In Brief

BAGHDAD: An attempt to open debate on a pact allowing U.S. troops to stay in Iraq through 2011 degenerated into a yelling match in Parliament here yesterday, casting doubt on Iraqi and U.S. officials' hopes of easy passage. Iraqi legislators were to try again today to discuss the security agreement. The discord does not bode well for passage by Nov. 25, when lawmakers are expected to begin a nearly monthlong break. If the pact is not approved by the end of the year, it would leave U.S. forces without legal standing to be in Iraq come Jan. 1.

Texas court to arraign Cheney, Gonzales

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas: A Texas judge has set an arraignment for Vice President Dick Cheney, former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and other officials accused of involvement in prisoner abuse. Presiding Judge Manuel Banales said yesterday that he will allow them to waive arraignment or have attorneys present rather than appear in person tomorrow. Banales also said he would issue summonses, not warrants. That allows them to avoid arrest and the need to post bond. Willacy County District Attorney Juan Guerra accuses Cheney, Gonzales, a state senator and others of involvement in prisoner abuse at a federal detention center in south Texas.

Penguin probably hunted to extinction

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: Researchers studying a rare and endangered species of penguin have uncovered evidence of a previously unknown species that disappeared about 500 years ago. The research suggests that the first humans in New Zealand hunted the newly found Waitaha penguin to extinction by 1500, about 250 years after their arrival on the islands. But the loss of the Waitaha allowed a yellow-eyed species to thrive, Philip Seddon of Otago University, a co-author of the study, said yesterday in the biological research journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.