Briefly . . . NATION/WORLD

Bush aides in contempt?

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked the Justice Department yesterday to open a grand jury investigation into whether President Bush's chief of staff and former counsel should be prosecuted for contempt of Congress.

Pelosi, D-Calif., demanded that the department pursue misdemeanor charges against former White House counsel Harriet Miers for refusing to testify to Congress about the firings of federal prosecutors in 2006 and against chief of staff Josh Bolten for failing to turn over White House documents related to the dismissals.

She gave Attorney General Michael Mukasey one week to respond and said refusal to take the matter to a grand jury will result in the House's filing a civil lawsuit against the Bush administration.

The White House branded the request as "truly contemptible."

War cost could reach $5T

WASHINGTON - The Iraq war will cost Americans between $3 trillion and $5 trillion, including military spending, broader economic costs and decades of benefits and medical care for combat veterans, a Nobel prize-winning economist told the Joint Economic Committee yesterday.

The upper end of the estimate is nearly double what the same economist, Joseph Stiglitz, projected just two years ago. He attributed the dramatic increase to the continuing intensity of the war, which began five years ago next month, and the likelihood that operations there would continue for at least another year.

Gates: Turks got message

ANKARA, Turkey - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he told Turkish leaders yesterday that they should end an offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq as soon as possible.

"I think they got our message," Gates said.

The cross-border fighting has put the United States in a delicate position. First, it is close allied with Iraq and Turkey, Second, a prolonged Turkish offensive could jeopardize security in Iraq just as the United States is seeking to consolidate recent security gains.

With Gates meeting government officials in Ankara, a military convoy of at least six dozen trucks carried Turkish troops and equipment to a military outpost near the Iraqi border.

During the day, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene, Turkish artillery fired shells across the border while nearly a dozen attack helicopters flew toward Iraq over Cukurca, the closest Turkish town to where some clashes are taking place with rebels.

Israeli missiles send message

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A bloody spike in Israel-Hamas fighting put the Israeli city of Ashkelon and its 110,000 residents at the center of an intensifying militant rocket barrage yesterday - and Israel's defense minister warned he would invade Gaza, if necessary, to halt the attacks.

Israel sent a not-so-veiled warning to Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, killing 20 Palestinians in almost a dozen airstrikes, including a missile attack on a guard post outside Haniyeh's home. Hamas leaders have been in hiding in recent weeks, though Israel has so far only targeted militants, not Hamas politicians.

The dead yesterday included members of rocket squads, andd five children, ranging in age from 8 to 12, who their relatives said were playing soccer when they were killed in a missile strike.

Power-sharing pact in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenya's rival leaders broke their tense standoff yesterday, agreeing to share power in a deal that may end the violence that has engulfed the nation but could mark the beginning of a long and difficult political relationship.

Mwai Kibaki, the president, and Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, sat at a desk in front of the president's office, with a bank of television cameras rolling, and signed an agreement that creates a powerful prime minister position for Odinga and splits cabinet positions between the government and the opposition.

But there are still many issues to resolve, starting with how the government will function with essentially two bosses and how it will go about the delicate business of reassigning the choice posts already given to Kibaki's allies.

1 in 100 adults jailed in U.S.

NEW YORK - For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.

Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008 - one out of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it's more than any other nation.

The report, released yesterday by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for spending on higher education, the report said.

Sorry for terrorist escape

SINGAPORE - The Singapore government apologized yesterday for the security lapse that allowed a suspected Islamic terrorist leader to escape from jail, triggering a manhunt across this usually well-policed island nation.

Authorities said Mas Selamat Kastari, 47, who once allegedly plotted to hijack a plane and crash it into Singapore's international airport, slipped away Wednesday. He is said to be commander of a group allied with al Qaeda. *

-Daily News wire services