CNN news 2007-12-15 加文本

CNN 2007-12-15


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Hello, everyone. I'm Catherine Callaway at the CNN Center with a look at what's happening Now In The News.

The search for suspects continues after two students were found dead inside their campus apartment on the edge of the Louisiana University campus last night. Both were international graduate students from India. Police say that they were shot and killed in an apparent home-invasion. The campus was not put on lockdown. The university says that police believe the attack was isolated.

It appears al-Qaeda's No.2 man has released a new message critical of the latest Middle East peace process. The audiotape was posted on a radical Islamic website. CNN hasn't independently verified the tape though. Terrorism expert Laura Mansfield says the message is from Ayman al-Zawahri. And in it, he calls last month's Annapolis peace conference “a betrayal of the Palestinians.” At the U.S-hosted talks, both Israeli and Palestinian leaders aGREed to a timeline for a firm peace deal.

A one-two winter punch paralyzing parts of the U.S. Northeast. From Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, snow, sleet and blustery wind have closed schools and businesses, and have stranded travelers all over the area. There were dozens of accidents on the icy highways in eastern New York yesterday. Overturned cars and fender-benders and all-around chaos on the roads. A Boston woman said (that just an hour), that in just an hour the roads went from being bare to being absolutely covered in snow.

Better mileage and more ethanol. Those are two goals of a scale-backed energy bill that was passed by the Senate, calling for an industry-wide average of 35 miles a gallon for cars, small trucks and SUVs to be met over the next 13 years. The bill passed after Democrats stripped out billions of dollars in new taxes on big oil companies and now goes to the House where it’s expected to pass next week.

After all, the energy bill may be a big step in national fuel conservation. There is a deadlock, a global deadlock in fact, at the UN climate conference that’s been going on in Bali. The US and the European Union are split over a single paragraph. It calls for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions 25-40 percent by the year 2020. Europe wants it, the U.S. doesn’t, could make or reach a chilly conclusion to a summit with the lofty goal of tackling global warming.

In Phoenix, the man accused of being the Phoenix Baseline Killer has been sentenced to 438 years in prison for the sexual assault of two sisters. Mark Goudeau also faces trial for the slayings of eight women and a man, and faces a possible death sentence if he’s convicted of those charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

Those are the headlines for you. Stay with CNN for more on these stories and other news of the day.