In a speech from the Pentagon Tuesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld defended the nomination of General Michael Hayden as the head of the CIA. Rumsfeld dismissed fears voiced by both parties in Washington that the Pentagon is trying to take more control of intelligence matters, saying “There's no power play taking place in Washington.”

Despite being named in a fourth guilty plea on Monday, Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) and his lawyer remain stolid in their denial of guilt. “They are making it up. They are flat making it up,” said Ney’s lawyer about his client’s accusers.

You’ll never guess! Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear ambitions hit another brick wall Tuesday after the U.N. Security Council failed to agree on a resolution that would have ordered Iran to suspend its nuclear program immediately under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter. However major Security Council nations agreed Tuesday to present Iran with a choice of benefits or sanctions in deciding whether to suspend its uranium enrichment, while negotiations on the resolution continue.

In other Iran-related news, a letter Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote to President Bush has been described as the first direct communication from an Iranian leader to an American president since 1979. The letter covered an array of topics, the crux being that Western-style democracy has failed and that current U.S. policies cannot be reconciled with Bush’s Christian values. One topic the letter conspicuously omitted was that of Iran's nuclear ambitions, and several U.S. officials called the letter a distraction from matters at hand.

The United States has decided to provide $10 million in medical aid to Palestinians, State Department officials announced Tuesday. In April, the U.S. cut off all non-humanitarian financial aid in the Palestinian territories as a rebuke after Hamas’ unexpected election win. However the $10 million will be provided to non-governmental clinics and through UNICEF, the U.N.’s children’s fund.

As wild fires burn across thousands of acres in Florida, President Bush and his brother, Florida Governor Jeb, made an impromptu appearance Tuesday to remind Florida residents not to carelessly toss out cigarette butts. “Obviously the people need to be real careful, careful about starting fires, be careful about not throwing used cigarettes out,” the president said outside a fire house near Tampa. “They need to be mindful that these are dangerous conditions.”