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WORLD MAGAZINE
10 May 11
NEWS DESKNATO bombs Tripoli sites, rebels claim Misrata gains
NATO warplanes struck a command center in Tripoli early Tuesday in the heaviest bombing of the Libyan capital in weeks, while rebels—capitalizing on other NATO air strikes—reported battlefront gains that could ease the siege of the port city of Misrata.
The NATO planes struck what the alliance called a command and control facility in downtown Tripoli, according to Italian Brig. Gen. Claudio Gabellini.
Gabellini also said 30 regime military targets have been hit since May 2 around Misrata, which has been under siege by Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi’s forces for two months. The targets included 12 tanks, three self-propelled guns, three multiple-rocket-launchers, and various vehicles, Gabellini said.
In Misrata, the rebel’s only urban stronghold in western Libya, a doctor said rebel forces had pushed outward to Dafniya, a town on western outskirts.
The doctor said fighting was taking place both in Dafniya and near the airport south of Misrata. Were the rebels able to punch through past Dafniya, it would increase the prospects of a further advance through the coastal town of Zlitan and toward Tripoli itself.
In eastern Libya, rebels reported ongoing fighting between the towns of Ajdabiya and Brega. The rebel army has been bogged down for weeks near Ajdabiya, unable to move on to Brega, which has an oil terminal and Libya’s second-largest hydrocarbon complex.
Rebel appeals for heavier arms from abroad have not met any response, although NATO is carrying out airstrikes on regime forces as many countries demand that Qaddafi relinquish power.
In the latest strike, NATO planes hit at least four sites in Tripoli, setting off explosions that thundered through the city overnight. One strike hit a building that locals said was used by a military intelligence agency. Another targeted a government building that officials said was sometimes used by parliament members.
The UN refugee agency, meanwhile, appealed to European countries to step up efforts to rescue people fleeing Libya in overloaded boats.
Spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said a senior Somali diplomat in Tripoli told the agency that 16 bodies, including those of two babies, have so far been retrieved from a boat carrying 600 people that sank just outside the Libyan capital Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in News Desk, North Africa | No Comments »
Rights group: 757 civilians killed in Syria
More than 750 civilians have been killed in Syria since an uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began in mid-March, a human rights group said Tuesday as the government pressed its efforts to end the nationwide unrest.
Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, said the group has lists of names, ages, causes of death, and the areas where 757 people died. He also said thousands of Syrians have been detained in the past two months, including about 9,000 who are still in custody.
Assad has dispatched troops and tanks to many areas to crush the seven-week uprising that poses the most serious challenge to his family’s 40-year rule.
Earlier Tuesday, an activist reported that Syrian troops backed by tanks entered several southern villages near the city of Daraa. The activist said heavy gunfire was heard when the troops entered Inkhil, Dael, Jassem, Sanamein, and Nawa after midnight, but it was not clear if there were casualties.
In recent weeks, army troops carried out an 11-day operation in Daraa that killed more than 80 people, residents and activists said. The city, near the Jordanian border, has been cut off for the past two weeks.
The army was also conducting operations in the coastal city of Banias, the central city of Homs, and the northern city of Deir el-Zor, said human rights activist Mustafa Osso.
Qurabi said authorities on Tuesday released Hassan Abdul-Azim, a prominent opposition figure who heads the outlawed Arab Socialist Democratic Union party.
Also Tuesday, a religious leader who resigned last month in disgust over the killings of protesters in the province of Daraa withdrew his resignation. Sheikh Rizq Abdul-Rahim Abazeid, mufti of the Daraa region, claimed his resignation was a result of “severe pressure and intimidation.”
On Monday, the European Union imposed an arms embargo. The measure also prohibits 13 Syrian government officials from traveling anywhere in the 27-nation EU and freezes their assets. The measure followed U.S. sanctions targeting three senior Syrian officials as well as Syria’s intelligence agency and the Revolutionary Guard in Iran, a key Syrian ally.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Middle East, News Desk | No Comments »
Microsoft to buy Skype for $8.5 billion
Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that it has agreed to buy the popular internet telephone service Skype SA for $8.5 billion in the biggest deal in the software maker’s 36-year history.
Buying Skype would give Microsoft a potentially valuable communications tool as it tries to become a bigger force on the internet and in the increasingly important smartphone market.
Microsoft said it will marry Skype’s functions to its Xbox game console, Outlook email program, and Windows smartphones. The company said it will continue to support Skype on other software platforms.
The sellers include eBay Inc. and private equity firms Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz.
About 170 million people log in to Skype’s services every month, though not all of them make calls. Skype users made 207 billion minutes of voice and video calls last year.
Most people use Skype’s free calling services, which has made it difficult for the service to make money since entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis started the company in 2003. An average of about 8.8 million customers per month, or just over 1 percent of the user base, pay to use Skype services.
Skype lost $7 million on revenue of $860 million last year, according to papers that the company has filed since announcing its intentions last summer to launch an initial public offering of stock. The IPO was later put on hold. Skype’s long-term debt, net of cash, was $543,883 at the end of 2010.
The Skype takeover tops Microsoft’s biggest previous acquisition—a $6 billion purchase of the online ad service aQuantive in 2007.
Although it makes billions from its computer software, Microsoft has been accustomed to losing money on the internet in a mostly futile attempt to catch up to Google Inc. in the lucrative online search market. Microsoft got so desperate that it made a $47.5 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc. three years ago, but withdrew the offer after Yahoo balked. Yahoo is now worth about half of what Microsoft offered.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in News Desk, Technology | 5 Comments »
Mississppi River crests in Memphis at nearly 48 feet
The Mississippi River crested in Memphis at nearly 48 feet on Tuesday, falling short of its all-time record but still soaking low-lying areas with enough water to require a massive cleanup.
National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Borghoff says the river reached 47.85 feet at 2 a.m. CDT Tuesday and is expected to stay very close to that level for the next 24 to 36 hours. Hitting the high point means things shouldn’t get worse in the area, but it will take weeks for the water to recede and much longer for inundated areas to recover.
The crest is below the record of 48.7 feet recorded during a devastating 1937 flood in Memphis.
The soaking was isolated to low-lying neighborhoods and forced hundreds of people from their homes but no new serious flooding was expected. Officials trusted the levees would hold and protect the city’s world-famous musical landmarks, from Graceland to Beale Street.
Surrounding Shelby County and four others were declared disaster areas by President Barack Obama late Monday. The designation means that they’ll be eligible for federal disaster aid, which local officials say is much-needed.
To the south, residents in the Mississippi Delta prepared for the worst. Farmers built homemade levees to protect their crops and engineers diverted water into a lake to ease the pressure on levees around New Orleans.
Similar scenes played out across the Mississippi Delta, the flatlands that stretch about 200 miles from Memphis to Vicksburg, Miss. Shelters were open and farmers were already applying for federal aid.
The Army Corps of Engineers has also asked for permission to open a spillway north of Baton Rouge for the first time since 1973. Officials warned residents that even if it is opened, they can expect water 5 to 25 feet deep over parts of seven parishes. Some of Louisiana’s most valuable farmland is expected to be inundated.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in News Desk, Weather | 3 Comments »
Whirled Views 05.10
Good morning!
Random question of the day: In your opinion, what sport take the most skill?
This is our daily (except for Sundays) open thread, where you can 1) answer my question, 2) talk about something else, or 3) say something truly encouraging to the commenter before you.
Posted in News Desk, Watercooler Chatter | 82 Comments »
Arizona governor takes immigration law to Supreme Court
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced Monday she will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that put the most controversial parts of the state’s immigration enforcement law on hold.
The planned appeal to the high court comes after Brewer lost an initial appeal April 11, when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reverse a lower court’s order that prevented key parts of the law from being enforced.
Attorney General Tom Horne said going directly to the Supreme Court and skipping a possible second appeal to the 9th Circuit will save time in resolving the case.
In its April ruling, the 9th Circuit panel said federal officials are likely to prove the law is unconstitutional and succeed in their argument that Congress has given the federal government sole authority to enforce immigration laws.
Brewer’s lawyers argued the federal government hasn’t effectively enforced immigration law at the border and in Arizona’s interior and that the state’s intent in passing the law was to assist federal authorities as Congress has encouraged.
The U.S. Justice Department urged the appeals court to uphold the order that blocked enforcement of parts of the law.
The federal government argued the law intrudes on its exclusive authority to regulate immigration, disrupts relations between the United States and Mexico, hinders cooperation between state and federal officials, and burdens legal immigrants.
Less than a day before the law was to take effect in July, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton blocked key provisions from being enforced, including requirements that immigrants get and carry immigration registration papers and that police—in enforcing other laws—question the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally. But Bolton let other parts take effect, such as a ban on obstructing traffic while seeking or offering day-labor services on streets.
The law was passed in April 2010 amid years of complaints that the federal government hasn’t done enough to lessen the state’s role as the nation’s busiest illegal entry point. Its passage inspired protests and led to lawsuits seeking to overturn the law and a debate about whether the law would lead to racial profiling.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Courts, News Desk | 6 Comments »
Al-Qaeda in Iraq pledges support for al-Zawahri
Al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq reaffirmed its support Monday for the terror network’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, a week after U.S. commandos killed terrorist organization’s leader Osama bin Laden.
Al-Qaeda has not yet announced a successor and there is some uncertainty about whether al-Zawahri will indeed take over for bin Laden.
In a statement posted on an insurgent website Monday, the Islamic State of Iraq also taunted President Barack Obama as “the rat in the black house” and said he should remain fearful of bin Laden’s promise to threaten the United States.
The statement amounts to an official letter of condolence for bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. strike last week on his compound in northern Pakistan. It was signed by Abu Bakr al-Husseini al-Baghdadi, a pseudonym for the anonymous new leader of al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq.
The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri was long bin Laden’s deputy, but has clashed in the past with al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq. Both bin Laden and al-Zawahri urged followers to focus attacks against U.S. and Israeli interests, and sharply condemned the network’s Iraqi wing for targeting Shiite Muslims during the years that Iraq teetered on the brink of civil war.
The new statement did not call for specific attacks on the United States but said Obama should be mindful of bin Laden’s 19 operatives who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has by and large confined its attacks to its home country. In a second statement Monday, it claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber who last week killed 20 police officers in the Iraqi town of Hillah by ramming the explosives-packed vehicle he was driving into a barricaded security compound.
It was the second major deadly blast in Iraq of the week, and suggests that al-Qaeda-linked groups in Iraq remain a threat despite the death of bin Laden, their ideological patron. Violence has dropped nationwide since 2008, but militants are still capable of carrying out bombings and launching attacks against Iraqi and U.S. forces.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in News Desk, Terrorism | 2 Comments »
Quake shifted Japan, towns now flood at high tide
The March 11 earthquake that hit eastern Japan was so powerful it pulled the entire country out and down into the sea. The mostly devastated coastal communities now face regular flooding, because of their lower elevation and damage to sea walls from the massive tsunamis triggered by the quake.
A cluster of neighborhoods in Ishinomaki city is rare in that it escaped tsunami damage through fortuitous geography. So, many residents still live in their homes, and they now face a daily trial: The area floods at high tide, and the normally sleepy streets turn frantic as residents rush home before the water rises too high.
Most houses sit above the water’s reach, but travel by car becomes impossible and the sewage system swamps, rendering toilets unusable.
Scientists say the new conditions are permanent.
As surrounding areas clear rubble and make plans to rebuild, residents in this section of Ishinomaki are stuck in limbo—their homes are mostly undamaged and ineligible for major insurance claims or government compensation, but twice a day the tide swamps their streets.
Seietsu Sasaki, 57, says he hopes the government can build flood walls to protect the neighborhood. He never paid much attention to the tides in the past, but now checks the newspaper for peak times each morning.
Officials have begun work on some embankments, but with much of the city devastated, resources are tight. Major construction projects to raise the roads were completed before the tsunami, but much of that work was negated when the ground below them sank.
The constant flooding means that construction crews can only work in short bursts, and electricity and running water were restored only about two weeks ago. The area still doesn’t have gas for hot water, and residents go to evacuee shelters to bathe.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Japan, News Desk | 5 Comments »
Gingrich says he will run for president
Newt Gingrich announced Monday that he’s running for the Republican nomination for president. The former speaker of the House disclosed his intentions on the social networks Twitter and Facebook, where he also urged followers to tune into Fox News on Wednesday: “I will be on to talk about my run for president of the United States.”
The move was hardly a surprise; Gingrich has spent months raising money, assembling a campaign team, and visiting early primary states. He also quietly opened a campaign headquarters in Atlanta, and had long been scheduled to address the Georgia Republican Party Convention on Friday in Macon, Ga. Aides say that will be his first speech as a full-fledged candidate.
Gingrich, 67, enters a GOP field that’s far from fully formed; no less than a dozen Republicans are weighing bids to take on President Barack Obama in 2012, but only a few have taken formal steps toward candidacies.
Gingrich led the GOP to its first majority in the House in 40 years, spearheading the Republican revolution in the 1994 election.
A spending fight between Gingrich and President Bill Clinton led to federal government shutdowns in 1995 and 1996. He faced ethics questions during part of his tenure, and left Congress in 1999. Since then, he’s traveled the world speaking on issues from healthcare to foreign affairs, built a lucrative network of nonprofit and business ventures, and written a steady stream of books.
In recent months as he geared up for a run, Gingrich has criticized Obama’s federal health law and called the Democrat’s foreign policy as “clueless.”
The twice-divorced Gingrich also has been working to make inroads with social conservatives critical to the GOP primary base, highlighting his conversion to Catholicism after marrying his third wife, Callista. She has figured prominently in campaign appearances in the months since Gingrich made clear he was considering a run.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Campaign 2012, News Desk | 31 Comments »
China, U.S talk human rights, currency
Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both expressed concerns on Monday about the recent security crackdown that has occurred in China.
Biden and Clinton jointly raised the issue at the opening session of two days of high level talks between the United States and China. They noted the large number of arrests that have occurred in China with the government detaining lawyers, activists, journalists, and bloggers in a crackdown widely viewed as a Chinese response to forestall any Middle East-style democracy protests.
Biden said that President Barack Obama believed strongly that protecting fundamental rights and freedoms was “the best way to promote the long-term stability of any society.”
State Counselor Dai Bingguo, one of the leaders of the Chinese delegation, said in his remarks that China had made progress in the area of human rights.
The remarks from Biden and Clinton and Dai were made during an opening ceremony of this year’s U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. The two days of talks will bring together top officials in the areas of economics and foreign policy.
This year for the first time, top military leaders from both nations are participating in an effort to ease tensions between the two nations that were heightened last year by U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
During the opening session on economics, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner praised the efforts China had made in the economic area while saying more needs to be done.
He played down criticism he had made as recently as last week that China needed to move more quickly to allow its currency to rise in value against the dollar. American manufacturers contend the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, giving Chinese companies tremendous competitive advantages and costing millions of U.S. jobs.
Last June, China announced that it was allowing the yuan to rise in value against the dollar and since that time its value has increased by about 5 percent. Last week, Geithner said the United States would be pressing for a faster appreciation of the yuan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
NATO bombs Tripoli sites, rebels claim Misrata gains
NATO warplanes struck a command center in Tripoli early Tuesday in the heaviest bombing of the Libyan capital in weeks, while rebels—capitalizing on other NATO air strikes—reported battlefront gains that could ease the siege of the port city of Misrata.
The NATO planes struck what the alliance called a command and control facility in downtown Tripoli, according to Italian Brig. Gen. Claudio Gabellini.
Gabellini also said 30 regime military targets have been hit since May 2 around Misrata, which has been under siege by Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi’s forces for two months. The targets included 12 tanks, three self-propelled guns, three multiple-rocket-launchers, and various vehicles, Gabellini said.
In Misrata, the rebel’s only urban stronghold in western Libya, a doctor said rebel forces had pushed outward to Dafniya, a town on western outskirts.
The doctor said fighting was taking place both in Dafniya and near the airport south of Misrata. Were the rebels able to punch through past Dafniya, it would increase the prospects of a further advance through the coastal town of Zlitan and toward Tripoli itself.
In eastern Libya, rebels reported ongoing fighting between the towns of Ajdabiya and Brega. The rebel army has been bogged down for weeks near Ajdabiya, unable to move on to Brega, which has an oil terminal and Libya’s second-largest hydrocarbon complex.
Rebel appeals for heavier arms from abroad have not met any response, although NATO is carrying out airstrikes on regime forces as many countries demand that Qaddafi relinquish power.
In the latest strike, NATO planes hit at least four sites in Tripoli, setting off explosions that thundered through the city overnight. One strike hit a building that locals said was used by a military intelligence agency. Another targeted a government building that officials said was sometimes used by parliament members.
The UN refugee agency, meanwhile, appealed to European countries to step up efforts to rescue people fleeing Libya in overloaded boats.
Spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said a senior Somali diplomat in Tripoli told the agency that 16 bodies, including those of two babies, have so far been retrieved from a boat carrying 600 people that sank just outside the Libyan capital Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in News Desk, North Africa | No Comments »
Rights group: 757 civilians killed in Syria
More than 750 civilians have been killed in Syria since an uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began in mid-March, a human rights group said Tuesday as the government pressed its efforts to end the nationwide unrest.
Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, said the group has lists of names, ages, causes of death, and the areas where 757 people died. He also said thousands of Syrians have been detained in the past two months, including about 9,000 who are still in custody.
Assad has dispatched troops and tanks to many areas to crush the seven-week uprising that poses the most serious challenge to his family’s 40-year rule.
Earlier Tuesday, an activist reported that Syrian troops backed by tanks entered several southern villages near the city of Daraa. The activist said heavy gunfire was heard when the troops entered Inkhil, Dael, Jassem, Sanamein, and Nawa after midnight, but it was not clear if there were casualties.
In recent weeks, army troops carried out an 11-day operation in Daraa that killed more than 80 people, residents and activists said. The city, near the Jordanian border, has been cut off for the past two weeks.
The army was also conducting operations in the coastal city of Banias, the central city of Homs, and the northern city of Deir el-Zor, said human rights activist Mustafa Osso.
Qurabi said authorities on Tuesday released Hassan Abdul-Azim, a prominent opposition figure who heads the outlawed Arab Socialist Democratic Union party.
Also Tuesday, a religious leader who resigned last month in disgust over the killings of protesters in the province of Daraa withdrew his resignation. Sheikh Rizq Abdul-Rahim Abazeid, mufti of the Daraa region, claimed his resignation was a result of “severe pressure and intimidation.”
On Monday, the European Union imposed an arms embargo. The measure also prohibits 13 Syrian government officials from traveling anywhere in the 27-nation EU and freezes their assets. The measure followed U.S. sanctions targeting three senior Syrian officials as well as Syria’s intelligence agency and the Revolutionary Guard in Iran, a key Syrian ally.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Middle East, News Desk | No Comments »
Microsoft to buy Skype for $8.5 billion
Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that it has agreed to buy the popular internet telephone service Skype SA for $8.5 billion in the biggest deal in the software maker’s 36-year history.
Buying Skype would give Microsoft a potentially valuable communications tool as it tries to become a bigger force on the internet and in the increasingly important smartphone market.
Microsoft said it will marry Skype’s functions to its Xbox game console, Outlook email program, and Windows smartphones. The company said it will continue to support Skype on other software platforms.
The sellers include eBay Inc. and private equity firms Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz.
About 170 million people log in to Skype’s services every month, though not all of them make calls. Skype users made 207 billion minutes of voice and video calls last year.
Most people use Skype’s free calling services, which has made it difficult for the service to make money since entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis started the company in 2003. An average of about 8.8 million customers per month, or just over 1 percent of the user base, pay to use Skype services.
Skype lost $7 million on revenue of $860 million last year, according to papers that the company has filed since announcing its intentions last summer to launch an initial public offering of stock. The IPO was later put on hold. Skype’s long-term debt, net of cash, was $543,883 at the end of 2010.
The Skype takeover tops Microsoft’s biggest previous acquisition—a $6 billion purchase of the online ad service aQuantive in 2007.
Although it makes billions from its computer software, Microsoft has been accustomed to losing money on the internet in a mostly futile attempt to catch up to Google Inc. in the lucrative online search market. Microsoft got so desperate that it made a $47.5 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc. three years ago, but withdrew the offer after Yahoo balked. Yahoo is now worth about half of what Microsoft offered.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in News Desk, Technology | 5 Comments »
Mississppi River crests in Memphis at nearly 48 feet
The Mississippi River crested in Memphis at nearly 48 feet on Tuesday, falling short of its all-time record but still soaking low-lying areas with enough water to require a massive cleanup.
National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Borghoff says the river reached 47.85 feet at 2 a.m. CDT Tuesday and is expected to stay very close to that level for the next 24 to 36 hours. Hitting the high point means things shouldn’t get worse in the area, but it will take weeks for the water to recede and much longer for inundated areas to recover.
The crest is below the record of 48.7 feet recorded during a devastating 1937 flood in Memphis.
The soaking was isolated to low-lying neighborhoods and forced hundreds of people from their homes but no new serious flooding was expected. Officials trusted the levees would hold and protect the city’s world-famous musical landmarks, from Graceland to Beale Street.
Surrounding Shelby County and four others were declared disaster areas by President Barack Obama late Monday. The designation means that they’ll be eligible for federal disaster aid, which local officials say is much-needed.
To the south, residents in the Mississippi Delta prepared for the worst. Farmers built homemade levees to protect their crops and engineers diverted water into a lake to ease the pressure on levees around New Orleans.
Similar scenes played out across the Mississippi Delta, the flatlands that stretch about 200 miles from Memphis to Vicksburg, Miss. Shelters were open and farmers were already applying for federal aid.
The Army Corps of Engineers has also asked for permission to open a spillway north of Baton Rouge for the first time since 1973. Officials warned residents that even if it is opened, they can expect water 5 to 25 feet deep over parts of seven parishes. Some of Louisiana’s most valuable farmland is expected to be inundated.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in News Desk, Weather | 3 Comments »
Whirled Views 05.10
Good morning!
Random question of the day: In your opinion, what sport take the most skill?
This is our daily (except for Sundays) open thread, where you can 1) answer my question, 2) talk about something else, or 3) say something truly encouraging to the commenter before you.
Posted in News Desk, Watercooler Chatter | 82 Comments »
Arizona governor takes immigration law to Supreme Court
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced Monday she will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that put the most controversial parts of the state’s immigration enforcement law on hold.
The planned appeal to the high court comes after Brewer lost an initial appeal April 11, when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reverse a lower court’s order that prevented key parts of the law from being enforced.
Attorney General Tom Horne said going directly to the Supreme Court and skipping a possible second appeal to the 9th Circuit will save time in resolving the case.
In its April ruling, the 9th Circuit panel said federal officials are likely to prove the law is unconstitutional and succeed in their argument that Congress has given the federal government sole authority to enforce immigration laws.
Brewer’s lawyers argued the federal government hasn’t effectively enforced immigration law at the border and in Arizona’s interior and that the state’s intent in passing the law was to assist federal authorities as Congress has encouraged.
The U.S. Justice Department urged the appeals court to uphold the order that blocked enforcement of parts of the law.
The federal government argued the law intrudes on its exclusive authority to regulate immigration, disrupts relations between the United States and Mexico, hinders cooperation between state and federal officials, and burdens legal immigrants.
Less than a day before the law was to take effect in July, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton blocked key provisions from being enforced, including requirements that immigrants get and carry immigration registration papers and that police—in enforcing other laws—question the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally. But Bolton let other parts take effect, such as a ban on obstructing traffic while seeking or offering day-labor services on streets.
The law was passed in April 2010 amid years of complaints that the federal government hasn’t done enough to lessen the state’s role as the nation’s busiest illegal entry point. Its passage inspired protests and led to lawsuits seeking to overturn the law and a debate about whether the law would lead to racial profiling.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Courts, News Desk | 6 Comments »
Al-Qaeda in Iraq pledges support for al-Zawahri
Al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq reaffirmed its support Monday for the terror network’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, a week after U.S. commandos killed terrorist organization’s leader Osama bin Laden.
Al-Qaeda has not yet announced a successor and there is some uncertainty about whether al-Zawahri will indeed take over for bin Laden.
In a statement posted on an insurgent website Monday, the Islamic State of Iraq also taunted President Barack Obama as “the rat in the black house” and said he should remain fearful of bin Laden’s promise to threaten the United States.
The statement amounts to an official letter of condolence for bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. strike last week on his compound in northern Pakistan. It was signed by Abu Bakr al-Husseini al-Baghdadi, a pseudonym for the anonymous new leader of al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq.
The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri was long bin Laden’s deputy, but has clashed in the past with al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq. Both bin Laden and al-Zawahri urged followers to focus attacks against U.S. and Israeli interests, and sharply condemned the network’s Iraqi wing for targeting Shiite Muslims during the years that Iraq teetered on the brink of civil war.
The new statement did not call for specific attacks on the United States but said Obama should be mindful of bin Laden’s 19 operatives who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has by and large confined its attacks to its home country. In a second statement Monday, it claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber who last week killed 20 police officers in the Iraqi town of Hillah by ramming the explosives-packed vehicle he was driving into a barricaded security compound.
It was the second major deadly blast in Iraq of the week, and suggests that al-Qaeda-linked groups in Iraq remain a threat despite the death of bin Laden, their ideological patron. Violence has dropped nationwide since 2008, but militants are still capable of carrying out bombings and launching attacks against Iraqi and U.S. forces.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in News Desk, Terrorism | 2 Comments »
Quake shifted Japan, towns now flood at high tide
The March 11 earthquake that hit eastern Japan was so powerful it pulled the entire country out and down into the sea. The mostly devastated coastal communities now face regular flooding, because of their lower elevation and damage to sea walls from the massive tsunamis triggered by the quake.
A cluster of neighborhoods in Ishinomaki city is rare in that it escaped tsunami damage through fortuitous geography. So, many residents still live in their homes, and they now face a daily trial: The area floods at high tide, and the normally sleepy streets turn frantic as residents rush home before the water rises too high.
Most houses sit above the water’s reach, but travel by car becomes impossible and the sewage system swamps, rendering toilets unusable.
Scientists say the new conditions are permanent.
As surrounding areas clear rubble and make plans to rebuild, residents in this section of Ishinomaki are stuck in limbo—their homes are mostly undamaged and ineligible for major insurance claims or government compensation, but twice a day the tide swamps their streets.
Seietsu Sasaki, 57, says he hopes the government can build flood walls to protect the neighborhood. He never paid much attention to the tides in the past, but now checks the newspaper for peak times each morning.
Officials have begun work on some embankments, but with much of the city devastated, resources are tight. Major construction projects to raise the roads were completed before the tsunami, but much of that work was negated when the ground below them sank.
The constant flooding means that construction crews can only work in short bursts, and electricity and running water were restored only about two weeks ago. The area still doesn’t have gas for hot water, and residents go to evacuee shelters to bathe.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Japan, News Desk | 5 Comments »
Gingrich says he will run for president
Newt Gingrich announced Monday that he’s running for the Republican nomination for president. The former speaker of the House disclosed his intentions on the social networks Twitter and Facebook, where he also urged followers to tune into Fox News on Wednesday: “I will be on to talk about my run for president of the United States.”
The move was hardly a surprise; Gingrich has spent months raising money, assembling a campaign team, and visiting early primary states. He also quietly opened a campaign headquarters in Atlanta, and had long been scheduled to address the Georgia Republican Party Convention on Friday in Macon, Ga. Aides say that will be his first speech as a full-fledged candidate.
Gingrich, 67, enters a GOP field that’s far from fully formed; no less than a dozen Republicans are weighing bids to take on President Barack Obama in 2012, but only a few have taken formal steps toward candidacies.
Gingrich led the GOP to its first majority in the House in 40 years, spearheading the Republican revolution in the 1994 election.
A spending fight between Gingrich and President Bill Clinton led to federal government shutdowns in 1995 and 1996. He faced ethics questions during part of his tenure, and left Congress in 1999. Since then, he’s traveled the world speaking on issues from healthcare to foreign affairs, built a lucrative network of nonprofit and business ventures, and written a steady stream of books.
In recent months as he geared up for a run, Gingrich has criticized Obama’s federal health law and called the Democrat’s foreign policy as “clueless.”
The twice-divorced Gingrich also has been working to make inroads with social conservatives critical to the GOP primary base, highlighting his conversion to Catholicism after marrying his third wife, Callista. She has figured prominently in campaign appearances in the months since Gingrich made clear he was considering a run.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Posted in Campaign 2012, News Desk | 31 Comments »
China, U.S talk human rights, currency
Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both expressed concerns on Monday about the recent security crackdown that has occurred in China.
Biden and Clinton jointly raised the issue at the opening session of two days of high level talks between the United States and China. They noted the large number of arrests that have occurred in China with the government detaining lawyers, activists, journalists, and bloggers in a crackdown widely viewed as a Chinese response to forestall any Middle East-style democracy protests.
Biden said that President Barack Obama believed strongly that protecting fundamental rights and freedoms was “the best way to promote the long-term stability of any society.”
State Counselor Dai Bingguo, one of the leaders of the Chinese delegation, said in his remarks that China had made progress in the area of human rights.
The remarks from Biden and Clinton and Dai were made during an opening ceremony of this year’s U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. The two days of talks will bring together top officials in the areas of economics and foreign policy.
This year for the first time, top military leaders from both nations are participating in an effort to ease tensions between the two nations that were heightened last year by U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
During the opening session on economics, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner praised the efforts China had made in the economic area while saying more needs to be done.
He played down criticism he had made as recently as last week that China needed to move more quickly to allow its currency to rise in value against the dollar. American manufacturers contend the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, giving Chinese companies tremendous competitive advantages and costing millions of U.S. jobs.
Last June, China announced that it was allowing the yuan to rise in value against the dollar and since that time its value has increased by about 5 percent. Last week, Geithner said the United States would be pressing for a faster appreciation of the yuan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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