Published: April 30, 2008 05:20 pm            

Nation/World Roundup for April 30

No matter how Obama handles Wright, some won't be happy

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Thirteen hours after his former pastor startled some with a defiant performance that was televised nationwide, Barack Obama urged 18,000 supporters to stay calm and shrug off such "distractions."

By the next afternoon, however, his tone was dramatically different.

The Illinois senator summoned reporters Tuesday to say he was outraged by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's "divisive and destructive" remarks, scrambling to contain the flare-up in a controversy that has dogged him since clips of some of Wright's most objectionable remarks began circulating on TV and the Internet.

Obama said he belatedly condemned Wright's remarks because he did not see a transcript or video of Monday's appearance until the next day.

Doubtless, too, campaign aides were inundated with calls and messages Tuesday urging a stronger reaction.



White House cautions against effort in Congress to restrict US aid to Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House officials this week privately cautioned lawmakers not to go too far in restricting U.S. aid to Iraq, warning that doing so might only prolong the war, now in its sixth year.

The Bush administration didn't slam the door on proposals in Congress that would insist Iraq do more to pay for its rebuilding efforts. In the meantime, independent investigators conclude in a report that substantial U.S. support continues despite Baghdad's anticipated $70 billion windfall in oil revenues.

The soaring cost of fuel prices and duration of the war have spurred the latest effort in Congress to get the Iraqis to pay more toward rebuilding efforts. Democrats and even some Republicans say American taxpayers are footing too much of the bill, including an expensive and painfully slow operation to train and equip Baghdad's security forces.

"There's going to have to be some honest-to-goodness pressure" to get the Iraqis to take charge, said Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "We can't be there forever."

Administration officials are concerned that cutting U.S. aid, particularly for rebuilding Iraq's security forces, would only slow the war effort and delay the homecoming of troops.



Many economists believe the Fed will cut one more time and then pause

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve, which began the year aggressively fighting a severe credit crunch and economic weakness, may push the pause button after delivering perhaps one more quarter-point cut in interest rates.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues were to wrap up a two-day meeting Wednesday and financial markets widely expected that the discussions will end with an announcement that the Fed will cut a key interest rate by a quarter-point.

That would be the seventh reduction in the federal funds rate since the central bank began battling against the credit squeeze and the growing possibility of a recession last September.

The Fed delivered two three-quarter-point moves and one half-point cut over an eight-week period from mid-January to mid-March that represented the central bank's most aggressive rate cuts in a quarter-century.

However, the central bank is expected to respond with a less aggressive quarter-point move at this meeting, in part because the financial turmoil seems to have eased and because there are growing concerns about inflation.



___



Study of rare colossal squid reveals it has the biggest eyes in world

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Marine scientists studying the carcass of a rare colossal squid said Wednesday they had measured its eye at about 11 inches across — bigger than a dinner plate — making it the largest animal eye on Earth.

One of the squid's two eyes, with a lens as big as an orange, was found intact as the scientists examined the creature while it was slowly defrosted at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa. It has been preserved there since being caught in the Ross Sea off Antarctica's northern coast last year.

"This is the only intact eye (of a colossal squid) that's ever been found. It's spectacular," said Auckland University of Technology squid specialist Kat Bolstad, one of a team of international scientists brought in to examine the creature.

"It's the largest known eye in the animal kingdom," Bolstad told The Associated Press.

The squid is the biggest specimen ever caught of the rare and mysterious deep-water species Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, or colossal squid. When caught, it measured 26 feet long and weighed about 1,000 pounds, but scientists believe the species may grow as long as 46 feet.



___



Officials say Austrian family terrorized by decades of incest and imprisonment reunite



AMSTETTEN, Austria (AP) — The young woman whose hospitalization triggered the discovery that her family had been imprisoned and terrorized for decades was struggling for her life Wednesday, as authorities weighed the future of her five siblings.

Kerstin Fritzl's condition was critical but stable, authorities said. The 19-year-old is one of seven children Josef Fritzl fathered with his daughter, who was held captive for 24 years in a dingy dungeon beneath his home.

Kerstin, who is an induced coma, is undergoing dialysis because of the effects of lack of oxygen. She was brought to the hospital unconscious and later suffered seizures. The fate of her family came to light after doctors, mystified by her ailment, publicly appealed for her mother to come forward because they needed her medical history.

Authorities were providing little information about Fritzl, 73, who has confessed to locking up daughter Elisabeth since she was 18 and repeatedly raping her. He said he incinerated the body of one of her children, who died in infancy.

Leopold Etz, chief of homicide for Lower Austria province, said authorities were confident that Fritzl acted alone.



___



Another celebrity leaves the ballroom on 'Dancing With the Stars'

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shannon Elizabeth won't have to shed any more tears over "Dancing With the Stars."

The 34-year-old actress, who cried at the judges' harsh remarks last week, was eliminated Tuesday from the ABC dance-off.

"The show has been amazing. I've learned a lot," she said as her professional partner, Derek Hough, stood by her side. "I've made a friend for life, and hopefully a bunch of friends for life, and I'll be here to support everyone as much as I can."

Hough said he "couldn't have asked for more" from a partner.

"She really is a big dork," he said, "but I love that."



___



Tony Parker scores 31 points as Spurs advance to second round with 92-87 victory over Suns

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Tony Parker scored 31 points, Tim Duncan added 29 points and 17 rebounds, and the San Antonio Spurs advanced to the Western Conference semifinals with a 92-87 Game 5 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.

The third-seeded Spurs will meet the No. 2 seed Hornets in a second-round series that begins Saturday at New Orleans. The Hornets finished off their series with the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, also in five games.

Boris Diaw, who had a near triple-double in the Suns' rout of the Spurs in Game 4, led the Suns with 22 points.

Four other players scored in the double digits, but the Suns had a number of costly turnovers down the stretch and were sent home yet again by the Spurs, who have eliminated Phoenix in four of their last five playoff appearances.

With the Spurs up 88-87 after battling back and forth with the Suns throughout the fourth quarter, Manu Ginobili, who had been cold all night, hit one of two from the line with 25 seconds on the clock.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.