April 23, 2005

Vice Pres Dick Cheney plunges White House into judicial confirmation battle by saying he supports changing Senate rules to stop Democrats from blocking Pres Bush's judicial nominees and would, if needed, provide tie-breaking vote; Sen Mitch McConnell says Republicans have votes to end filibustering; Sen Harry Reid accuses McConnell of bluffing and Pres Bush of lying when he told him he would not become involved in Republican efforts to break Senate rules (M)

Zacarias Moussaoui, only person facing trial in US in connection with Sept 11, 2001 terror attacks, pleads guilty to participating in conspiracy by Al Qaeda to fly planes into American buildings; says that despite his guilty plea he had nothing to do with Sept 11 attacks; says he had been planning to participate in separate undisclosed plot to fly plane into White House at different time; says his role was part of plan to force release of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, blind Muslim scholar who is serving life sentence for conspiracy to blow up New York bridges and tunnels in 1993; Moussaoui photo (M)

Green House Project, comprising 10 new suburban houses in Tupelo, Miss, is experiment in reinventing the nursing home; its creators hope it will herald a new age for old age, although its advantages to residents are yet unproved in health care studies; Green Houses are part of broadening movement to humanize care for elderly people with smaller, more domestic settings and closer sense of community among residents and staff members; Mississippi Methodist Senior Services Inc runs Green House program in Tupelo; photos (M)

Investigation by Army Inspector Gen Stanley E Green clears four of the five top Army officers overseeing prison operations in Iraq of responsibility for the abuse of detainees; they are Lt Gen Ricardo S Sanchez, Maj Gen Walter Wojdakowski, Maj Gen Barbara G Fast and Col Marc Warren; Sanchez is the highest-ranking officer to face allegations of leadership failure in the scandal; inquiry closes Army's book on whether the officers should be held accountable for command failings; Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, Army Reserve officer who commanded the military police unit at Abu Ghraib prison, is relieved of her command; she is the only officer to be punished (M)

Big airlines, particularly Delta and Northwest, using deep first-quarter losses to bolster their arguments and supported by pilots' and flight attendants' unions, lobby Congress for third bailout since September 2001 attacks; Sen Johnny Isakson introduces legislation that would allow airlines to stretch out their overdue pension obligations over 25 years, instead of having to cover shortfall in three years, as mandated by current laws; collectively, six big traditional airlines owe $20.8 billion in back payments (M)