Midday Roundup: Company pulls plug on Keystone XL approval process

Pipeline pause. TransCanada Corp, the company behind the Keystone XL oil pipeline, has asked the U.S. government to postpone consideration of its application for the controversial cross-border, heavy-crude conduit. The request came Monday and is widely seen as an attempt to delay the approval process until a new and possibly more oil-friendly president takes over the White House. But the plan might not work. The U.S. State Department said it has received TransCanada’s request, but the review will continue for now. Obama could still veto the project. TransCanada began seeking approval for the pipeline in 2008, with strong support from Canada’s conservative government. But after Prime Minister Steven Harper’s defeat last month, the company has less support at home and still faces major obstacles across the border. The company remains embroiled in lawsuits with Nebraska landowners over the pipeline’s route, and the disputes could drag on for quite some time.

Satellite clues. U.S. military officials say one of their satellites picked up a heat flash over Egypt’s Sinai Desert at the time a Russian passenger plane lost contact with air traffic controllers and crashed. The flash suggests some kind of explosion, possibly a bomb, but investigators say that’s not the only explanation. Metrojet Flight 9268 crashed Saturday en route to St. Petersburg, Russia, from the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheik. All 224 people on board died. Russian officials maintain it’s too soon to say what caused the accident and have again denied that Islamic State (ISIS} shot down the plane. Aviation experts agree, saying some kind of technical failure is the likely cause. Despite initial reports to the contrary, the pilot did not contact air traffic controllers with any concerns about the plane before the crash. Because of the widespread debris field, aviation experts believe the plane broke apart in midair.

Died. Ahmed Chalabi, the well-connected Iraqi exile largely responsible for feeding U.S. officials information that led to the Iraq war in 2003, has died of a heart attack. He was 71. As head of the exiled Iraqi National Congress, Chalabi was a trusted U.S. advisor until his intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction proved wrong. He further fell from favor after reports linked him to the Iranians, a claim he denied. Chalabi remained a political force in Iraq, where he returned to live after the war. Shortly before his death, Chalabi expressed dismay about his country’s future in the face of the ISIS (Daesh) insurgency: “Iraq is a mess. Daesh is organized, with one command, united and well run, and we are so fragmented. We have no discipline, no command structure, no effective plans.”

Out of jail. More than 6,000 inmates have been freed from federal prison over the past few days, much earlier than expected. The release is part of a federal program to reduce the prison population and soften punishment for certain drug crimes. Of those released, about 1,700 are in the country illegally and have been transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement pending further action. While only nonviolent criminals are eligible, New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton warned scrutiny of each prisoner’s record is critical: “But one of the issues of concern is when people go to jail, oftentimes they go to jail with negotiated charges. So somebody that is in jail that seems that they’re a nonviolent drug offender may in fact have crimes of violence in their record. We have to be very concerned about who we’re letting out.” A judge may approve sentence reduction only after evaluating public safety risks.

Holding steady. A new religion survey by the Pew Research Center shows religious Americans are holding fast to their faith, even as nominal Christians step farther away from church. The numbers of people who say their faith is very important to them and claim to pray daily remain largely unchanged since 2007. But other metrics indicate the faithful are more devoted, with higher numbers saying they regularly read the Bible, participate in small-group studies, and share their faith with others. Evangelicals are the only religious group to gain more members than it lost and now make up about one-quarter of the U.S. population. While the number of “nones,” those religiously unaffiliated, make up a larger portion of American society than ever before, they are having a disproportionate impact on one political party. Nones now make up the largest group of Democrats with 28 percent of the party. Evangelicals make up 38 percent of GOP supporters.

WORLD Radio’s Kent Covington contributed to this report.