House Democrats Want Halliburton Probe Questioning whether Vice President Dick Cheney's former company has received favored treatment from the Pentagon, senior House Democrats asked Congress' investigative agency Tuesday to delve into contracts awarded Halliburton Co. over the past two years.Halliburton's KBR subsidiary has a record of gouging the government in contracts awarded without competition, Reps. Henry Waxman of California and John Dingell of Michigan contended in a letter to the General Accounting Office

Rumsfeld Ignored Weapons of Mass Destruction in Pursuit of Oil Pipeline Key figures associated with the Bush Administration, in particular Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, pressed Saddam Hussein during the mid '80's to approve the Aqaba pipeline project from Iraq to Jordan.

Black Holes and Space Travel The idea that spaceships might zip across the universe using black holes as a high-speed portal is a well-worn sci-fi cliché. But the consensus among scientists of late is that black holes are so destructive, spaceships would be torn to subatomic bits if they tried such a thing. Then again, maybe not. A new paper by University of Utah physicist Lior Burko, building on earlier work, raises the possibility that black holes may not annihilate everything, and that the potential for hyperspace travel is still open.