The News in 2 Minutes

From The Associated Press

Air Force leaders ousted in shake-up

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Defense Secretary Robert Gates ousted the Air Force’s top officials Thursday, holding them to account in a historic military shake-up for failing to ensure the security of sensitive materials, including nuclear missile warhead fuses that were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan.

Gates announced at a Pentagon news conference that he had accepted the resignations of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, a highly unusual double firing.

Gates cited two embarrassing incidents in the past year. In one, a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown across the country without anyone realizing nuclear weapons were aboard.

In the other, four electrical fuses for ballistic missile warheads were mistakenly sent to Taiwan in the place of helicopter batteries. Gates said an internal investigation found a common theme in the B-52 and Taiwan incidents: “a decline in the Air Force’s nuclear mission focus and performance.”

Egypt uncovers “missing” pyramid

SAQQARA, Egypt—Egyptian archaeologists unveiled on Thursday a 4,000-year-old “missing pyramid” that is believed to have been discovered by an archaeologist almost 200 years ago and never seen again.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s antiquities chief, said the pyramid appears to have been built by King Menkauhor, an obscure pharaoh who ruled for only eight years.

In 1842, German archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius mentioned it among his finds at Saqqara, referring to it as number 29 and calling it the “Headless Pyramid” because only its base remains. But the desert sands covered the discovery, and no archaeologist since has been able to find Menkauhor’s resting place.

“We have filled the gap of the missing pyramid,” Hawass told reporters on a tour of the discoveries at Saqqara, the necropolis and burial site of the rulers of ancient Memphis, the capital of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, about 12 miles south of Cairo.

The pyramid’s base, or the superstructure as archeologists call it, was found after a 25-foot-high mound of sand was removed over the past year and a half by Hawass’ team.

Democratic budget plan passed by House

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Democrats gave final approval Thursday of a 2009 budget blueprint that rewards domestic agencies and the Pentagon with generous budget increases while leaving wrenching decisions about curbing Medicare costs and increasing taxes to the next president.

The House approved the $3.1 trillion budget plan by a 214-210 vote; the Senate had passed the measure on Wednesday. The nonbinding measure does not go to President Bush but instead sets guidelines for future action by Congress.

The Democratic plan essentially leaves the budget on autopilot for a year until either Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., or Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. — the presumptive presidential nominees — can propose a budget.