Nation & World Briefly 7/17

NASA loses original Apollo 11 video

WASHINGTON (AP) - NASA could put a man on the moon but didn't have the sense to keep the original video of the live TV transmission.

In an embarrassing acknowledgment, the space agency said Thursday that it must have erased the Apollo 11 moon footage years ago so that it could reuse the videotape.

But now Hollywood is coming to the rescue.

The studio wizards who restored "Casablanca" are digitally sharpening and cleaning up the ghostly, grainy footage of the moon landing, making it even better than what TV viewers saw on July 20, 1969. They are doing it by working from four copies that NASA scrounged from around the world.

"There's nothing being created; there's nothing being manufactured," said NASA senior engineer Dick Nafzger, who is in charge of the project. "You can now see the detail that's coming out."

Gates: More U.S. troops than planned may end up in Afghan

FORT DRUM, N.Y. (AP) - The Pentagon's chief said Thursday he could send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan this year than he'd initially expected and is considering increasing the number of soldiers in the Army.

Both issues reflect demands on increasingly stressed American forces tasked with fighting two wars.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates' comments came during a short visit to Fort Drum in upstate New York - an Army post that that he said has deployed more soldiers to battle zones over the last 20 years than any other unit. Two Fort Drum brigades are headed to Iraq later this year, and a third is currently in Afghanistan.

Asked about Afghanistan by one soldier, Gates said, "I think there will not be a significant increase in troop levels in Afghanistan beyond the 68,000, at least probably through the end of the year. Maybe some increase, but not a lot."

So far, the Obama administration has approved sending 68,000 troops to Afghanistan by the end of 2009, including 21,000 that were added this spring.

The White House has wanted to wait until the end of the year before deciding whether to deploy more, but a defense official said Thursday that Gates does not want to discourage his new commander in Kabul, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, from taking a frank look at how many troops he needs.

Jakarta hotel blasts kill 9, wound 50

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A pair of powerful explosions killed nine and wounded at least 50 people in an upscale Jakarta neighborhood this morning, sending debris and glass flying onto the streets.

Anti-terror forces were at the scenes of both blasts, but did not yet want to speculate about the possibility of an attack by militants.

"There were bodies on the ground, one of them had no stomach," said a man who lives near the hotels and who arrived at the Marriott before emergency services. "It was terrible."

Alex Asmasubrata, who was jogging by the hotels, said he first heard a loud explosion at the Marriott. Five minutes later, a bomb followed at the Ritz.

The blasts were caused by "high explosives," Security Minister Widodo Adi Sucipto told reporters at the scene, without elaborating. He said they exploded two minutes apart.