Bush's Approval Rating Down to 40% & Crude Oil Futures Surge More Tahn $4 in Today's Details 9/20/05

- President Bush's vow to rebuild the Gulf Coast did little to help his standing with the public, only 40 percent of whom now approve of his performance in office, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday.

- A United Nations panel of experts issued a report Monday saying there is no shortage of recruits for terrorism worldwide and that Iraq has provided new training ground for them, replacing al Qaeda bases lost in Afghanistan.

- Republicans on three separate congressional committees this week derailed three formal "resolutions of inquiry" by Democrats that would have required the Bush administration to turn over sensitive information and records relating to the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame.

- Crude- oil futures surged more than $4— the biggest one-day price jump ever — amid worries that Tropical Storm Rita strengthening off the Bahamas could hit U.S. oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico later this week, striking another blow at an industry struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

- Republicans on Capitol Hill and even some longtime Bush team members in various Cabinet level departments say this Administration is done for .

- Under pressure from President Bush and other top federal officials, the mayor suspended the reopening of large portions of New Orleans Monday and instead ordered nearly everyone out because of the risk of a new round of flooding from a tropical storm on the way.

- Residents boarded up windows Monday and evacuated the low-lying Florida Keys as Tropical Storm Rita gathered strength in the Bahamas, threatening to grow into a hurricane with a potential 8-foot storm surge.

- Pope Benedict XVI's envoy to the United States to bring aid for Hurricane Katrina's victims said Saturday that many of them have been struck by "shameful" poverty in "rich America."