Evening Edition is an Open Thread
Now with 49 Top Stories.
1 Kadhafi says Al-Qaeda behind insurrection
by Samer al-Atrush, AFP
45 mins ago
| BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) – Moamer Kadhafi blamed Al-Qaeda on Thursday for an insurrection wracking Libya as he addressed his divided nation for the second time this week to galvanise support for his crumbling regime.
Speaking on state television, the embattled Kadhafi insisted the uprising against his 41-year rule was not a people’s revolt but driven by “trigger-happy” youths “stoned with drugs” inspired by Osama bin Laden.
“These are the ones who are under Bin Laden’s influence and authority, under the influence of drugs.” |
AFP
2 Kadhafi loses control of east Libya, mass exodus
AFP
Wed Feb 23, 6:24 pm ET
| TOBRUK, Libya (AFP) – Moamer Kadhafi’s regime has lost vast swaths of Libya’s east to an insurrection, it emerged Wednesday, as the West braced for a mass exodus from a “bloodbath” in the oil-rich African state.
As Kadhafi sought to cling on to his four-decade grip on power, US President Barack Obama condemned the Libyan leadership’s blooody crackdown on anti-regime protests and orders to shoot protestors as “outrageous”.
Thousands of Libyans and foreigners fled the north African country, leaving Kadhafi increasingly isolated as estimates suggested that 640 to more than 1,000 civilians were killed in the backlash by his forces. |
3 Obama tells world to unite against Libya bloodshed
by Stephen Collinson, AFP
Wed Feb 23, 6:28 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama told the world Wednesday to unite to hold Libya accountable for a vicious protest crackdown, stiffening a US response to the crisis that critics had cast as too mild.
In his first televised response to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s decision to unleash vengeance on demonstrators, Obama reached out to US allies and promised to deploy a “full range of options” to halt “outrageous” bloodshed.
Obama spoke as officials said that Washington was considering fresh sanctions and other steps against Libya, and as political pressure mounted on his administration for a more activist response. |
4 Kadhafi digs in as Arab states face fresh protests
by Samer al-Atrush, AFP
Thu Feb 24, 11:50 am ET
| BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) – Eastern Libya was in full revolt on Thursday as an insurrection against strongman Moamer Kadhafi intensified, and a string of Arab states braced for a fresh wave of anti-regime protests.
Swathes of Libya have fallen to opposition control and others into lawlessness, residents and reporters said, as opponents of veteran leader Moamer Kadhafi vowed to march on the capital and topple him from power.
In a 20-minute telephone call to state television, Kadhafi blamed Al-Qaeda for the insurrection as he addressed his divided nation for the second time this week in an attempt to galvanise support for his crumbling regime. |
5 WikiLeaks’ Assange appeals against extradition
by Sam Reeves, AFP
1 hr 9 mins ago
| LONDON (AFP) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vowed Thursday he was ready to to fight a lengthy legal battle after a British judge ruled he should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of rape.
Lawyers for the 39-year-old Australian said they would appeal against judge Howard Riddle’s decision to reject defence arguments that Assange would face an unfair trial that would breach his human rights.
Speaking after the hearing at Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court in London, Assange criticised the European system under which he was detained in December over claims that he sexually abused two women in Sweden. |
6 Astronauts board Discovery for last liftoff
by Kerry Sheridan, AFP
1 hr 37 mins ago
| CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AFP) – Six American astronauts climbed aboard Discovery on Thursday as the most journeyed US shuttle counted down to its final odyssey in orbit, closing a chapter on the US space program.
Discovery was set to launch at 4:50 pm (2150 GMT) on an 11-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), and when it returns next month it will be the first of the three-member fleet to enter retirement.
The end of the US space shuttle program creates a gaping hole in the US space program during a period of belt-tightening and budget freezes and leaves Russia’s space capsules as the sole transit option to the ISS. |
7 Putin puts foot down in Brussels over EU gas
by Roddy Thomson, AFP
Thu Feb 24, 1:01 pm ET
| BRUSSELS (AFP) – Russian premier Vladimir Putin tore into the EU in its Brussels home Thursday over new laws banning state-owned Gazprom from controlling pipelines pumping gas into the world’s biggest individual market.
Putin and European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso clashed heatedly after talks between almost half of the Russian government and the European Union executive, which also touched on the threat to global economic recovery caused by rocketing oil prices amid the unrest in north Africa.
At the heart of their squabble lies a change in EU law, due to enter force on March 3, to unbundle gas supplies from transportation networks. |
8 Fendi and Prada: chincilla, mink and futuristic flying caps
by Ella Ide, AFP
1 hr 23 mins ago
| MILAN (AFP) – Faux-savage women prowled down the catwalks at Milan’s Fashion Week on Thursday, enveloped in luxurious chinchilla and mink stoles, British-inspired woollen wrap dresses and futuristic flying caps.
MaxMara designer Laura Lusuardi’s drew on the classic British country look for her show, reinterpreting kilts and urbanising Irish knitwear with long-haired alpaca and camel tartan bustiers and skirts.
The collection was aimed at “the active, younger and more animated woman,” Lusuardi said backstage: “She is always elegant though, and ageless in her way.” |
9 Gucci and Richmond: modern dandy meets party girl
by Ella Ide, AFP
Wed Feb 23, 3:33 pm ET
| MILAN (AFP) – Gucci’s brightly-coloured birds of prey stalked down the catwalk Wednesday as Milan’s Fashion Week got into full swing.
Emerald green and teal feathers adorned violet hats worn rakishly over 1970s-style fur stoles in Gucci designer Frida Giannini’s autumn-winter creations.
The look was accompanied by full-sleeved dresses pulled in with a sliver of a belt at the waist or flared trousers. |
10 Party animals set tone at Milan fashion week
by Ella Ide, AFP
Thu Feb 24, 10:15 am ET
| MILAN (AFP) – Dynamic women who know how to enjoy themselves were the opening motif of Milan’s Fashion Week and fashionistas waited to see if other designers would seek inspiration from diehard party animals.
Fendi swept the catwalks Thursday on the second day of the event in Italy’s fashion capital, ahead of shows by D&G and Prada.
Karl Lagerfield and Silvia Venturini Fendi wowed the audience with a collection inspired by the “perverse teacher” with models wearing high-heeled brogues, swinging mustard, blue and red boxed bags, their hair in chignons. |
11 Russia launches $650 bn military spending drive
by Dmitry Zaks, AFP
Thu Feb 24, 12:47 pm ET
| MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia launched a $650 billion rearmament plan Thursday to counter the West’s military dominance by adding eight nuclear submarines and hundreds of warplanes to its creaking armed forces.
Details of the long-flagged Kremlin procurement plan through 2020 see Russia acquiring a total of 20 submarines and more than 600 warplanes in place of a outdated fleet of jets and vessels that have been losing international clients.
Analysts said the ambitious plan would in effect create a brand new Russian armed forces that finally cut links with its Soviet past. |
12 S.Africa beat Windies, ticket chaos hits World Cup
by John Weaver, AFP
Thu Feb 24, 11:45 am ET
| NEW DELHI (AFP) – South Africa made a winning start to their World Cup campaign Thursday but action was overshadowed by chaos in Bangalore where baton-wielding police charged fans desperate for India match tickets.
Several people were injured as police attempted to keep order among the throng at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium which the Press Trust of India news agency said numbered at least 30,000.
All 7,000 tickets put on sale Thursday for Sunday’s blockbuster match between India and England, switched at the last minute because of problems at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, were sold out within hours. |
Reuters
13 Gun battles rage in Libya, U.S. examines options
By Alexander Dziadosz and Tom Pfeiffer, Reuters
2 hrs 44 mins ago
| BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi launched a fierce counter-attack on Thursday on rebels holding towns near the capital and the United States did not rule out military action in response to the Libyan crackdown.
The opposition were already in control of major centers in the east, including the regional capital Benghazi, and reports that the towns of Misrata and Zuara in the west had also fallen brought the tide of rebellion closer to Gaddafi’s power base.
Gun battles in Zawiyah, an oil terminal 50 km (30 miles) from the capital, left 23 people dead, a Libyan newspaper said. Al Jazeera quoted residents putting the toll at 100 there. |
14 Paris urges sending humanity crimes team into Libya
By Brian Love, Reuters
Thu Feb 24, 9:45 am ET
| PARIS (Reuters) – France said on Thursday a U.N.-backed team should be sent to Libya to investigate possible crimes against humanity following the bloody crackdown on the revolt there.
Defense Minister Alain Juppe said he hoped Muammar Gaddafi’s rule was nearing an end and that he would sign up to a halt to purchases of Libyan oil if such a move was among international sanctions considered.
“I hope wholeheartedly Gaddafi is living his last moments as leader,” Juppe said in an interview on France Inter radio. Asked if those sanctions should include oil, he said: “If that option were proposed I would go for it.” |
15 Libyans in Benghazi hold "mercenaries," run city
By Alexander Dziadosz, Reuters
Thu Feb 24, 7:51 am ET
| BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Residents of Benghazi have jailed those they say are mercenaries and set up committees to run this eastern city now out of the control of leader Muammar Gaddafi, who has lost control of swathes of Libya.
A court compound in the center of Benghazi, on the Mediterranean coast, has become a focal point for those seeking to reimpose law and order after a bloody rebellion against Gaddafi loyalists who relinquished the city to residents.
A Reuters correspondent was shown about a dozen people held in a court building who residents said were “mercenaries” backing Gaddafi, some were said to be African and others from southern Libya. |
16 Cables show Libya pressed oil firms to reimburse terror costs
By Sara Ledwith, Reuters
Wed Feb 23, 3:09 pm ET
| LONDON (Reuters) – Libya’s ruling family tried to coerce billions of dollars from Libyan and foreign oil companies, and its leader Muammar Gaddafi exhorted the United States to sow division in Saudi Arabia, leaked American diplomatic cables reveal.
One cable seen by Reuters, sent from the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, shows Gaddafi’s government exerting heavy pressure on U.S. and other oil companies to reimburse Tripoli the $1.5 billion Libya had paid in 2008 into a fund to settle terrorism claims from the 1980s.
The amount was the initial payment in a planned $1.8 billion fund. The cable suggests Gaddafi intended foreign oil companies to provide full funding for the scheme, which at the time was a key factor in improving ties between Libya and the United States. |
17 UK court agrees Assange extradition to Sweden
By Michael Holden, Reuters
Thu Feb 24, 12:32 pm ET
| LONDON (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who rocked the U.S. government by publishing thousands of secret diplomatic memos, must be extradited to Sweden to face sex crimes allegations, a British judge ruled on Thursday.
Assange’s lawyers said immediately they planned to appeal against the decision to London’s High Court and it could still be months before the legal process in Britain reaches an end.
The 39-year-old Australian computer expert remains in Britain on bail in the meantime. |
18 Toyota recalls 2.2 million more autos; U.S. ends probe
By Deepa Seetharaman and John Crawley, Reuters
47 mins ago
| DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp recalled nearly 2.2 million vehicles, citing a defect that could cause gas pedals to stick, in an extension of the safety crisis that has hounded the world’s top automaker for more than a year.
The surprise action on Thursday extended a damaging string of recalls covering 19 million Toyota vehicles worldwide since 2009, mainly over complaints of unintended acceleration linked to defective floormats and gas pedals.
The additional recalls covered several Toyota and Lexus models and renewed questions about quality at the world’s largest automaker and its ability to shake the stubborn safety crisis that has undermined sales and tarnished its brand. |
19 Target, Kohl’s say consumer spending gains fragile
By Phil Wahba, Reuters
Thu Feb 24, 1:42 pm ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – Mid-tier department store operator Kohl’s Corp expects more sales gains this year, while discount retailer Target Corp said fewer shoppers are defaulting on their credit card debt — signs that consumers’ finances are getting better, slowly.
Kohl’s, which caters to price-conscious shoppers, had strong sales over the holidays and said sales at its established stores could rise as much as 4 percent this year.
Target outperformed its larger but more down-market rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc during the holiday quarter and forecast comparable sales may rise up to 5 percent this year. |
20 CIA, Pakistani cooperation scaled back after shooting
By Chris Allbritton, Reuters
Thu Feb 24, 4:59 am ET
| ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Cooperation between the American and Pakistani spy agencies has been scaled back because of an incident involving a CIA contractor shooting two Pakistanis, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Thursday.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official in Islamabad said the case of Raymond Davis had strained but not broken relations between the CIA and the Pakistani Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligences (ISI) because the ISI didn’t know about Davis before he shot and killed two Pakistanis on January 27 in Lahore.
“It’s not business as usual; it’s not open war,” the official told Reuters. “Cooperation and operations together will continue at a lesser scale.” |
21 Special Report: As China grows, contest intensifies for labor
By James Pomfret, Reuters
Thu Feb 24, 10:41 am ET
| SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) – He Shuaixing shakes his head listening to the pitch from a job recruiter on a cold wet day in a factory district outside Shenzhen , epicenter of China’s export machine.
The 26-year-old from the poor heartland province of Henan, like so many other workers, had just returned from his village after the Lunar New Year holidays and was looking for a job. But unlike an older generation of migrant workers, not just any job.
“It’s easy to find work, but not easy to find good work,” said He, wearing a thin grey jacket and a flop of gelled hair. “We haven’t seen any big improvements in wages or benefits.” |
22 NATO’s Afghan night raids come with high civilian cost
By Emma Graham-Harrison, Reuters
Thu Feb 24, 6:28 am ET
| SURKH ROD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A few minutes and a few bullets were enough to turn Abdullah from an 11th grade student with dreams of becoming a translator to the despairing head of a family of more than a dozen.
His father and oldest brother were shot dead last August at the start of a midnight assault by NATO-led troops on their house in Afghanistan’s east. Abdullah himself was hooded, handcuffed and flown to prison, where he was detained for questioning and then released.
They were casualties of a night raid, a controversial tactic that has been stepped up dramatically since General David Petraeus took over running the Afghan war last year, despite strong opposition led by President Hamid Karzai. |
23 Obama pulls defense for law banning gay marriage
By Jeremy Pelofsky, Reuters
Wed Feb 23, 7:15 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s administration will no longer defend a 15-year-old U.S. law that defined marriage as between a man and a woman, a major policy shift in favor of gay rights.
The issue of gay marriage has been a major personal conflict for Obama — he has opposed it and instead favored civil unions — and his policy reversal drew criticism from conservatives who said the move was a political one.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced the change on Wednesday after a detailed review in recent weeks. |
24 CBOE eyeing strategy in exchange merger dash
By Ann Saphir and Jonathan Spicer, Reuters
Wed Feb 23, 6:15 pm ET
| CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Chicago Board Options Exchange for the first time opened the door to a possible sale, becoming the latest market operator to respond to a global takeover frenzy that some say is just beginning.
Chief Executive William Brodsky said CBOE Holdings Inc’s focus on equity derivatives has kept it competitive against larger rivals, but remaining a niche player “may not be the only way that we will succeed,” he told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
Brodsky’s comments, in an interview in his office above the trading floor, appeared to leave the door open to joining the consolidation wave that has rocked the industry, though he did not suggest any particular deal was under consideration. |
AP
25 Gadhafi forces strike back at Libya uprising
By PAUL SCHEMM and SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press
10 mins ago
| BENGHAZI, Libya – Foreign mercenaries and Libyan militiamen loyal to Moammar Gadhafi tried to roll back the uprising against his rule that has advanced closer to his stronghold in Tripoli, attacking two nearby cities in battles that killed at least 17 people. But rebels made new gains, seizing a military air base, as Gadhafi blamed Osama bin Laden for the upheaval.
The worse bloodshed was in Zawiya, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of the capital Tripoli. An army unit loyal to Gadhafi opened fire with automatic weapons on a mosque where residents – some armed with hunting rifles for protection – have been holding a sit-in to support protesters in the capital, a witness said.
The troops blasted the mosque’s minaret with an anti-aircraft gun. A doctor at a field clinic set up at the mosque said he saw the bodies of 10 dead, shot in the head and chest, as well as around 150 wounded. A Libyan news website, Qureyna, put the death toll at 23 and said many of the wounded could not reach hospitals because of shooting by “security forces and mercenaries.” |
26 Libya’s second city learns to govern itself
By PAUL SCHEMM, Associated Press
1 hr 5 mins ago
| BENGHAZI, Libya – Libyans in the eastern half of the country find themselves in an unimaginable situation: Freed from Moammar Gadhafi’s rule for the first time in more than four decades.
Now citizens are figuring out how to run their own affairs and build up their military, as Gadhafi remains very much in power on the other side of the country.
It began as a series of small protests over the imprisonment of a human rights lawyer and then, in a week of increasingly bloody battles, the residents of Libya’s second-largest city, Benghazi, found themselves, improbably, in charge. |
27 US, allies pressure Gadhafi to halt Libya violence
By BRADLEY KLAPPER and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press
17 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – The Obama administration threw its weight Thursday behind a European effort to expel Libya from the U.N.’s top human rights body and said it was readying a larger sanctions package against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime that it will take up with allies in the coming days.
President Barack Obama consulted with the leaders of Britain, France and Italy, while officials said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would help coordinate the larger international strategy to stop the violence in Libya at a meeting of foreign policy chiefs next week in Switzerland.
As an initial punishment for Libya’s violent attacks on protesters, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. is backing a European proposal for the U.N. Human Rights Council to recommend Libya’s expulsion. |
28 AP sources: Senate Dems consider spending cuts
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
13 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats signaled Thursday they will call for spending cuts as part of legislation to keep the government in operation through the end of the fiscal year, accepting a bedrock Republican demand for immediate reductions and easing the threat of a March 4 shutdown of federal programs and services.
No decisions had been made on what size cuts to include in legislation expected on the Senate floor next week, these officials said, adding that $8.5 billion in funding for previously approved congressionally-approved earmark projects is on the chopping block. In addition, aides are reviewing $24.7 billion worth of proposals President Barack Obama recently made to reduce or eliminate programs beginning in 2012, to see whether any should be accelerated.
One obvious candidate for elimination is an alternative engine for the Pentagon’s next-generation fighter aircraft, a program that the White House and Defense Secretary Robert Gates oppose, and that the House recently voted to jettison at a savings of about $450 million. |
29 Troopers sent to homes of some Wisconsin Democrats
By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press
Thu Feb 24, 3:12 pm ET
| MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin state troopers were dispatched Thursday to the doorsteps of some of the AWOL Democratic senators in hopes of finding at least one who would come back to allow a vote on a measure to curb the power of public-employee unions.
The stepped-up tactic ordered by the Republican head of the Senate came amid reports that at least a few of the missing senators were returning home at night before rejoining their colleagues in Illinois.
Meanwhile, the state Assembly appeared close to voting on the union-rights bill after more than two straight days of filibustering. |
30 Earliest human remains in US Arctic reported
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer
Thu Feb 24, 3:23 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – Some 11,500 years ago one of America’s earliest families laid the remains of a 3-year-old child to rest in their home in what is now Alaska. The discovery of that burial is shedding new light on the life and times of the early settlers who crossed from Asia to the New World, researchers report in Friday’s edition of the journal Science.
The bones represent the earliest human remains discovered in the Arctic of North America, a “pretty significant find,” said Ben A. Potter of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
While ancient Alaskan residents were known to hunt large game, the newly discovered site shows they also foraged for fish, birds and small mammals, he explained. “Here we know there were young children and females. So, this is a whole piece of the settlement system that we had virtually no record of.” |
31 Mediator says NFL, union make ‘some progress’
By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Pro Football Writer
1 hr 29 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Just as many expected would happen all along, labor negotiations between the NFL and the players’ union are heading right down to the wire – and possibly beyond.
In the first real indication of what’s been going on behind closed doors, the federal mediator overseeing talks said Thursday the two sides made “some progress” during more than 40 hours spread over seven consecutive days of face-to-face meetings, but “very strong differences remain.”
The league and union will resume mediation Tuesday, less than 72 hours before the old collective bargaining agreement is set to expire. If there’s no new deal in place by the end of next Thursday, the union thinks owners will move to lock out players, threatening the 2011 season. The NFL has said, however, that the deadline could be extended. |
32 Throngs view space shuttle Discovery’s last launch
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
32 mins ago
| CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Discovery, the world’s most traveled spaceship, thundered into orbit for the final time Thursday, heading toward the International Space Station on a journey that marks the beginning of the end of the shuttle era.
The six astronauts on board, all experienced space fliers, were thrilled to be on their way after a delay of nearly four months for fuel tank repairs. But it puts Discovery on the cusp of retirement when it returns in 11 days and eventually heads to a museum.
Discovery is the oldest of NASA’s three surviving space shuttles and the first to be decommissioned this year. Two missions remain, first by Atlantis and then Endeavour, to end the 30-year program. |
33 Judge says WikiLeaks’ Assange can be extradited
By CASSANDRA VINOGRAD, Associated Press
Thu Feb 24, 1:08 pm ET
| LONDON – Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden in a sex crimes inquiry, a British judge ruled Thursday, rejecting claims by the WikiLeaks founder that he would not face a fair trial there. Assange’s lawyer said he would appeal.
Judge Howard Riddle rejected claims from the Wikileaks founder that he would not face a fair trial, saying that the allegations of rape and sexual molestation by two women against Assange meet the definition of extraditable offenses and that the Swedish warrant had been properly issued and was valid.
Assange, 39, a key figure in the release of tens of thousands of secret U.S. government and military documents, has been out on bail during the extradition fight. He has seven days to appeal the ruling in British courts. |
34 Toyota recalls 2.17 million vehicles in US
By KEN THOMAS, Associated Press
Thu Feb 24, 11:16 am ET
| WASHINGTON – Toyota Motor Corp. recalled 2.17 million vehicles in the United States on Thursday to address accelerator pedals that could become entrapped in floor mats or jammed in driver’s side carpeting, prompting federal regulators to close its investigation into the embattled automaker.
The Transportation Department said it had reviewed more than 400,000 pages of Toyota documents to determine whether the scope of the company’s recalls for pedal entrapment was sufficient.
“As a result of the agency’s review, (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) asked Toyota to recall these additional vehicles, and now that the company has done so, our investigation is closed,” said NHTSA administrator David Strickland. |
35 PM warns Iraqis to stay away from Friday protest
By HAMID AHMED, Associated Press
Thu Feb 24, 2:22 pm ET
| BAGHDAD – Iraq’s prime minister warned his people to boycott an anti-government protest planned for Friday, saying it was being organized by supporters of the ousted Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave no proof for his assertion in a nationally televised speech Thursday, which echoed similar blanket statements he has made before blaming terrorists and Saddam loyalists for an array of problems in the country.
Religious figures including anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the leader of Iraq’s majority Shiite community also have raised doubts about the rally. |
36 Gov’t and big tobacco in dispute over proposed ads
By PETE YOST, Associated Press
Thu Feb 24, 12:36 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – The Justice Department wants the largest cigarette manufacturers to admit that they lied to the public about the dangers of smoking, forcing the industry to set up and pay for an advertising campaign of self-criticism for past behavior.
As part of a 12-year-old lawsuit against the tobacco industry, the government on Wednesday released 14 “corrective statements” that it says the companies should be required to make.
One “corrective” statement says: “A federal court is requiring tobacco companies to tell the truth about cigarette smoking. Here’s the truth: … Smoking kills 1,200 Americans. Every day.” |
37 Analysis: Obama shifts stance on gay marriage
By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press
Thu Feb 24, 5:46 am ET
| WASHINGTON – One way for President Barack Obama to win the future, it seems, is to have his administration stop defending a federal law that bans recognition of same-sex marriage.
Opinion polls show a steady rise in Americans’ embrace of gay rights, and young voters solidly back positions their grandparents opposed, including gay marriage.
“Anybody under the age of 40 doesn’t care, or actively supports it,” said Steve Elmendorf, a longtime Democratic staffer and lobbyist. |
38 Brown debates lawmakers in rare budget exchange
By JUDY LIN, Associated Press
30 mins ago
| SACRAMENTO, Calif. – In an unprecedented public give-and-take, Gov. Jerry Brown appeared before a legislative committee Thursday and engaged rank-and-file lawmakers in a discussion about how to address California’s $26.6 billion budget deficit.
The Democratic governor is trying to sell lawmakers on his proposal for a June special election that would allow voters to decide on a five-year extension of increases to state sales, income and vehicle taxes.
The hour-long hearing was remarkable for the frankness of the exchanges between the governor and lawmakers that gave the public a wide-open look at what typically is a closed-door process. |
39 Indiana House adjourns amid GOP, Dems stalemate
By DEANNA MARTIN and TOM DAVIES, Associated Press
33 mins ago
| INDIANAPOLIS – With Democrats still in Illinois and neither party showing signs of compromise Thursday, the Republican leader of the Indiana House shut down the chamber and said it would remain closed until at least Monday.
The House Democrats’ leader said he wasn’t sure whether they would return then. The two parties remain in a stand-off over the Republican agenda, which Democrats say is an attack on the middle class. Republicans have refused to drop any of their bills, and Democrats say they won’t come back until the GOP agrees to sit down and talk about agenda items.
“Nothing’s really changed,” said House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend. He was at a hotel in Urbana, Ill., where most House Democrats have been holed up since they left Tuesday. |
40 Census: St. Louis population down 8 percent
By JIM SALTER, Associated Press
39 mins ago
| ST. LOUIS – St. Louis is losing residents, according to U.S. Census figures released Thursday, and the population decline goes deeper than being another blow to the proud city’s image.
The drop will mean a financial loss that could cost the already cash-strapped Gateway City millions of dollars.
Figures from the 2010 census were a bitter disappointment, as the city’s population dipped to 319,294. That’s down more than 29,000 – a staggering 8 percent – from 2000. For St. Louis leaders, the news was doubly disappointing because they were expecting to see an increase. |
41 Va. OKs bill to likely close most abortion clinics
By DENA POTTER, Associated Press
54 mins ago
| RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia took a big step Thursday toward eliminating most of the state’s 21 abortion clinics, approving a bill that would likely make rules so strict the medical centers would be forced to close, Democrats and abortion rights supporters said.
Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican and Catholic, supports the measure and when he signs it into law, Virginia will become the first state to require clinics that provide first-trimester abortions to meet the same standards as hospitals. The requirements could include anything from expensive structural changes like widening hallways to increased training and mandatory equipment the clinics currently don’t have.
While abortion providers must be licensed in Virginia, the clinics resemble dentists’ offices and are considered physicians offices, similar to those that provide plastic and corrective eye surgeries, colonoscopies and a host of other medical procedures. |
42 Wife defends guardsman charged in Afghan murder
By KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press
58 mins ago
| NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The wife of an Army National Guardsman accused of fatally shooting an Afghan civilian said the sergeant is a dedicated soldier who volunteered for combat deployments to support his family.
Sgt. Derrick Miller, 27, of Hagerstown, Md., has been charged with murder in the death of Atta Mohammed in eastern Afghanistan last September. Miller had volunteered to deploy with the Connecticut National Guard and was attached to the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan at the time of the shooting.
After being charged, he was sent to Fort Campbell, on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line where the division is based, and remains there on active duty status. His court-martial is scheduled for June. |
43 APNewsBreak: Coal port sought 80M tons/yr capacity
By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press
1 hr 7 mins ago
| BILLINGS, Mont. – Executives for a company seeking to build a major port to ship U.S. coal to Asia had internal discussions about a project that could handle 80 million tons of the fuel annually – about 15 times the volume that had been publicly stated, documents show.
A hearing on the proposal set for Friday before a regulatory panel was cancelled following accusations that the port backers concealed plans for a much larger project along the Columbia River north of Portland, Ore.
The proposed Millennium Bulk Terminal in southwestern Washington has stood at the forefront of industry plans to ramp up coal exports using the vast reserves of the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming. Those plans are bitterly opposed by environmental groups. |
44 APNewsBreak: Sgt. says soldier’s dad reported plot
By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press
1 hr 38 mins ago
| SEATTLE – An Army staff sergeant confirmed to investigators that he received a phone call from a worried father last year warning that soldiers in his son’s platoon were deliberately killing Afghan civilians.
However, Staff Sgt. James Michael Beck said he didn’t report the phone call to anyone because there was no standard operating procedure for doing so, according to a statement obtained by The Associated Press.
Beck said he was working in the operations center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle on Feb. 14, 2010, when he received a call from Christopher Winfield of Cape Coral, Fla., who told him soldiers in his son’s platoon had already killed one civilian and were planning to kill more. |
45 Psst. No shutdown during a ‘government shutdown’
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press
1 hr 47 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Social Security checks would still go out. Troops would remain at their posts. Furloughed federal workers probably would get paid, though not until later. And virtually every essential government agency, like the FBI, the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard, would remain open.
That’s the little-known truth about a government shutdown. The government doesn’t shut down.
And it won’t on March 5, even if the combatants on Capitol Hill can’t resolve enough differences to pass a stopgap spending bill to fund the government while they hash out legislation to cover the last seven months of the budget year. |
46 Tea party vision for Mont. raising concerns
By MATT GOURAS, Associated Press
2 hrs 2 mins ago
| HELENA, Mont. – With each bill, newly elected tea party lawmakers are offering Montanans a vision of the future.
Their state would be a place where officials can ignore U.S. laws, force FBI agents to get a sheriff’s OK before arresting anyone, ban abortions, limit sex education in schools and create armed citizen militias.
It’s the tea party world. But not everyone is buying their vision. |
47 Conservatives vow to make gay marriage 2012 issue
By DAVID CRARY and LISA LEFF, Associated Press
2 hrs 16 mins ago
| NEW YORK – Angered conservatives are vowing to make same-sex marriage a front-burner election issue, nationally and in the states, following the Obama administration’s announcement that it will no longer defend the federal law denying recognition to gay married couples.
“The ripple effect nationwide will be to galvanize supporters of marriage,” said staff counsel Jim Campbell of Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal group.
On the federal level, opponents of same-sex marriage urged Republican leaders in the House of Representatives to intervene on their own to defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, against pending court challenges. |
48 Some Republicans soften tough talk on unions
By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press
2 hrs 49 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – With a wary eye on Wisconsin, Republican leaders in several states are toning down the tough talk against public employee unions and, in some cases, abandoning anti-union measures altogether.
Indiana’s governor urged GOP lawmakers to give up on a “right to work” bill for fear the backlash could derail the rest of his agenda. In Ohio, senators plan to soften a bill that would have banned all collective bargaining by state workers. And in Michigan, the Republican governor says he’d rather negotiate with public employees than pick a fight.
That’s hardly enough to set labor leaders celebrating. They still face a slew of measures in dozens of states that seek to curb union rights. But union officials say they believe the sustained protests in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states are making an impact. |
49 Cuba medical examiner testifies in US perjury case
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press
Thu Feb 24, 3:58 pm ET
| EL PASO, Texas – Metal shards from an ashtray blown apart by a bomb flew across a Havana hotel lobby and sliced the throat of an Italian tourist, a Cuban medical examiner told the jury Thursday in the federal perjury trial of an ex-CIA agent accused of lying about planning the attack.
Ileana Vizcaino Dime, director of Cuba’s state-run Institute of Forensic Medicine, testified against Luis Posada Carriles, an 83-year-old anti-communist considered Public Enemy No. 1 in his native Cuba, where his face is plastered on numerous billboards. Prosecutors say Posada planned a series of bombings in Cuba before sneaking into the U.S. in 2005.
Jurors appeared to be listening carefully as Dime detailed in monotonous, dry tones the exceedingly bloody 1997 death at the center of the U.S. government’s case against Posada, who faces 11 counts of perjury, obstruction of justice in an anti-terrorism investigation and immigration fraud. |
On this day in Japan, the Plum Blossom Festival is held. The Festival at the 
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