Nation/World news

Rival gangs engaged in all-out war

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

MExico

Groups staging public massacres

The two most important criminal organizations in Mexico are engaged in all-out war, and the most spectacular battles are being fought for the cameras as the combatants pursue a strategy of intimidation and propaganda by dumping ever greater numbers of headless bodies in public view - the victims most likely innocents.

No longer limiting themselves to regional skirmishes, the older, established drug-smuggling Sinaloa cartel is now fighting the brash, young paramilitary Zetas crime organization across multiple front lines in Mexico in a desperate fight, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials and security analysts on both sides of the border.

The two gangs and their surrogates continue to quietly kill each other, but they are also staging public massacres in order to terrify civilians, cow authorities and taunt outgoing President Felipe Calderon, who has made his U.S.-backed confrontation against the cartels a centerpiece of his administration.

Iran to continue nuclear talks

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

iraq

Two sides still at odds in discussions

Iran and six world powers wrapped up talks yesterday still far apart over how to oversee Tehran's atomic program, but with resolve to keep dialogue going as an alternative to possible military action.

Envoys said they will meet again next month in Moscow after negotiations stretched out for extra hours and a sandstorm shut the airport in Iraq's capital. But the two sides agreed on little else during two dramatic days of discussions that underscored the serious challenges of reaching accords between Iran and the West.

"It is clear that we both want to make progress, and that there is some common ground," European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is formally leading the talks, told reporters. "However, significant differences remain. Nonetheless, we do agree on the need for further discussion to expand that common ground."

Man arrested in 1979 killing case

Tom Hays — Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Police: 6-year-old's body not yet found

A former convenience store worker confessed to luring 6-year-old Etan Patz from a school bus stop in 1979 and choking him to death in a basement, the police said yesterday, ending a three-decades long investigation into one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases.

Pedro Hernandez, 51, of Maple Shade, N.J., was arrested on a murder charge after he told the police he promised the boy a soda, took him to the basement of the convenience store where he worked and killed him there, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Hernandez told the police he put Etan's body in some trash about a block from the store, Kelly said, where it's possible it was picked up by sanitation crews.

Wedding with a twist

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Kansas

Tornado doesn't stop Kansas couple's marriage

In the plains of central Kansas, tornadoes are so unremarkable that guests barely flinched as a barrel-racing bride wed her bull-riding groom with a twister dropping from the sky just miles away.

But for people living outside Tornado Alley, Caleb and Candra Pence's wedding last Saturday is generating the kind of buzz usually reserved for celebrity nuptials. The video of the service has gone viral, garnering more than 20,000 views on YouTube and a flurry of media coverage.

"It is amazing how fast it has taken off," said the groom's uncle, Lee Pence, who shot the video. After Saturday's outdoor service on the groom's family farm near the small south-central Kansas town of Harper, the couple posed for photos with the twister visible behind them. The pictures capture them smiling serenely - the 21-year-old bride in a white gown and the 22-year-old groom in a cowboy hat and jeans.

Auction of Reagan blood vial called off

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Online bidding was more than $30,000

The controversial auction of a vial that contained President Ronald Reagan's blood has been halted, and the valuable glass tube is being donated to the former president's foundation.

In a statement issued yesterday morning, the executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation said he was pleased by the outcome. "We are grateful to the current custodian of the vial for this generous donation to the Foundation, ensuring President Reagan's blood remains out of public hands," said John Heubusch, the foundation's director.

The vial in question contained residue of blood drawn from Reagan while he recovered from a near-fatal gunshot wound in 1981. It was being sold by an online auction house based on the island of Guernsey, an autonomous British protectorate, in the English Channel. With only hours left in the auction, the vial had garnered bids exceeding $30,000.

Senate fails to agree on loans

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Student interest set to double in July

The Senate held two votes yesterday on measures to ensure that student loan rates for millions of college students do not double in July - and at the conclusion of the legislative action, the issue remained exactly where it began: stuck.

The measures, one offered by Democrats and the other by Republicans, each failed to reach the 60-vote threshold necessary to move forward, as the parties remain at loggerheads over how to pay for the $6 billion loan subsidy.

If they cannot resolve the dispute, loan rates will rise from 3.4 to 6.8 percent on July 1, increasing the cost of college for 7 million students.

Leaders in both parties have said they want to freeze rates for another year. President Obama has barnstormed college campuses arguing for lowered rates. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has said he agrees that Congress should extend the lower rates.

House probes food contractor payment

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Congressional investigators have given the Defense Logistics Agency and the contractor that provides virtually all food supplies to U.S. troops in Afghanistan 10 days to explain why the military paid more than $750 million in what it now alleges were double-billed and excessive charges.

The House subcommittee in charge of national security oversight has called on DLA and the contractor, Swiss-based Supreme Foodservice, to produce all documents and calculations regarding the alleged overpayments under a contract to deliver "subsistence" supplies to U.S. military bases in Afghanistan since 2005.

In making public letters they sent late Wednesday to the DLA and Supreme Foodservice, subcommittee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and ranking Democrat Rep. John Tierney of Massachusetts criticized the contractor and the Pentagon's contract management.

Muslim Brotherhood claims lead

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Egypt

No official results after 2 voting days

The Muslim Brotherhood said yesterday that its candidate was leading in exit polls from Egypt's landmark presidential election, as official counting began after two days of voting to choose a successor to ousted leader Hosni Mubarak.

In stations around the country, workers cracked open ballot boxes and started the count after polls closed last night, in Egypt's first truly competitive presidential election. There are five prominent candidates in a field of 13, but none is expected to win outright in the first round. A run-off between the two leading contenders would be held June 16-17.

A Brotherhood spokesman said the group's candidate, Mohammed Morsi, was the leader in exit polls conducted by Brotherhood campaign workers nationwide. Morsi's spokesman, Murad Mohammed Ali, declined to give specific percentages.

"The Egyptian people always amaze us," said Ali. "This is above our expectations."

President stumps in swing state Iowa

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Obama tells voters about 'tough times'

The Iowa magic that launched President Obama to the White House four years ago has all but faded.

Soured by the direction of the nation and its economy, Iowa has drifted away from Obama since his 2008 caucus victory over Hillary Clinton made him the Democratic front-runner.

And while he carried the state in the general election by a comfortable margin that year, polls this year have shown voters narrowly preferring Republican challenger Mitt Romney, who plans to wage his own major effort in Iowa.

Now, the Democrat who emerged Cinderella-like with a hope-filled message four years ago is sharply attacking Romney's economic credentials and his ability to grasp voters' everyday concerns.

Obama's visit yesterday to blue-collar Newton, Iowa, and his Des Moines campaign rally near where Romney once declared that corporations are people, underscored the president's own vulnerability with working-class voters and his effort to identify with the middle class.

Christie: State to allow sports bets

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

New Jersey

New Jersey will defy a federal ban and let people bet on the outcomes of football, basketball and other games this fall, Gov. Chris Christie said yesterday.

Speaking at a news conference highlighting efforts to reinvigorate Atlantic City, Christie said the regulations his administration will issue next week make no attempt to overturn a 1992 federal law that limits sports betting to four states.