortion clinics, which have functioned relatively peacefully in the past few years.
-Compiled by Paige Wassel with information from the New York Times