Evening Edition is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Scores expelled in French crackdown on Roma
by Isabelle Wesselingh, AFP
Thu Aug 19, 11:08 am ET
| BUCHAREST (AFP) – France expelled scores of Roma, packing them on planes and flying them back to Romania Thursday at the start of a crackdown ordered by President Nicolas Sarkozy which has drawn strong criticism.
A planeload of around 60 Roma landed at Bucharest’s Aurel Vlaicu airport in the early afternoon, the first expulsion since Sarkozy last month vowed action against Roma, Gypsy and traveller communities.
The group flew from the French city of Lyon, where they were bused to the airport under police escort and boarded without incident. |
2 US jobless claims jump to 500,000; nine-month high
by P. Parameswaran, AFP
2 hrs 10 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – The number of Americans filing new weekly claims for jobless benefits jumped unexpectedly to 500,000, the highest level in nine months, the government said Thursday, threatening recovery hopes.
The soaring claims “compels us to act,” President Barack Obama said, demanding lawmakers pass a stalled bill that will end taxes on key investments in small businesses which create two of every three new jobs in the country.
The Labor Department said jobless benefit claims in the week to August 14 increased by 12,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 488,000. |
3 World must act on Pakistan or risk militant rise: Kerry
by Nasir Jaffry, AFP
1 hr 55 mins ago
| ISLAMABAD (AFP) – The world must act quickly to stop militants exploiting Pakistan’s devastating floods to cause social unrest, the country’s president and a senior US senator said Thursday.
In a joint news conference with President Asif Ali Zardari, John Kerry said the international community had to step in and help people whose lives have been upended “to avoid their impatience boiling over or people exploiting that impatience”.
Kerry, the most senior US policymaker to visit the country since unprecedented floods have claimed 1,500 lives, was speaking as the United Nations General Assembly readied for a crisis meeting in New York. |
4 Pakistan calls for aid ‘now’ ahead of UN meet
by Gerard Aziakou, AFP
Thu Aug 19, 12:56 pm ET
| UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Pakistan sought to reassure donors Thursday it could be trusted with foreign aid ahead of a crisis UN meeting called to remedy the much-criticized global response to the country’s catastrophic floods.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi warned that Pakistan was struggling to deal with an unprecedented disaster at a time when it faces a crucial internal battle against Islamic extremists, who could seek to exploit the crisis.
“We do need international assistance, we need international assistance now,” he pleaded, hours before he was due to address the UN General Assembly. |
5 Afghanistan marks independence day
by Sardar Ahmad, AFP
Thu Aug 19, 12:52 pm ET
| KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan marked independence day Thursday as the Taliban-led insurgency drags on, with foreign troop deaths at record highs and the government under pressure to honour pledges on corruption and security.
In a new wave of violence one NATO soldier, several policemen and more than two dozen rebels were killed in attacks and counter-insurgency operations across the troubled country, authorities said.
August 19 commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Rawalpindi in 1919, which granted Afghanistan full independence from Britain — though the country was never part of the British empire — after three bloody wars. |
6 Last US combat brigade leaves Iraq
by Prashant Rao, AFP
39 mins ago
| BAGHDAD (AFP) – The last US combat brigade pulled out of Iraq at dawn on Thursday, a key milestone in the withdrawal of American forces more than seven years after the US-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
Under cover of darkness, the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, crossed into neighbouring Kuwait ahead of the planned declaration of an end to US combat operations in Iraq by an August 31 deadline.
The pullout came two days after a suicide bomber killed 59 people at a Baghdad army recruiting centre in Iraq’s deadliest attack this year, sparking concern the country’s forces are incapable of handling security on their own. |
7 Intel to buy McAfee as it eyes wireless market
by Ron Bousso, AFP
1 hr 18 mins ago
| NEW YORK (AFP) – Intel announced Thursday it will acquire Internet security firm McAfee for 7.68 billion dollars, as the computer chip giant seeks to expand its reach to mobile and wireless devices.
Intel, whose processor power nearly 80 percent of computers worldwide, said it would pay 48 dollars per share for all of McAfee’s common stock, a 60 percent premium on the security vendor’s closing value Wednesday.
Boards of directors for both companies have unanimously approved the deal, which is still subject to approval from regulatory authorities. |
8 More Americans say Obama is Muslim
by Olivier Knox, AFP
29 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – Roughly one in five Americans wrongly says President Barack Obama is a Muslim, according to two new US opinion polls out Thursday amid a furor over a planned mosque near New York’s “Ground Zero.”
And about 30 percent of Americans say followers of Islam should be barred from running for president or serving on the US Supreme Court, according to one of the surveys, published in Time magazine and available on Time.com.
The Time poll found 24 percent of respondents said Obama — a Christian church-goer who has repeatedly spoken out about his faith — is a Muslim, while 18 percent said the same in a study from the non-partisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. |
9 GM files for landmark public share offering
AFP
Wed Aug 18, 5:54 pm ET
| NEW YORK (AFP) – US auto giant General Motors on Wednesday took the first step to selling shares to the public, seeking to free itself from government control after pulling back from the abyss of bankruptcy.
Filing for what may be one of world’s largest initial public offerings (IPO) of shares, GM did not disclose the number of stocks that will be offered or the price range.
But the market expects GM to raise between 12 and 16 billion dollars, with the potential to be the second largest IPO in US history, after the credit card giant Visa, which raised more than 19 billion dollars in March 2008. |
10 Explosion in China’s restive Xinjiang kills seven
by Marianne Barriaux, AFP
Thu Aug 19, 8:07 am ET
| BEIJING (AFP) – Seven people were killed Thursday when a man drove a vehicle loaded with explosives into a crowd and it blew up in China’s Xinjiang region, the scene of deadly ethnic unrest last year, an official said.
Police detained the injured suspect — a member of Xinjiang’s Uighur minority — at the site of the blast in the outskirts of Aksu, a city near the border with Kyrgyzstan, regional government spokeswoman Hou Hanmin told AFP.
“The suspect is a Uighur. Most of the victims are Uighurs too. The suspect was driving a three-wheeled vehicle carrying explosives into a crowd of people at a crossroads in the suburbs of Aksu,” she said. |
11 Facebook adds location-sharing feature
by Glenn Chapman, AFP
Thu Aug 19, 1:47 am ET
| SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Facebook on Wednesday threw the switch on a new feature that lets US members of the social networking service share their whereabouts with friends while on the move.
Facebook Places marks the firm’s hotly anticipated first step into “location-based” services that have been catching on with people who own smartphones equipped with satellite position tracking capabilities.
“Starting today, you can immediately tell people about that favorite spot with Facebook Places,” said Places product manager Michael Eyal Sharon. |
12 Sport unions warn S.Africa over World Cup stadiums
by Justine Gerardy, AFP
Thu Aug 19, 12:04 am ET
| CAPE TOWN (AFP) – South Africa’s World Cup stadiums are hunting for new business — even professional wrestling — but the country’s most lucrative sports say they were sidelined long before kick-off.
The showcase Soccer City, now rebranded as FNB Stadium, will host a sold-out Springboks-All Blacks rugby test on Saturday.
The other nine stadiums, which cost more than 16 billion rands (2.2 billion dollars, 1.7 billion euros) to stage Africa’s first World Cup, are looking for similar opportunities. |
13 More tough economic times forecast by CBO
By Richard Cowan and Donna Smith, Reuters
2 hrs 18 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The economy faces even more difficult times ahead with chronic unemployment and slow manufacturing hurting the recovery, the head of Congress’ budget agency said on Thursday.
The warning from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office came on top of more bad economic data that heightened concerns about a return to recession and sent markets roiling. It could also spell trouble for Democrats facing November elections.
The CBO forecast the U.S. budget deficit will hit $1.342 trillion this year, down slightly from its March projection of $1.368 trillion. |
14 U.S. mission in Iraq switches from combat to assist
By Michael Christie, Reuters
Thu Aug 19, 9:52 am ET
| BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The U.S. military is on track to cut numbers in Iraq to 50,000 by end August, when the 7-1/2-year combat mission launched by former President George W. Bush ends and operations switch to assisting Iraq’s armed forces.
The 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the last brigade mainly focused on combat, handed over to Iraqi forces on August 7 and pulls out this week. Its 100-strong “trail party” will leave in three days after turning over facilities.
Another 6,000 U.S. soldiers still need to leave by transport aircraft or by road before August 31 to reach the 50,000 figure President Barack Obama promised U.S. voters would be left ahead of a total withdrawal by the end of 2011. |
15 U.S, Pakistan warn of militant plots over floods
By Alistair Scrutton, Reuters
2 hrs 47 mins ago
| ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and a senior U.S. senator warned on Thursday that Taliban insurgents are trying to exploit rising anger over the country’s worst floods to promote their cause.
More than four million Pakistanis have been made homeless by nearly three weeks of floods, the United Nations said on Thursday, making the critical task of securing greater amounts of aid more urgent.
Eight million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and many may not care where they get it. |
16 Roger Clemens indicted for lying to Congress
By James Vicini and Jeremy Pelofsky, Reuters
1 hr 30 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Baseball great Roger Clemens, one of the best pitchers in the sport’s history, was indicted on Thursday on a series of charges related to lying to the U.S. Congress about using performance-enhancing drugs.
Clemens, 48 and now living in Houston, was charged with one count of obstruction of the U.S. Congress, three counts of making false statements and two counts of perjury, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
If convicted on all charges, he could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine. However, federal sentencing guidelines suggest a penalty of 15 to 21 months if convicted. |
17 U.S. tries to fix slow response to outbreaks
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, Reuters
2 hrs 8 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government proposed major changes on Thursday to the way it works with companies to fight new disease threats such as flu, including reform at the Food and Drug Administration and setting up centers to make vaccines quickly.
The report from the Health and Human Services Department said the U.S. ability to respond to new outbreaks is far too slow and it lays out a plan for helping researchers and biotechnology companies develop promising new drugs and vaccines.
“The closer we looked … the more leaks, choke points and dead ends we saw,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at a news briefing. |
18 Cuomo compared to father in New York race
By Ellen Wulfhorst, Reuters
Thu Aug 19, 9:53 am ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – With Andrew Cuomo the leading contender to be New York’s next governor, comparisons to his father, former Governor Mario Cuomo, seem endless.
But beyond their shared dark eyes, deeply creased faces, speaking style and deep roots in Democratic politics, the differences between father and son can be as telling as are their similarities, experts say.
“As far as his father was governor for three terms, the historical parallels have to be made,” said political consultant John McLaughlin. “The comparisons are inevitable.” |
19 Facebook "Places" lets users track friends and services
By Alexei Oreskovic, Reuters
Thu Aug 19, 12:08 pm ET
| PALO ALTO, Calif (Reuters) – Facebook’s 500 million-plus users will soon be able to track friends’ whereabouts across the United States, as the world’s largest Internet social network adds technology to increasingly tie its virtual world to everyday life.
The new “Places” feature — which begins rolling out on Wednesday to some users and goes nationwide within weeks — is touted as a tool to help users share where they are, figure out who is in the vicinity, and check out happenings and services within the same locale.
The addition of so-called location services to Facebook — a move that industry observers have speculated about for months — opens new revenue opportunities for the company, but also presents it with delicate privacy challenges. |
20 Major study proves oil plume that’s not going away
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
58 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – A 22-mile-long invisible mist of oil is meandering far below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, where it will probably loiter for months or more, scientists reported Thursday in the first conclusive evidence of an underwater plume from the BP spill.
The most worrisome part is the slow pace at which the oil is breaking down in the cold, 40-degree water, making it a long-lasting but unseen threat to vulnerable marine life, experts said.
Earlier this month, top federal officials declared the oil in the spill was mostly “gone,” and it is gone in the sense you can’t see it. But the chemical ingredients of the oil persist more than a half-mile beneath the surface, researchers found. |
21 BP accused of withholding ‘critical’ spill data
By DINA CAPPIELLO And HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Writers
1 hr 11 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – The company that owned the oil rig which exploded in the Gulf of Mexico is accusing BP of withholding critical evidence needed to investigate the cause of the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, according to a confidential document obtained by The Associated Press.
The new complaint by Transocean follows similar complaints by U.S. lawmakers about difficulties obtaining necessary information from BP in their investigations.
In a sternly worded letter to BP’s attorneys, Transocean said the oil giant has in its sole possession information key to identifying the cause “of the tragic loss of eleven lives and the pollution in the Gulf of Mexico.” |
22 Jobless claims rise to highest level in 9 months
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer
Thu Aug 19, 12:28 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – Employers appear to be laying off workers again as the economic recovery weakens. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits reached the half-million mark last week for the first time since November.
It was the third straight week that first-time jobless claims rose. The upward trend suggests the private sector may report a net loss of jobs in August for the first time this year.
Initial claims rose by 12,000 last week to 500,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. |
23 Goodbye Iraq: Last US combat brigade heads home
By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press Writer
Thu Aug 19, 1:18 pm ET
| KHABARI CROSSING, Kuwait – A line of heavily armored American military vehicles, their headlights twinkling in the pre-dawn desert, lumbered past the barbed wire and metal gates marking the border between Iraq and Kuwait early Thursday and rolled into history.
For the troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism but lightened by the whoops and cheers of soldiers one step closer to going home. Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq, well ahead of President Barack Obama’s Aug. 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there. |
24 Roger Clemens indicted in steroid case
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
6 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for allegedly lying to Congress about using steroids and growth hormone. The criminal case writes a new chapter in one of Major League Baseball’s worst scandals, the rampant use of the banned substances.
A six-count indictment alleges that Clemens obstructed a congressional inquiry with 15 different statements that he made under oath in 2008, including denials that he had ever used steroids or human growth hormone. The indictment says that he lied and committed perjury regarding the same matters.
The former pitcher and his former trainer, Brian McNamee, testified under oath at a 2008 hearing before a House committee and contradicted each other about whether Clemens had used performance-enhancing drugs. |
25 Saudi judge considers paralysis punishment
By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 29 mins ago
| CAIRO – A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man’s spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him, the brother of the victim said Thursday.
Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, 22, was left paralyzed and subsequently lost a foot after a fight more than two years ago. He asked a judge in northwestern Tabuk province to impose an equivalent punishment on his attacker under Islamic law, his brother Khaled al-Mutairi told The Associated Press by telephone from there.
He said one of the hospitals, located in Tabuk, responded that it is possible to damage the spinal cord, but it added that the operation would have to be done at another more specialized facility. Saudi newspapers reported that a second hospital in the capital Riyadh declined, saying it could not inflict such harm. |
26 White House says Obama is Christian, prays daily
By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 37 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – The White House insisted on Thursday that President Barack Obama is a Christian who prays daily as it looked to tamp down growing doubts among Americans about the president’s religion.
White House spokesman Bill Burton made the remarks hours after a poll showed that nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim. That was up from 11 percent who said so in March 2009. The survey also showed that just 34 percent said Obama is Christian, down from 48 percent who said so last year. The largest share of people, 43 percent, said they don’t know his religion.
As Obama headed out for a vacation, Burton told reporters aboard Air Force One that most Americans care more about the economy and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and “they are not reading a lot of news about what religion the president is.” |
27 Bull leaps into bullring stands in Spain, 40 hurt
By CIARAN GILES, Associated Press Writer
Thu Aug 19, 8:26 am ET
| MADRID – A bull leapt into the packed grandstands of a Spanish bullring and ran amok, charging and trampling spectators and leaving 40 people injured, regional officials said Thursday.
Video showed the bull jumping several meters (yards) high out of the ring, clearing two barriers before landing in the stands and raising a panic as he lurched through the screaming crowd, charging and tossing everything he could.
The 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) animal was brought under control by experienced bull handlers after several minutes and later killed. |
28 Pakistan leader says militants could exploit flood
By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 46 mins ago
| ISLAMABAD – Islamist terrorists may exploit the chaos and misery caused by the floods in Pakistan to gain new recruits, the country’s president warned Thursday – remarks echoed by a leading U.S. senator who said America would stand by its vital wartime ally during the crisis.
The floods have affected 20 million people and about one-fifth of Pakistan’s territory, straining its civilian government as it also struggles against al-Qaida and Taliban violence. Aid groups and the United Nations have complained that foreign donors have not been quick or generous enough given the scale of the disaster.
“All these catastrophes give strength to forces who do not want a state structure,” Zardari said during a press conference with John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, after the two visited some of the country’s hardest-hit areas and a relief camp. |
29 UN urges world to open wallets for Pakistan
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
45 mins ago
| UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations is putting the spotlight on more than 20 million Pakistani flood victims and urging governments and people around the world to open their wallets to help.
At a hurriedly called meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said donors have given half the $460 million the U.N. appealed for to provide food, shelter and clean water to flood victims over the next three months. But he said all the money is needed now – and much more will be needed to rebuild Pakistan.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the United States, already the biggest donor, would contribute an additional $60 million, bringing its total to more than $150 million in response to Pakistan’s “worst natural disaster in its history.” |
30 Intel buys McAfee for $7.7B in push beyond PCs
By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer
3 mins ago
| SAN FRANCISCO – Talk about a new meaning for “Intel Inside.”
Intel Corp. wants to be inside your television. And your cell phone. And your car. And pretty much any other device that could one day connect to the Internet and require a computer chip.
And with its deal to buy McAfee Inc. for $7.68 billion, the world’s No. 1 semiconductor company now wants to sell you security software as well – in all those places. |
31 Can Brett Favre do it again for the Vikings?
By JON KRAWCZYNSKI, AP Sports Writer
Thu Aug 19, 6:13 am ET
| EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. – Even Brett Favre was amazed by what he did last season as a 40-year-old quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings.
In his 19th season, Favre threw for 4,202 yards and 33 touchdowns while setting career bests for completion rate (68.4), quarterback rating (107.2) and fewest interceptions (seven).
Remarkable numbers at any age. |
32 Mosque debate divides Democrats, especially in NY
By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer
Thu Aug 19, 6:52 am ET
| NEW YORK – As vulnerable congressional Democrats weigh how to respond to President Barack Obama’s statements on Muslims’ right to build a mosque near ground zero, those in New York and closest to the controversy are staying silent or scrambling away.
Democrats control both Senate seats and 27 of the state’s 29 Congressional districts, but analysts believe as many as eight House Democrats in the state may be headed to defeat this year. Republicans, hoping to ease Democrats’ grip on the state, insist the economy remains the major campaign issue but say the mosque flap could also help move voters their way.
From eastern Long Island to more rural upstate areas, House Democrats have been opposing the construction of a $100 million Islamic center two blocks from the World Trade Center site. More than 2,700 people died there on Sept. 11, 2001, at the hands of Islamic terrorists, and the wound remains fresh for many New Yorkers who are still traumatized by the attacks or who lost loved ones that day. |
33 A year after bankruptcy, GM plans stock sale
By TOM KRISHER and KEN THOMAS, Associated Press Writers
Thu Aug 19, 8:48 am ET
| DETROIT – Thirteen months ago, General Motors was fighting for its life in bankruptcy court. Now, the automaker is laying the groundwork to sell stock to the public once again with the eventual goal of ridding itself of government ownership.
General Motors Co. filed the first batch of paperwork required to hold an initial public offering of stock late Wednesday. The 700-page document submitted to regulators laid out reasons, and risks, to investors considering buying GM stock.
The filing, called an S-1, was short on specifics. GM didn’t say how many shares would be sold or when, although experts say the IPO could come as early as October. It also didn’t say how many shares GM’s majority owner, the U.S. government, plans to unload. |
34 New senators want to change way Senate works
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
Thu Aug 19, 6:07 am ET
| WASHINGTON – Those who hold the Senate in low esteem can get a sympathetic ear from some of the chamber’s newer members. These lawmakers also are fed up with the Senate’s ways and would like to change them.
“A graveyard of good ideas” is how freshman Democrat Tom Udall of New Mexico sees the Senate. “Out of whack with the way the rest of the world is,” says another freshman, Michael Bennet, D-Colo. “Just defies common sense” is the impression of Claire McCaskill, a first-term Democrat from Missouri, in describing the filibuster-plagued institution.
New members, especially those from the majority party eager to fulfill their election promises, typically complain about the slow pace of the Senate. But with partisanship pushing the Senate toward petrification, some newcomers are seeking fundamental changes in the way the Senate operates. Getting their more senior colleagues to go along will not be easy. |
35 Egg recall tied to salmonella grows to 380 million
By MIKE STOBBE and MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press Writers
Wed Aug 18, 9:16 pm ET
| ATLANTA – Hundreds of people have been sickened in a salmonella outbreak linked to eggs in four states and possibly more, health officials said Wednesday as a company dramatically expanded a recall to 380 million eggs.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with state health departments to investigate the illnesses. No deaths have been reported, said Dr. Christopher Braden, a CDC epidemiologist involved in the investigation.
Initially, 228 million eggs, or the equivalent of 19 million dozen-egg cartons, were recalled by the company Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa. But that number was increased to nearly 32 million dozen-egg cartons. |
36 Lockerbie bomber fuels anger just by staying alive
By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Aug 18, 9:23 pm ET
| CAIRO – A year after Scotland’s release of the terminally ill Lockerbie bomber caused an uproar, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi is still stirring outrage simply by surviving.
Loved ones of those killed in the 1988 jetliner bombing, who were told he would likely die within three months, feel betrayed. U.S. lawmakers are investigating whether oil giant BP pushed for his release from prison to get Libya’s oil and are assailing Scotland for freeing him.
Lockerbie is the wound that time can’t seem to heal for almost everyone involved in the case. |
37 CIA forms new center to combat nukes, WMDs
By KIMBERLY DOZIER, Associated Press Writer
Wed Aug 18, 9:23 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – The CIA is opening a counterproliferation center to combat the spread of dangerous weapons and technology, a move that comes as Iran is on the verge of fueling up a new nuclear power plant.
CIA Director Leon Panetta said Wednesday that the new unit would place CIA operators side by side with the agency’s analysts to brainstorm plans to “confront the threat of weapons of mass destruction – nuclear, chemical and biological.”
The center would formalize the collaboration between the agency’s analysts and operators, a close working relationship that CIA spokesman George Little said already has yielded intelligence successes. |
38 Giuliani supports move of mosque near WTC site
By MICHAEL GORMLEY and VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writers
1 hr 2 mins ago
| NEW YORK – Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani joined a growing number of politicians Thursday supporting a move of a proposed Islamic center and mosque near ground zero to state-owned land farther from the Sept. 11 attack site.
Giuliani, who led New Yorkers through Sept. 11 and its aftermath and whose opinion on the mosque could carry considerable clout, made his comments as the imam leading plans for the community center toured the Middle East promoting religious tolerance.
“If you are a healer, you do not go forward with this project,” Giuliani said on NBC’s “Today” show, referring to the center’s leader, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. “If you are a warrior, you do.” |
39 Unguarded border bridges could be route into US
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 31 mins ago
| ACALA, Texas – On each side of a towering West Texas stretch of the $2.4 billion border fence designed to block people from illegally entering the country, there are two metal footbridges, clear paths into the United States from Mexico.
The footpaths that could easily guide illegal immigrants and smugglers across the Rio Grande without getting wet seem to be there because of what amounts to federal linguistics. While just about anyone would call them bridges, the U.S.-Mexico group that owns them calls them something else.
“Technically speaking it’s not a bridge, it’s a grade control structure,” said Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the International Boundary and Water Commission, which maintains the integrity of the 1,200-mile river border between the U.S. and Mexico. The structures under the spans help prevent the river – and therefore the international border – from shifting. |
40 Appeals court rules against Utah memorial crosses
By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Writer
Wed Aug 18, 7:50 pm ET
| SALT LAKE CITY – The 14 crosses erected along Utah roads to commemorate fallen state Highway Patrol troopers convey a state preference for Christianity and are a violation of the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court said Wednesday.
The ruling reverses a 2007 decision by a federal district judge that said the crosses communicate a secular message about deaths and were not a public endorsement of religion. It’s the latest in a recent rash of mixed-bag rulings on the public use of crosses.
A three-judge panel from Denver’s 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its 38-page ruling that a “reasonable observer” would conclude that the state and the Utah Highway Patrol were endorsing Christianity with the cross memorials. |
41 Future of Nebraska’s other abortion law murky
By TIMBERLY ROSS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Aug 18, 5:54 pm ET
| OMAHA, Neb. – One of two controversial abortion laws put on the books in Nebraska this spring was likely blocked for good on Wednesday, and the future of the other law is murky.
Attorney General Jon Bruning announced Wednesday that he’d agreed to a permanent federal injunction against enforcement of a law requiring health screenings for women seeking abortions. Citing an earlier ruling temporarily blocking the law from taking effect, his spokeswoman said Bruning believes that there’s little chance the law would prevail in court against a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.
“Losing this case would require Nebraska taxpayers to foot the bill for Planned Parenthood’s legal fee,” spokeswoman Shannon Kingery said. “We will not squander the state’s resources on a case that has very little probability of winning.” |
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