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(07/19/07 1:03am)
KASHIWAZAKI, Japan – More than a day after a powerful earthquake shook northern Japan, officials revealed Tuesday that a nuclear plant suffered a long list of problems including the leakage of radioactive water, an outbreak of fires and burst pipes.\nThe malfunctions at the Kashiwazaki power plant, and the delays in acknowledging them, are likely to feed concerns about the safety of Japan’s 55 nuclear reactors, which supply 30 percent of the quake-prone country’s electricity and have suffered a long string of accidents and cover-ups.\nTokyo Electric Power Co. said a total of 50 cases of malfunctioning and trouble had been found at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant since Monday’s magnitude 6.6 quake, which killed at least nine people and left 13,000 homeless.\nThe company said they were still inspecting the plant, which shut down automatically after the quake, and further problems could emerge.\nStill, TEPCO spokesman Kensuke Takeuchi called the instances discovered so far “minor troubles” and said they posed no threat to people or the environment.\nIn five of the reactors, major exhaust pipes were knocked out of place and TEPCO was investigating whether they had leaked radioactive materials, the statement said.\nTEPCO also said about 100 drums containing low-level nuclear waste fell at the plant during the quake and were found a day later, some of the lids open.\nThe company also said a small amount of radioactive materials cobalt-60 and chromium-51 had been emitted into the atmosphere from an exhaust stack. Monday’s quake also initially caused a small fire at an electrical transformer in the sprawling plant.\nJapan’s nuclear power plants have suffered a string of accidents and cover-ups amid deep concerns that they are vulnerable in earthquakes.\nThe Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world’s largest in terms of power output capacity, stands near the epicenter of Monday’s magnitude 6.6 quake.\nMonday’s quake initially triggered a small fire at an electrical transformer in the sprawling plant. But it was announced 12 hours later that the temblor also caused a leak of water containing radioactive material.\nLater Tuesday, TEPCO said a small amount of radioactive materials cobalt-60 and chromium-51 had been emitted into the atmosphere from an exhaust stack but posed no danger to the environment. It was unclear if that leak was caused by the quake.\nJapanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe criticized the delay in notifying the public.\n“They raised the alert too late. I have sent stern instructions that such alerts must be raised seriously and swiftly,” Abe told reporters in Tokyo. “Those involved should repent their actions.”\nMasanori Hamada, a professor of earthquake engineering at Tokyo’s Waseda University, said the quake showed the government should push to increase the quake-resistance standards of its reactors.
(07/15/07 11:53pm)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A suicide bomber attacked a military convoy near the Afghan border on Saturday, killing at least 24 Pakistani soldiers as thousands of troops deployed to thwart a call for an anti-government holy war.\nThree roadside bombs simultaneously tore into a military convoy elsewhere in the border region early Sunday, killing 14 security personnel and civilians, the army spokesman said.\nThe escalating violence along the frontier, a haven for Pakistani and foreign extremists, follows the government’s bloody attack on Islamabad’s Red Mosque that sparked calls for revenge from radical groups.\nPakistani commandos overran the mosque Wednesday, ending an eight-day siege with a hard-line cleric and his militant supporters. More than 100 died during the standoff.\nWith Sunday’s attack, at least 67 people have been killed in bombings and shootings in the north since the Red Mosque crisis began July 3.\nTwenty-nine troops were wounded in Saturday’s attack in North Waziristan, one of the deadliest suicide bombings in Pakistan in recent months, said Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad.\nAlthough no one claimed responsibility, Arshad said he could not rule out the possibility that it was a reaction to the assault on the mosque.\nOn Sunday, a convoy of army and paramilitary troops was attacked in Swat, a mountainous area of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, police officer Humayun Khan said.\nTroops opened fire after the attack and a gun battle was continuing, he said.\nArshad said in Islamabad that 29 soldiers also were wounded as the explosions destroyed two army vehicles and a bus carrying troops in the long convoy. He had no details on four civilians who were among the dead.\nSome reports from the area said a suicide bomber was involved in the attack.\nOne intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the convoy was hit by a suicide bomber and two roadside bombs, giving the death toll as 15.\nMilitary officials said Saturday that Pakistan has dispatched thousands of troops to the northwestern frontier to pressure outlawed Islamic militants preparing to launch a holy war against the government for its bloody attack on Islamabad’s Red Mosque.\n“With help from local tribal elders, we are trying to ensure that militants lay down their arms and stop issuing calls for jihad against the government,” a senior military official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.\nElsewhere in the northwest Saturday, suspected militants detonated a bomb that struck a vehicle carrying soldiers in the town of Bannu, wounding two, said area police official Mohammed Khan. Two rockets also were fired at a military checkpoint. No casualties were reported.\nIn the northwest’s largest city, Peshawar, two 11-pound anti-tank mines attached to a timing device and battery were found in a car downtown. The car was parked in front of military-affiliated Askari Bank when a small explosion and fire in the vehicle alerted authorities.\nArshad said reinforcements had been sent to the northwest to beef up some 90,000 troops already in the region. Officials say the fresh troops have moved into at least five areas.\nNo new troops were sent to North Waziristan, but a spokesman for militants demanded that all existing checkpoints be removed there by Sunday.\nAbdullah Farhad, who claims to speak for pro-Taliban militants, told The Associated Press the checkpoints violated a 2006 peace accord between the government and tribal elders.\nThe peace deal is still in effect, but militants have again started attacking government forces in the region. The government has targeted some militant hideouts.
(07/15/07 11:53pm)
REKAWA, Sri Lanka – On a moonlit night, a group of young men huddled around a green turtle as it dug deep into a beach to lay its eggs.\nThey could hear the turtle breathing and grunting as it went into a trancelike state, dropping eggs the size of pingpong balls into a glistening pile. The men, once the village toughs, stood aside as the turtle finished, shoveling sand over the nest with its back flippers.\nAs a teenager, Phushara Weerawarna would have pounced on the nest as soon as the turtle left, eating some eggs raw and keeping the rest to sell illegally.\nNow, he protects the turtle eggs and patrols the beach to keep would-be poachers at bay.\nWeerawarna and more than a dozen other former nest-raiders work for the Turtle Conservation Project, a local group dedicated to safeguarding the turtle nests of Rekawa beach in southern Sri Lanka, where about 100,000 turtle eggs are buried each year.\n“I definitely love them,” said Weerawarna, 27. “We like protecting them.”\nThis one-mile stretch of sand is one of the country’s most important nesting grounds for the endangered green turtle and one of South Asia’s only beaches where five species of turtle nest.\nThe group’s community-based conservation philosophy is part of a worldwide shift toward connecting locals with their environment that experts say might offer the best chance for protecting endangered species.\nBefore the project was founded in 1993, the Rekawa nests were regularly picked clean by poachers who spent nights at the beach fighting over turtle eggs and drinking coconut liquor.\nYet instead of running the poachers out of town, the turtle experts hired them.\n“They were considered to be the lowest of the low,” said Peter Richardson, a founder and British biologist with the Marine Conservation Society. “They were the wild boys of the village. It took a leap of faith.”\nThat leap has paid off for the turtles, whose hatchlings now make it to the sea, and it’s paid off for the former poachers.\nSiripala Edisuriya poached eggs for 15 years, selling them to tea shops and market stalls because he couldn’t find other work. Now, he’s a nest patroller on the night shift.\n“It’s hard work but I’m proud of what I do,” he said.\nAs a Buddhist, he is filled with guilt over his poaching days.\n“It was a big sin,” said Edisuriya, the oldest of the group at 59. “I don’t know how long it will take to pay off that sin. I have to face my bad karma.”\nIt took three years for Richardson to convince the men to protect the nests instead of raid them. There were long talks about conservation and biology. But it was the offers of steady salaries that won them over.\n“It was just about the money to start with, but as the program developed their status improved,” said Richardson. “They’ve been able to economically improve their families’ lives.”\nIt was a rocky transition, one that a few poachers didn’t make. But most became paid patrollers, earning about $3 per shift, and then genuine conservationists.\nThe number of marine turtles is difficult to pinpoint, but green turtles are endangered and other species are even more vulnerable, said Brian Hutchinson, a marine turtle specialist with IUCN World Conservation Union.\n“Overall, the population shows that the species are generally in decline, so there’s a lot of work to be done, but we’re seeing some positive steps,” said Hutchinson.\nSouth Asia is especially difficult for turtles because people have traditionally eaten them and their eggs, and because the region has many impoverished areas where conservation hasn’t taken root.
(07/15/07 11:52pm)
LOS ANGELES – The nation’s largest Catholic archdiocese has settled its abuse cases for $660 million, by far the largest payout in the church’s sexual abuse scandal, The Associated Press has learned.\nThe Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the plaintiffs reached the deal Saturday, said Ray Boucher, the lead plaintiff’s attorney. The archdiocese and the plaintiffs will release a statement Sunday morning and hold a news conference Monday, he said.\nAn anonymous source with knowledge of the deal placed its value at $660 million, by far the largest payout in the church’s sexual abuse scandal. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the settlement had not been officially announced.\nThe amount, which would average a little more than $1.3 million per plaintiff, exceeded earlier reports that the settlement would be between $600 million and $650 million.\nSome Roman Catholic orders – the Servites, Clairites and Oblates – will be carved out of the agreement because they refused to participate, the source said. The settlement also calls for the release of confidential priest personnel files after review by a judge assigned to oversee the litigation, Boucher said.\nThe settlements push the total amount paid out by the U.S. church since 1950 to more than $2 billion, with about a quarter of that coming from the Los Angeles archdiocese.\nIt wasn’t immediately clear how the payout would be split among the insurers, the archdiocese and several Roman Catholic religious orders. A judge must sign off on the agreement.\nThe release of the priest documents was important to the agreement, Boucher said, because it could reveal whether archdiocesan leaders were involved in covering up for abusive priests.\n“Transparency is a critical part of this and of all resolutions,” he said.\nTod Tamberg, a spokesman for the archdiocese, did not immediately return a call seeking comment late Saturday. Previously, he said the church would be in court on Monday.\nPlaintiff Steven Sanchez, who was expected to testify in the first trial, said he was simultaneously relieved and disappointed. He sued the archdiocese claiming abuse by the late Rev. Clinton Hagenbach, who died in 1987.\n“I was really emotionally ready to take on the archdiocese in court in less than 48 hours, but I’m glad all victims are going to be compensated,” he said. “I hope all victims will find some type of healing in this process.”\nThe settlement is the largest ever by a Roman Catholic diocese since the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in 2002. The largest payout so far has been by the Diocese of Orange, Calif., in 2004, for $100 million.\nFacing a flood of abuse claims, five dioceses – Tucson, Ariz.; Spokane, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Davenport, Iowa, and San Diego – sought bankruptcy protection.\nThe Los Angeles archdiocese, its insurers and various Roman Catholic orders have paid more than $114 million to settle 86 claims so far. The largest of those came in December, when the archdiocese reached a $60 million settlement with 45 people whose claims dated from before the mid-1950s and after 1987, periods when it had little or no sexual abuse insurance.\nSeveral religious orders in California have also reached multimillion-dollar settlements in recent months, including the Carmelites, the Franciscans and the Jesuits.
(07/08/07 11:02pm)
TUZ KHORMATO, Iraq – A suicide truck bomber blasted a Shiite town north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing more than 100 people, police said, in a sign Sunni insurgents are pulling away from a U.S. offensive around the capital to attack where security is thinner.\nThe marketplace devastation underlined a hard reality in Iraq: There are not enough forces to protect everywhere. U.S. troops, already increased by 28,000 this year, are focused on bringing calm to Baghdad, while the Iraqi military and police remain overstretched and undertrained.\nThe top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, told The Associated Press he expected Sunni extremists to try to “pull off a variety of sensational attacks and grab the headlines to create a ‘mini-Tet.’”\nHe was referring to the 1968 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Tet offensive that undermined public support for the Vietnam War in the United States.\nThe U.S. military on Saturday also reported that eight American service members were killed in fighting in Baghdad and western Anbar province over two days, reflecting the increased U.S. casualties that have come with the new offensives. A British soldier was killed in fighting with Shiite militias overnight in the southern city of Basra.\nIn Saturday’s attack – among the deadliest this year in Iraq – the truck detonation ripped through the market in the farming town of Armili at around 8:30 a.m., as crowds gathered for morning shopping.\nIt demolished several dozen old mud-brick homes and shops, burying dozens of people under the rubble, and set cars on fire, survivors said.\nWhile residents and police dug through the wreckage for hours, victims were ferried in farmers’ pickup trucks 30 miles to the nearest hospital, in Tuz Khormato.\nWeeping and screaming relatives searched Tuz Khormato’s hospital frantically for word of loved ones. Ali Hussein read the names of victims being moved further north to Kirkuk for treatment. “My cousin died in the explosion, but I don’t know the fate of my brother,” he said in tears.\nAbdullah Jabara, deputy governor of Salahuddin province where the town is located, told Iraqi state television that 115 died – nearly three-quarters of them women, children and elderly – and blamed al-Qaida. Police gave a similar death toll, along with more than 200 wounded, though Tuz Khormato’s police chief, Col. Abbas Mohammed Amin, put the toll at 150 dead.\nThe attack’s location suggested it was carried out by Sunni extremists fleeing the three-week old U.S. offensive centered at the city of Baqouba, 60 miles to the south on Baghdad’s northern doorstep. The sweep aims to uproot al-Qaida militants and Sunni insurgents using the area to stage car bomb attacks in the capital.\nBut U.S. commanders acknowledge that many insurgents fled Baqouba before the assault, and they may have found easier ground for attacks further north.\n“Because of the recent American military operations, terrorists found a good hideout in Salahuddin province, especially in the outskirts areas in which there isn’t enough number of military forces there,” said Ahmed al-Jubouri, an aide of the provincial governor.\nArmili, 100 miles north of Baghdad, is a town of 26,000, mostly Shiites from Iraq’s Turkoman ethnic minority. Residents say tensions are constantly high with Sunni Arabs who dominate the surrounding villages. Iraqi security presence is scant in the remote region, near the border with neighboring Diyala province.
(07/08/07 11:01pm)
RENO, Nev. – An 8,000-acre wildfire had forced hundreds of people to leave their homes in the northern Nevada town of Winnemucca, and scores fled homes in the path of a blaze in Washington state on Sunday.\nThey were among several wildfires across the West on Sunday as a heat wave made parched terrain even drier. The Winnemucca fire was one of more than a dozen that charred a combined 55 square miles.\nThe Utah Highway Patrol on Sunday reopened a 100-mile stretch of Interstate 15 and 25 miles of Interstate 70 that were closed when a 250-square-mile fire jumped the highways and filled the air with dense smoke. Poor visibility was blamed for several accidents, including a motorcycle crash that killed two people.\nOther fires blackened the landscape in California, South Dakota, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho and Oregon.\nThe fire near Winnemucca, about 170 miles east of Reno, threatened up to eight blocks of homes and an electrical substation, said U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Jamie Thompson.\n“It’s right up to the south edge of town,” he said. “The fire definitely poses a danger to parts of the town. It’s certainly got everyone’s attention.”\nThe largest Nevada fire had blackened 36 square miles, or 23,000 acres, along the Idaho state line, said Mike Brown, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. It was 10 percent contained Saturday, officials said. A firefighter was treated at a hospital for burns and released.\nAnother fire blackened 11 square miles, or 7,000 acres, about five miles southwest of Carlin. It burned two mobile homes and several smaller structures, and closed a section of Interstate 80 for six hours during the night, fire information officer Tracie Winfrey said.\nHigh wind in central Washington state during the night spread a brush fire that was threatening homes outside the town of Wenatchee. By Sunday morning, 250 to 270 homes had been evacuated and more were under alert. At least three outbuildings were destroyed.\nFire officials estimated the blaze covered 800 and 1,000 acres, said Jeri Freimuth, a fire information officer.\n“It’s a pretty dynamic situation at this point. Until we can get people in there to see what the situation is, we don’t know,” Freimuth said.\nThe fire in central Utah swept across parts of two counties, charring an estimated 160,000 acres, or 250 square miles, fire information officer LaCee Bartholomew said.\n“The fire laid down a little overnight, but it’s still active,” she said Sunday. “We don’t have an accurate updated acreage, but it did grow.”\nA 2,500-acre fire forced evacuations Sunday of at least 50 homes near Hot Springs, S.D. The fire grew overnight because of erratic wind, and some buildings were destroyed, state officials said.\nIn California, more than 400 firefighters battled a blaze that covered 17,000 acres of the 2 million-acre Inyo National Forest east of Yosemite National Park, forest spokeswoman Nancy Upham said Saturday. Firefighters were searching for and evacuating hikers and backpackers on and near the popular trail to Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states.\nAt least 200 people from the small town of Independence, Calif., were evacuated, officials said, and a section of highway that runs along the eastern spine of the Sierra Nevada mountain range was closed.
(07/08/07 11:00pm)
LONDON – Impassive and staring straight ahead, an Iraqi doctor was led into court by plainclothes security officers Saturday, the first suspect to appear on charges of plotting to bomb London’s entertainment district and Scotland’s busiest airport.\nPolice stepped up security across the British capital, where Prime Minister Gordon Brown laid flowers outside one of the train stations hit two years ago in suicide bombings that killed 52 commuters in the first militant Islamic strike on the United Kingdom.\nBilal Abdullah, a 27-year-old doctor born in Britain and raised in Iraq, was the only person in City of Westminster Magistrates Court to remain seated when the judge entered the room to the customary cry of “All rise!”\nAbdullah was asked to stand, and did, as the charge of conspiring to cause explosions was read out. The charge against Abdullah refers to a plot taking place between Jan. 1 and July 1, suggesting prosecutors believe the attacks were planned well in advance.\nStocky, unshaven and wearing a white sweat shirt, he sat expressionless in the dock, speaking only to confirm his name and date of birth during the brief hearing. Seven other suspects have been detained over the foiled car bomb attacks.\nHis lawyers did not seek bail, and judge Anthony Evans ordered Abdullah held at a high-security prison until his next hearing, at London’s Central Criminal Court on July 27.\nBritain remains on “severe” terrorism alert, the second-highest level, in the wake of the attacks. Police added patrols around London as the city marked the anniversary of the July 7, 2005, bombings with a simple and somber ceremony outside King’s Cross rail and subway station on one of the busiest tourist weekends of the summer, with the first leg of the Tour de France, the Wimbledon women’s final and the Live Earth concert all under way.\nBrown and other government ministers joined survivors and relatives of the dead in laying bouquets and wreaths of flowers at a memorial garden to the victims. More than 700 people were injured in the rush-hour attacks on three subway trains and a double-decker bus.\nLondon Mayor Ken Livingstone left flowers and a card reading: “The bombers tried to divide us and they failed.”\nJohn Falding, who lost his partner Anat Rosenberg in the bus bomb, said terrorists would never win. \n“The more this goes on, the more they will realize how futile their efforts are,” he said. “The more London shows its bravery, the more we show this is our victory.”\nIn Glasgow, several hundred people – from Muslims to Quakers, teenagers to trade unionists – demonstrated to voice their opposition to terrorism.\n“We want to send the message that this country is united,” said organizer Osama Saeed of the Muslim Association of Britain. “It won’t be shaken by terrorism.”\nThe Glasgow area is home to about half of Scotland’s 60,000 Muslims. There are some 1.6 million Muslims in Britain.\nCounterterrorism agents claim they have foiled several attacks in Britain since the July 7 bombings, including a plot to blow up several trans-Atlantic airliners, prevented by a string of arrests last August, and the recent failed car bomb attacks.
(07/08/07 10:59pm)
LISBON, Portugal – The Great Wall of China, Rome’s Colosseum, India’s Taj Mahal and three architectural marvels from Latin America were among the new seven wonders of the world chosen in a global poll released on Saturday.\nJordan’s Petra was the seventh winner. Peru’s Machu Picchu, Brazil’s Statue of Christ Redeemer and Mexico’s Chichen Itza pyramid also made the cut.\nAbout 100 million votes were cast by the Internet and cell phone text messages, said New7Wonders, the nonprofit organization that conducted the poll.\nThe seven beat out 14 other nominated landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, Easter Island in the Pacific, the Statue of Liberty, the Acropolis, Russia’s Kremlin and Australia’s Sydney Opera House.\nThe pyramids of Giza, the only surviving structures from the original seven wonders of the ancient world, were assured of retaining their status in addition to the new seven after indignant Egyptian officials said it was a disgrace they had to compete.\nThe campaign to name new wonders was launched in 1999 by the Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber. Almost 200 nominations came in, and the list was narrowed to the 21 most-voted by the start of 2006. Organizers admit there was no foolproof way to prevent people from voting more than once for their favorite.\nA Peruvian in national costume held up Macchu Picchu’s award to the sky and bowed to the crowd with his hands clasped, eliciting one of the biggest cheers from the audience of 50,000 people at a soccer stadium in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.\nMany jeered when the Statue of Liberty was announced as one of the candidates. Portugal was widely opposed to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.\nAnother Swiss adventurer, Bertrand Piccard, pilot of the first hot-air balloon to fly nonstop around the world, announced one of the winners, then launched into an appeal for people to combat climate change and stand up for human rights before being ushered off the stage.\nThe Colosseum, the Great Wall, Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal and Petra had been among the leading candidates since January, while the Statue of Christ Redeemer received a surge in votes more recently.\nThe Statue of Liberty and Australia’s Sydney Opera House were near the bottom of the list from the start.\nAlso among the losing candidates were Cambodia’s Angkor, Spain’s Alhambra, Turkey’s Hagia Sophia, Japan’s Kiyomizu Temple, Russia’s Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral, Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle, Britain’s Stonehenge and Mali’s Timbuktu.\nWeber’s Switzerland-based foundation aims to promote cultural diversity by supporting, preserving and restoring monuments. It relies on private donations and revenue from selling broadcasting rights.\nThe U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization keeps a list of World Heritage Sites, which now totals 851 monuments. But the agency was not involved in Weber’s project.\nThe traditional seven wonders were concentrated in the Mediterranean and Middle East. That list was derived from lists of marvels compiled by ancient Greek observers, the best known being Antipater of Sidon, a writer in the 2nd century B.C.\nThe Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Pharos lighthouse off Alexandria have all vanished.
(07/01/07 10:52pm)
Japan’s defense minister said Saturday that the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States during World War II was an inevitable way to end the war, drawing criticism from atomic bomb survivors. “I understand that the bombing ended the war, and I think that it couldn’t be helped,” Fumio Kyuma said in a speech at a university in Chiba prefecture, just east of Tokyo.
(07/01/07 10:43pm)
GLASGOW, Scotland – A Jeep Cherokee trailing a cascade of flames rammed into the Glasgow airport on Saturday, shattering glass doors just yards from passengers lined up at the check-in counters. Police said they believed the attack was linked to two car bombs found in London the day before.\nBritain raised its terror alert to “critical,” the highest possible level, and the Bush administration announced plans to increase security at airports and on mass transit.\nOne of the men in the \ncar was in critical condition at a hospital with severe burns, while the other was in police custody, said Scottish Police Chief Constable Willie \nRae. He said a “suspect device” was found on the man at the hospital and it was taken to a safe location where it was being investigated.\nRae would not say whether the device was a suicide belt. British security officials said evidence pointed toward the Glasgow attack being a \nsuicide mission.\n“I can confirm that we believe the incident at Glasgow airport is linked to the events in London yesterday,” Rae \nsaid. “There are clearly similarities, and we can confirm that \nthis is being treated as a terrorist incident.”\nPolice foiled the plot Friday after two cars were found in central London packed with explosives – one outside a nightclub near Piccadilly Circus and another parked nearby.\nA British government security official said the methods used in the airport attack and Friday’s thwarted plots were similar, with all three vehicles carrying large quantities of flammable liquid.\nThe official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information’s sensitivity.\nPolice and MI5 had no intelligence warning of a plan to attack Scotland but have monitored a host of suspected terrorists and plots there, he said. It was not yet clear whether there was an international element to the planning or funding of the attacks, the official said.\nThe new terror threat presents Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a Scot who took office on Wednesday, with an enormous challenge and comes at a time of already heightened vigilance one week before the anniversary of the July 7 London transit attacks, which killed \n52 people.\n“I know that the British people will stand together, united, resolute and strong,” \nBrown said Saturday in a televised statement.\nThe green Jeep barreled toward Glasgow’s main airport terminal shortly after 3 p.m., hitting security barriers before crashing into the glass doors, witnesses said.\nPolice subdued the driver and a passenger, both described by witnesses as South Asian – a term used to refer to people from Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries in the region – arresting them and taking one to the hospital. Witnesses said one of the men was engulfed in flames and spoke “gibberish” as an official used a fire extinguisher to douse the fire.\nRae said a bystander was taken to the hospital with a \nleg injury.\nThe previous round of terrorist activity in Britain, in July 2005, was largely carried out by local Muslims, raising ethnic tensions in Britain.\n“The car came speeding past,” said Scott Leeson, a witness. “Then the driver swerved the car around so he could ram straight in to the door. He must have been trying to smash straight through.”\nPassengers fled running and screaming from the busy terminal, Margaret Hughes told the British Broadcasting Corp. “There was black smoke gushing out where the car had obviously been driven into the airport,” she said.\nThe airport was evacuated and all flights suspended. Flames and black smoke rose from the Jeep outside the main entrance. It did not appear there were any injuries aside from the suspect who had been set afire. Police said Liverpool Airport and roads around Edinburgh were also closed.
(06/28/07 5:00pm)
IWO JIMA, Japan – The U.S. search team looking for the remains of a Marine killed after filming the iconic flag-raising on Iwo Jima has found two possible sites and will recommend a larger team to excavate them, officials said Wednesday.\n“Our investigation has been very successful,” said U.S. Army major Sean Stinchion, who has led the search team for 10 days of surveying and digging on the volcanic Pacific island.\n“We found two caves and tunnels. We will recommend a follow-up team be brought in to use heavy equipment,” he said.\nHe said the team did not find the remains of sergeant William H. Genaust, who filmed the flag-raising nine days before he was killed during combat on the island.\n“We are the initial investigation. We surveyed the hill. We will need to return to actually dig for specific remains,” Stinchion said.\nThe seven-man team, including an anthropologist, focused mainly on surveying Hill 362 A where Genaust was believed to have been killed.\nIt was the first U.S.-led search on Iwo Jima, one of the fiercest and most symbolic battlegrounds of World War II, in nearly 60 years.\nThe seven-member team arrived on Iwo Jima on June 17 and began slashing its way through thick, thorny brush on the island’s interior in search of the area where Genaust is believed to have been killed.\nA combat photographer with the 28th Marines, Genaust filmed the raising of the flag atop Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945, standing just feet away from Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal as he took the photograph that won a Pulitzer Prize and came to symbolize the war in the Pacific.\nGenaust, then 38, died nine days later when he was hit by machine-gun fire as he was helping fellow Marines secure a cave, said Johnnie Webb, a civilian official with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, headquartered at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.\nSome 88,000 U.S. service members are listed as missing from World War II, and JPAC conducts searches throughout the world to find them.\nIwo Jima, inhabited only by a small contingent of Japanese troops, continues to be an \nopen grave.\nThough most of the American dead were recovered in 1948, some 250 U.S. troops are still missing from the Iwo Jima campaign. Many were lost at sea, meaning the chances of recovering their remains are slim. But many others died in caves or were buried by explosions.\nJapan’s government and military are helping with the search on Iwo Jima, which this month was officially renamed Iwo To, the island’s name before the war.\nJapan sent its first search parties to the island in 1952 and others have followed every year since Iwo Jima was returned to Japanese control in 1968. They have recovered sets of 8,595 remains, but, to date, no Americans, said Health Ministry official Nobukazu Iwadate.\nThe U.S. officially took the tiny volcanic island on March 26, 1945, after a 31-day battle that pitted some 100,000 U.S. troops against 21,200 Japanese. Some 6,821 Americans were killed; only 1,033 Japanese survived. Of 82 U.S. Medals of Honor won by Marines in World War II, 26 were won on Iwo Jima.
(06/28/07 4:59pm)
WASHINGTON – A high school student’s “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner got slapped down by the Supreme Court in a decision Monday that restricts student speech rights when the message seems to advocate illegal drug use.\nThe court ruled 5-4 in the case of Joseph Frederick, who unfurled his handiwork at a school-sanctioned event in 2002, triggering his suspension and leading to a lengthy court battle.\n“The message on Frederick’s banner is cryptic,” Chief Justice John Roberts said. But the school principal who suspended him “thought the banner would be interpreted by those viewing it as promoting illegal drug use, and that interpretation is plainly a reasonable one,” Roberts said in the majority opinion.\nIn a concurrence, Justices Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy said the court’s opinion “goes no further” than speech interpreted as dealing with illegal drug use.\n“It provides no support” for any restriction that goes to political or social issues, they said.\nIn dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said the ruling “does serious violence to the \nFirst Amendment.”\nStudents in public schools don’t have the same rights as adults, but neither do they leave their constitutional protections at the schoolhouse gate, the court said in a landmark speech-rights ruling from the Vietnam era.\nThe court has limited what students can do in subsequent cases, saying they may not be disruptive or lewd or interfere with a school’s basic educational mission.\nFrederick said his banner was a nonsensical message that he first saw on a snowboard. He intended it to proclaim his right to say anything at all.\nFrederick displayed his handiwork on a winter morning as the Olympic torch made its way through Juneau, Ala., en route to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.\nSchool principal Deborah Morse said the phrase was a pro-drug message. Frederick denied that he was advocating drug use and brought a federal civil rights lawsuit.\nFormer independent counsel Ken Starr, whose law firm represented the school principal, called it a narrow ruling that “should not be read more broadly.”\nTaking issue with that, Steven R. Shapiro, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said, “It is difficult to know what its impact will be in other cases involving unpopular speech.”\nThe Students for Sensible Drug Policy said it was sad that the court thought there should be a drug exception to the First Amendment.\nIn their concurrence Alito and Kennedy said that the decision “goes no further than to hold that a public school may restrict speech that a reasonable observer would interpret as advocating illegal drug use.”\nNor does it address political or social issues such as the wisdom of the war on drugs or of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use, Alito and Kennedy said, embracing language from Stevens’ strong dissent.\nStevens said the First Amendment protects student speech if the message itself neither violates a permissible rule nor expressly advocates conduct that is illegal and harmful to students.\n“This nonsense banner does neither,” Stevens said.\nJustice Stephen Breyer said the court should not have decided the First Amendment issue, but should have simply held that Frederick’s claim for monetary damages because school officials have qualified immunity in carrying out their duties.
(06/28/07 4:58pm)
WASHINGTON – Sen. George Voinovich said Tuesday he believes the U.S. should begin pulling troops out of Iraq, joining Richard Lugar as the second Republican lawmaker in as many days to suggest President Bush’s war strategy is failing.\nHe said the Iraqi people must become more involved and “I don’t think they’ll get it until they know we’re leaving.”\nThe Ohio senator’s remarks followed similar comments made by Lugar, R-Ind., on the previous night. The two GOP senators previously had expressed concerns about Bush’s decision to send 30,000 extra troops to Iraq in a massive U.S.-led security push in Baghdad and Anbar province. But they had stopped short of saying U.S. troops should leave and declined to back Democratic legislation setting a deadline for troop withdrawals.\n“We must not abandon our mission, but we must begin a transition where the Iraqi government and its neighbors play a larger role in stabilizing Iraq,” Voinovich wrote in a letter to Bush.\nLugar and Voinovich said they were still not ready to insist on a timetable for withdrawal. But both made it clear their patience was gone.\nOnce Iraq’s neighbors “know we are genuinely leaving, I think all of a sudden the fear of God will descend upon them and say, ‘We’ve got to get involved in this thing,’” Voinovich told reporters.\n“It can’t be something that is precipitous, but I do believe that it should be enough so that people know we are indeed disengaging,” he added.\nThe loss of GOP support for the president’s strategy is significant. Democrats may still not be able to push through legislation demanding an end date for the war, but softer alternative proposals are in the works that could still challenge Bush.\nAfter the Fourth of July recess, “you’ll be hearing a number of statements from other (Republican) colleagues,” predicted Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a longtime skeptic of the war strategy.\nSpokesman John Ullyot said Warner is drafting a legislative proposal on the war but declined to discuss the details. The measure would likely be offered as an amendment to the 2008 defense authorization bill on the floor next month.\nThe White House on Tuesday appealed to members for more patience on the war in Iraq.\n“We hope that members of the House and Senate will give the Baghdad security plan a chance to unfold,” said White House spokesman Tony Snow.\nSnow also said Lugar was a thoughtful man and that his remarks came as no surprise.\n“We’ve known that he’s had reservations about the policy for some time,” he said.\nIn January, Lugar expressed concerns about the president’s decision to send 30,000 extra troops to Baghdad. But he voted against a resolution opposing Bush’s troop build up, contending that the nonbinding measure would have no practical effect. In the spring, he voted against a Democratic bill that would have triggered troop withdrawals by Oct. 1 with the goal of completing the pullout in six months.\nIn a floor speech Monday, Lugar said the U.S. should reduce the military’s role in Iraq and called on Bush to press other diplomatic and economic initiatives instead. Because of Lugar’s position as the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, his speech was a considered a blow to the administration as it tries to shore up sagging political support for the unpopular war.
(06/25/07 12:01am)
BAGHDAD – Two decades after Iraq’s military laid waste to Kurdish villages, the Iraqi High Tribunal on Sunday sentenced Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” and two others to death for their roles in the bloody campaign against the restive ethnic minority.\nAl-Majid, a cousin of executed former President Saddam Hussein, was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for ordering army and security services to use chemical weapons in an offensive said to have killed some 180,000 people during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.\nAs the verdicts were read out in Baghdad, to the north some 10,000 American troops were in their sixth day Sunday of a major effort to oust al-Qaida fighters from the city of Baqouba.\nThe commander of the U.S. operation said U.S. troops have cleared about 60 percent of western Baqouba of militants, but Iraqi security forces are “not quite up to the job” yet of holding the gains long term.\nBrig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, of the Army’s 25th Infantry Division, said it will take weeks or months before Iraqi security forces are ready to police the reclaimed area on their own.\nThe defendants in what was known as the “Anfal” case, for the code name of the anti-Kurdish campaign, had claimed they were acting on orders at a time when the Baghdad leadership, under Saddam, viewed the rebellious, independence-minded Kurds as allies of Iran during the 1980s war.\nSaddam had been a defendant in the case but was executed Dec. 30 after his conviction for the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail after a 1982 attempt on his life.\nAl-Majid, who had headed the then-ruling Baath Party’s Northern Bureau Command in the 1980s, stood silently for Sunday’s verdict and said, “Thanks be to God,” as he was led from court.\nTwo others sentenced to hang for anti-Kurdish atrocities were former defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces.\nInterrupting the judge as the verdict was read, Mohammed said the defendants were defending Iraq against Kurdish rebels. “God bless our martyrs. Long live the brave Iraqi army. Long live Iraq. Long live the Baath party and long live Arab nations,” he declared.\nTwo other former regime officials, Sabir al-Douri, former director of military intelligence, and Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, who was head of military intelligence’s eastern regional office, were sentenced to life in prison. All charges were dropped against Taher Tawfiq al-Ani, a former governor of Mosul, because of insufficient evidence.\nIn the northern Kurdish city of Halabja, where an estimated 5,000 died in a chemical attack in 1988, people gathered Sunday in a small rally at the cemetery.\n“We thank God that we have lived to see our enemies being punished for all of the atrocities they have committed against our people,” said Lukman Abdul-Qader, head of the Halabja Chemical Attack Victims’ Society.
(06/25/07 12:01am)
CANTON, Ohio – A massive search ended in sadness Saturday when authorities announced they found a body believed to belong to a pregnant woman who vanished from her home a week earlier. A police officer believed to be the father of the unborn child was arrested on two counts of murder.\nJessie Davis, 26, who was due to deliver a baby girl on July 3, was reported missing after her mother found Davis’ 2-year-old son home alone, bedroom furniture toppled and bleach spilled on the floor.\nThe boy gave investigators their first clues. “Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy’s in rug,” the \nboy said.\nThousands of volunteers had searched for Davis over several days, while investigators continued to question Bobby Cutts Jr., 30, who is the father of Davis’ son but is married to another woman.\nInvestigators were mum on many details of their work until they announced Cutts was taken into custody Saturday and was to be arraigned on charges of murder in the deaths of Davis and her unborn child.\nThe Stark County Sheriff’s Department also said a woman’s body was recovered in Summit County at 3:30 p.m. Authorities did not give a location but said they believed it to be Davis.\nTelevision news footage taken from helicopters above Cuyahoga Valley National Park showed investigators riding off-road vehicles to reach an area that is heavily covered with trees and brush. It also show authorities carrying a body bag on a stretcher and loading it into a white van.\nRoger Riggins, an investigator with the Summit County medical examiner’s office, confirmed a body was found at the southeast edge of the park, about 25 miles from Davis’ home in Lake Township.\nTim Miller, director of Texas EquuSearch, an internationally active search group that organized the volunteer effort, said Davis’ mother, Patricia Porter, and other members of her family were called together and told about the body in late afternoon.\n“A lot of the community stopped their lives to looked for Jessie, and that meant so much to her and the entire family – that they knew they were not alone in this,” he said.\nDuring the investigation, a newborn baby girl was left on the doorstep of a home in a nearby county, raising questions about whether it belonged to Davis. DNA tests were being conducted when another woman confessed to leaving the child at the home.\nAn attorney for Davis’ mother said the family had a roller coaster ride of emotions and had no comment.\n“I’ve seen them laugh, cry, be angry – everything you can imagine,” Rick Pitinii said. “They need to be together, and they need to be alone, and they need to grieve.”\nCutts, a Canton police officer since 2000, has said he and his wife are separated and that she knew about the affair \nwith Davis.\nChief Deputy Rick Perez said the case was still being investigated. He would not comment on whether there were any other suspects.\nTelephone messages seeking comment were left at the office of Cutts’ lawyer, Bradley Iams, and the home and office of the Rev. C.A. Richmond, who is Cutts’ pastor. Iams’ home number is unlisted. Cutts’ wife also did not return a phone call.\nCutts has been on paid administrative leave from his job.\n“There is no denying that this has resulted in giving a black eye in the opinion of the local community as well as the opinion of the rest of the nation,” Canton Police Chief Dean McKimm said of \nCutts’ arrest.\nThe police department had tried to fire Cutts in 2003 when authorities conducting a drug raid on his cousin’s home found Cutts’ handgun hidden under a mattress. Canton police officials said Cutts gave the gun to his cousin for protection and said Cutts was lying when he reported the gun stolen. A federal arbitrator ordered the city to reinstate the officer, saying police had not proved \nthe allegation.\nCutts pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge in 1998 after he was accused of breaking into the home of a former girlfriend. He was sentenced to three \nyears’ probation.
(06/20/07 10:19pm)
WASHINGTON – White House budget director Rob Portman announced his resignation Tuesday, and President Bush named former Iowa Rep. Jim Nussle as his successor.\n“I’m here to say goodbye to a good friend,” Bush said in a ceremony in the Roosevelt Room. “There’s no finer man in public service than Rob Portman.”\n“Fortunately we’ve found a good man to succeed him,” Bush said of Nussle. “Jim’s name and knowledge command respect on Capitol Hill.”\nNussle ran for governor of Iowa last year and was defeated. He has been serving in Iowa as an adviser in former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.\nPortman, who was a six-term congressman from Cincinnati, left his career on Capitol Hill to join the Bush administration two years ago as trade representative and was named budget director a little more than a year ago to replace Josh Bolten when he became White House chief of staff.\nPortman said he was leaving the administration for personal reasons. His family has remained in Cincinnati and he has been commuting home on weekends for 14 years.\n“I need to be home more. I’ve got three kids ages 12 to 17. It’s just been very hard to spend as much time with them and Jane as I need to at this time of my life,” he said.\nPortman also made it clear he might seek a return to elective office, either by running for governor of Ohio or for the Senate.\nPortman said the president “is in a good position” to contest the Democratic-controlled Congress over spending if necessary. The White House has issued some veto threats against spending bills in recent days, and more are coming, the budget director said.\nNussle’s appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.
(06/20/07 10:18pm)
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Fire swept through a furniture warehouse, collapsing its roof and killing nine firefighters inside, the nation’s deadliest single disaster for firefighters since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.\n“Nine brave, heroic, courageous firefighters of the city of Charleston have perished fighting fire in a most courageous and fearless manner, carrying out their duties,” Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley said at a morning news conference. “To all of their loved ones, our heart goes out to them.”\nTwo employees in the building were rescued from the blaze, which broke out at about 7 p.m. Monday in the Sofa Super Store and warehouse, Riley said. One was rescued quickly, and firefighters punched a hole through a wall of the warehouse to reach the other, he said.\nFirefighters, police officers and other rescue workers saluted as the firefighters’ bodies were carried from the warehouse during the night.\n“To lose nine is just a tragedy of immense proportions,” Riley said. “To lose nine is just unbelievable.”\nThe department has 237 firefighters in 19 companies located throughout the city of about 106,000.\nThe cause of the fire was under investigation, but Riley said arson was not suspected. He said the blaze apparently started in a storage area. He was unsure whether there were sprinklers in the building.\nFire Chief Rusty Thomas said he lost nine of his best friends.\n“They did exactly what they were trained to do,” he said. “We got a long road ahead of us but we’re going to stand tall. ... We’re going to stand tall now and for years to come with the families, and we will never forget, just like 9-11, we will never forget.”\nIt was the worst single incident to claim firefighters’ lives since the Sept. 11 attacks, which killed 340 firefighters, two paramedics and a chaplain, according to the National Fire Protection Association. It was the deadliest fire in South Carolina since a 1979 blaze killed 11 people in the Lancaster County jail.\n“These firefighters were true heroes who demonstrated great skill and courage. Their unwavering commitment to their neighbors and to the city of Charleston is an inspiration to all Americans,” President Bush said in a statement issued in Washington.\nOfficials identified the victims Tuesday as Capt. William “Billy” Hutchinson, 48; Capt. Mike Benke, 49; Capt. Louis Mulkey, 34; Engineer Mark Kelsey, 40; Engineer Bradford “Brad” Baity, 37; Assistant Engineer Michael French, 27; Firefighter James “Earl” Drayton, 56; Firefighter Brandon Thompson, 27, and Firefighter Melven Champaign, 46.\nRiley called the firefighters heroes.\n“This is a profession that we must never take for granted,” the mayor said. “There’s a fire raging and they go toward it.”
(06/13/07 11:30pm)
ANKARA, Turkey – Kurdish separatist rebels Tuesday declared a “unilateral cease-fire” in attacks against Turkey and said they were ready for peace negotiations, but the group maintained the right to defend itself.\nThe statement came as the Turkish military intensified operations against the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, in the country’s southeast, on the border with Iraq.\nThe guerrillas have been fighting for autonomy in Turkey for more than two decades.\n“We are renewing our declaration to halt attacks against the Turkish army,” Abdul Rahman Chaderchi, the PKK official in charge of foreign affairs, said in northern Iraq, where the rebels have several bases.\n“We want peace, and we are ready for negotiations. But if Turkey decides to attack our bases inside Turkey or inside Iraqi Kurdistan, then this unilateral cease-fire will be meaningless. If we are attacked, we will fight back and we have the ability to confront any Turkish aggression,” he added.\nTurkish troops have massed at the frontier and shelled Iraqi territory while pursuing rebels, drawing criticism from the Iraqi government and raising fears that the conflict could draw in its NATO ally, the United States.\nThe Turkish government had no immediate response to the PKK statement.\nAuthorities generally ignore rebel statements, ruling out negotiations with “terrorists.” Turkey has rejected several past cease-fires declared by the group, vowing to maintain its military drive until all rebels surrender or are killed.\nIn Washington, the State Department said the cease-fire is no substitute for a total end to activity by the PKK.\n“The PKK is a terrorist organization,” spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. “We take quite seriously the concerns of the Turkish government. They’ve lost lives ... and it’s an issue that needs to be dealt with.”\nIt was unclear if the PKK announcement reflected a desire to ease pressure from the Turkish armed forces or was a public relations effort to portray the rebels as peace-seeking and the military as the aggressor. The rebels might also want to give Kurdish candidates in Turkish parliamentary elections next month a chance to make gains at the polls without being accused of links to \nrebel violence.\nThe PKK has accused the Turkish military of engineering the collapse of a unilateral rebel cease-fire declared on \nOct. 1, 2006.\nTurkey’s prime minister said Tuesday that the country needs to focus on fighting the PKK inside its borders amid a debate over whether Turkey should pursue rebels into \nnorthern Iraq.\n“There are 500 terrorists in Iraq; there are 5,000 terrorists inside Turkey. Has terrorism inside Turkey ended for us to think about an operation in northern Iraq?” said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.\nAfter a two-hour security meeting to discuss measures against the rebels, Turkey’s top government and military officials released a statement that said “the struggle against terrorism will be carried out with respect to democracy and law but with great determination.”
(06/13/07 11:29pm)
WASHINGTON – His party divided and his polls sagging, President Bush prodded rebellious Senate Republicans on Tuesday to help resurrect legislation that could provide eventual citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.\n“It’s a highly emotional issue,” said Bush after a session in which several lawmakers bluntly told him their constituents do not trust the government to secure the nation’s borders or weed out illegal workers at job sites.\nTo alleviate the concerns, the president said he was receptive to an emergency spending bill as a way to emphasize his administration’s commitment to accelerated enforcement. One congressional official put the price tag at up to $15 billion.W\n“I don’t think he changed any minds,” conceded Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., a supporter of the legislation. But Martinez added that the president’s appearance had helped nudge “people on the fence” to be more favorably inclined.\nOne Republican widely viewed as a potential convert, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, said he was not yet persuaded. \n“At the end of the day, I’ve got to be able to sit down and know myself that we are going to secure our border,” he said. “Today, I do not feel that way.”\nBush’s trip to the Capitol marked only the second time since he became president that he attended the weekly closed-door senators lunch, a gesture that underscored the importance he places on passage of comprehensive immigration legislation.\nDespite the president’s commitment, many conservatives in his own party have criticized the measure, calling it an amnesty for millions of lawbreakers. Additionally, job approval ratings in the 30-percent range make it difficult for the president to bend even Republican lawmakers to his will.\nCompounding the challenge is a stream of statements from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., which say it is up to Bush and the Republicans to produce enough votes to revive a measure that was sidetracked on the Senate floor last week. “We’ll move on to immigration when they have their own act together,” he told reporters during the day.\n“Fourteen percent of the Republicans supporting the president’s bill won’t do the trick,” he said, referring to the fact that only seven GOP senators supported a move to free the bill from limbo last week.\nSeveral participants in the Republican meeting described the session as friendly and rancor-free and said Bush had even made a joke at one point when addressing Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican who is one of the bill’s fiercest critics.\nOne senator quoted Bush as telling Sessions, “Don’t worry, I’ll still go to your fundraiser. We disagree about this, but we are friends.”\nSessions was among the senators to question the president, pointing to polls showing widespread opposition to the legislation. Bush responded that other polls show support, according to participants. They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing confidentiality rules covering the closed-door meeting.\nThese officials said numerous senators told Bush the public lacks confidence that the government would carry out the enforcement measures in the bill.
(06/11/07 4:05pm)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – With a 4-inch gap in the space shuttle Atlantis’ heat-protecting blanket not appearing to be a problem on Saturday, the crew readied themselves for what NASA called a delicate ballet with the international space station.\nThen the shuttle entered a weeklong embrace Sunday with the orbital outpost.\nAtlantis’ seven astronauts spent much of Saturday on a mandatory inspection of the shuttle’s delicate heat tiles, outer edges and blankets for problems similar to the kind that caused the fatal Columbia accident in 2003. As of Saturday afternoon, no glaring problems were reported.\nBut late Friday and early Saturday, the crew spent extra time using a robot arm to look at a gap in a thermal blanket on the left side of the shuttle. The gap, about 4 inches, is the result of an unusual fold in the blanket, not a debris hit, which caused Columbia’s fatal problem, NASA spokeswoman Lynette Madison said.\nThe area does not get hotter than 700 degrees Fahrenheit during the shuttle’s return to Earth and is not a place where NASA is usually concerned about potentially fatal problems, she said. Still, engineers were using photos to create a three-dimensional model of the gap just in case.\n“They don’t think it’s much of a concern,” Madison said.\nAs part of the normal day-after-launch tile inspections, astronaut Patrick Forrester used the shuttle’s robot arm and a boom extension to examine its wings and outer edges.\nAtlantis’ crew was given an extra half-hour to sleep Saturday morning, after which they awoke to the song “Big Boy Toys” by Aaron Tippin.\nAtlantis’ seven-man crew was closing the gap between it and the space station by about 800 miles every 90-minute orbit. By 2 p.m. EDT, the shuttle was scheduled to be about 4,000 miles away from its destination. Atlantis was scheduled to dock with the space station Sunday at 3:38 p.m. EDT.\nBefore the docking comes maneuvering that NASA officials often call a delicate ballet, a procedure that has appeared effortless in 20 previous tries, even though it is risky.\n“Two vehicles weighing 230,000 pounds going 17,500 mph, it’s tough stuff,” Mission Management Team leader John Shannon told The Associated Press.\nAtlantis commander Rick Sturckow will move the shuttle until it is 600 feet below the station and then make the shuttle turn a 360-degree backflip in just nine minutes. The last few feet of the docking occur so slowly that Atlantis will get only an inch closer to the station every second.\nOnce the shuttle and station connect, they will stay locked until June 17.\nDuring the 11-day flight, the astronauts will deliver a new segment and a pair of solar panels to the orbiting outpost. They plan three spacewalks – on Monday, Wednesday and Friday – to install the new equipment and retract an old solar panel.\nOn Sunday, astronaut Clayton Anderson will replace astronaut Sunita Williams as the U.S. representative aboard the space station, and Williams will return to Earth aboard Atlantis. She has spent the past six months in orbit.