July 29, 2008 02:45 pm
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U.S., Iraqi forces launch new military offensive against Diyala insurgents
BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. and Iraqi forces fanned out in the volatile Diyala province Tuesday in a new operation aimed at clearing al-Qaida in Iraq from safe havens in an area considered the last major insurgent belt around the capital.
New checkpoints were erected across the province and authorities ordered a ban on unofficial traffic as search operations got under way in the provincial capital of Baqouba and surrounding areas, according to witnesses. Many residents said they were afraid to leave their houses.
The U.S.-backed Iraqi military is hoping to build on recent security gains from similar offensives against Sunni insurgents in the northern city of Mosul and Shiite militiamen in Baghdad, Basra and Amarah.
The troops were focusing on chasing al-Qaida and other insurgents who sought refuge in Diyala to escape earlier crackdowns, said Gen. Ali Ghaidan, the commander of Iraqi ground forces in the province.
The province, which sits to the north of the capital and borders Iran, has been one of the hardest areas to control since the U.S.-led war began in March 2003. Baqouba, the provincial capital, was hit by a twin suicide bombing that killed at least 28 people on July 15 and has seen a number of female suicide attacks.
Bush decides former Army cook's crimes call for execution
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush could have commuted the death sentence of Ronald A. Gray, a former Army cook convicted of multiple rapes and murders.
But Bush decided Monday that Gray's crimes were so repugnant that execution was the only just punishment.
Bush's decision marked the first time in 51 years that a president has affirmed a death sentence for a member of the U.S. military. It was the first time in 46 years that such a decision has even been weighed in the Oval Office.
Gray, 42, was convicted in connection with a spree of four murders and eight rapes in the Fayetteville, N.C., area between April 1986 and January 1987 while he was stationed at Fort Bragg. He has been on death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., since April 1988.
"While approving a sentence of death for a member of our armed services is a serious and difficult decision for a commander in chief, the president believes the facts of this case leave no doubt that the sentence is just and warranted," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
Pakistan investigates reports senior al-Qaida figure killed in suspected U.S. missile strike
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan investigated reports Tuesday that a senior al-Qaida figure was among six people killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike amid anger that the attack had violated the Islamic nation's sovereignty.
Pakistan's army said it had not confirmed that Monday's strike killed al-Qaida operative Abu Khabab al-Masri, described by Washington as an expert who trained terrorists in the use of poisons and explosives.
But two Pakistani intelligence officials said they believed al-Masri had died and an American official in Washington expressed cautious optimism. The U.S. is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.
"There is a real sense that this guy is gone," the American official said. But he cautioned that there was no material evidence yet to confirm al-Masri's death, such as a photograph of the dead man at the bomb site.
The pre-dawn strike on a border village in the South Waziristan tribal region came hours before Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani met with President Bush at the White House.
Report says U.S. national security system is outdated, needs massive changes
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a report aimed at the next president, security specialists are proposing a vast overhaul of the U.S. security system, declaring it problem-plagued.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, said frequent feuding and jurisdictional disputes among Cabinet secretaries and other agency heads force the president to spend too much time settling internal fights.
Time and money are wasted on duplicative and inefficient actions, slowing down government responses to crises, the report said.
The president and his top advisers focus on day-to-day crisis management rather than long-term planning, "allowing problems to escape presidential attention until they worsen and reach the crisis level," said the report, to be issued later in the week.
The study, mandated by Congress, was undertaken by the Project on National Security Reform. The research was conducted by more than 300 national security experts from think tanks, universities, federal agencies, law firms and corporations.
Police: Letter indicates suspected man targeted Tenn. church because of its liberal views
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Children from the Unitarian church where authorities said an out-of-work truck driver shot and killed two people, ended a prayer vigil by singing a song from the musical the gunman interrupted.
At the service Monday, which included candle-lighting and speeches by church leaders, the children came out singing, "The sun will come out tomorrow," a line from the signature song in the musical "Annie."
Gunfire erupted Sunday during the children's performance at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, which authorities said Jim D. Adkisson intentionally targeted because of its congregation's liberal policies. A four-page letter found in Adkisson's SUV indicated he picked the church because, the police chief said, "he hated the liberal movement."
An overflow crowd of more than 1,000 people attended the memorial service at the Second Presbyterian Church next door.
"We're here tonight to make sense of the senseless," the Rev. William Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, told the gathering.
After bitter primary, Obama tries to win over Clinton supporters
CHICAGO (AP) — After Hillary Rodham Clinton lost the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, one of her delegates wanted to send a message. So Mary Beth Pyle wore a Clinton T-shirt to a unity dinner meant to build support for Barack Obama.
Then she pulled it off to reveal an Obama T-shirt underneath — a symbol of her support for the party's new candidate for president.
"We were there to get over it. We had a sip of wine — goodbye, Hillary — and another sip — hello, Obama," said Pyle, chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Mesa County, Colo.
But many of Clinton's supporters aren't so willing to embrace Obama, at least not yet. Independents and moderate Republican women remain a question mark, too.
So Obama is working fiercely to win their votes.
Tourists pack bags as a wildfire outside Yosemite destroys homes and forces evacuations
MARIPOSA, Calif. (AP) — Visitors to Yosemite National Park weighed whether to cut their vacations short Tuesday as a destructive wildfire raging miles from the famed wilderness threatened thousands of homes and left evacuees stranded.
Authorities said late Monday the blaze tearing through a steep, dry river canyon had destroyed 25 homes, more than double the number reported earlier in the day. The fire has forced the evacuation of about 300 homes in the nearby towns of Midpines and Coulterville and is endangering as many as 4,000 others.
More than 46 square miles of mostly wilderness terrain have burned since a target shooter sparked the wildfire on Friday. The fire was 10 percent contained Monday night as it burned about 12 miles from Yosemite National Park, which remained open.
Still, some visitors packed their bags and left campgrounds and other areas near the park because of the fire and the smoky haze that accompanied it.
"You would like to be relaxed on your holiday," said Trees Duipmans, visiting from Holland with her three teenage children. "If you're looking for tension you visit New York City. This here is a whole other kind of tension."
Los Angeles poised to ban new fast-food restaurants in poor area lacking healthier fare
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the impoverished neighborhood of South Los Angeles, fast food is the easiest cuisine to find — and that's a problem for elected officials who see it as an unhealthy source of calories and cholesterol.
The City Council was poised to vote Tuesday on a moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a swath of the city where a proliferation of such eateries goes hand-in-hand with obesity.
"Our communities have an extreme shortage of quality foods," City Councilman Bernard Parks said.
The aim of the yearlong moratorium, which was approved last week in committee, is to give the city time to try to attract restaurants that serve healthier food.
The California Restaurant Association says the moratorium, which could be extended up to two years, is misguided.
Diva discharged: Amy Winehouse released from London hospital after overnight stay
LONDON (AP) — A spokesman for troubled singer Amy Winehouse says she has been released from a London hospital after suffering a reaction to medication.
Spokesman Chris Goodman says Winehouse is feeling fine. He says she was discharged from a London hospital Tuesday after spending the night under observation.
Winehouse had been rushed by ambulance from her north London home to London's University College Hospital on Monday evening.
It was the second time in as many months that the Grammy winner had been taken to a hospital. She was hospitalized in June after collapsing at home.
Body found in debris from N.M. flash flooding
RUIDOSO, N.M. (AP) — Rescuers used pulleys Monday to help stranded residents and campers cross a rushing river where the body of a man reported missing in flash flooding was found near a bridge in a thicket of debris.
The victim, 20-year-old Joseph Godines, was reported missing by his brother in this south-central New Mexico mountain resort area, said Ruidoso police Chief Wolfgang Born.
Godines was one of two people reported swept away after apparently losing his footing near the Rio Ruidoso as it spilled over its banks Sunday in flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Dolly.
An estimated 350 to 500 houses, campers, mobile homes and structures were damaged in the flooding, with about 350 people evacuated from homes and up to 500 vacationers stranded away from their cabins, campsites or recreational vehicles.
They were unable to return Monday because of washed out roads and bridges. Some residents were stuck after refusing to evacuate.
Tom Schafer, Ruidoso's emergency management coordinator, said there were 25 water rescues Sunday, mostly from vehicles but a few homes as well.
Police chase ends in death of Houston doctor
HOUSTON (AP) — Dr. Wesley Gustafson Jr., a veteran family practice physician, was killed when a Chevrolet Trailblazer slammed into his Buick sport utility vehicle during a police chase, authorities said.
Harris County prosecutor Warren Diepraam said the man who hit Gustafson during the police chase, Danny M. Shipp, 38, of New Orleans, will be charged with felony murder.
Gustafson was taken to Ben Taub Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Shipp was also transported to a hospital under police guard.
The crash happened around 10 a.m. Monday in Houston's upscale Memorial Villages area. Gustafson had planned to open a new office next week in a southwest Houston shopping center and was leaving the area when his vehicle was broadsided.
"He hit him full blast - nonstop," Elbert Simmons said in Monday's online edition of the Houston Chronicle.
Another eyewitness Charlie Elias, said he could feel the impact of the crash, which uprooted two trees.
Two other cars were also hit by Shipp's vehicle before Gustafson's SUV was slammed. Authorities said Shipp was driving between 50 to 60 mph.
Only one officer was involved in the 10-minute chase which did not appear to violate police department policy, said Lt. Bill Sala of the Memorial Villages Police Department.
Police said the chase started in Memorial Villages and ended in the Houston Police Department's jurisdiction but was over before other officers could join in.
Appeal expected for bilingual education
ruling reversal
DALLAS (AP) — The state education agency said it plans to ask Attorney General Greg Abbott to appeal a federal judge's ruling requiring the state of Texas to come up with a plan to improve bilingual education programs for secondary school students, according to media reports.
"We are disappointed that the judge reversed his original order of a year ago. We are continuing to study this latest ruling, but we do anticipate asking the attorney general to appeal," Debbie Ratcliffe of the Texas Education Agency said Tuesday in The Dallas Morning News' online edition.
She said the state "absolutely stands" by its programs for limited-English students.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice cited unqualified monitors, undercounting of students with limited English proficiency and arbitrary standards as part of the failure of the 1981 Bilingual and Special Education Programs Act to provide adequate programs for limited-English students.
He said TEA was violating the civil rights of Spanish-speaking secondary students under the federal Equal Education Opportunity Act. His 95-page ruling gave the state until January 31 to produce a new plan.
The ruling was surprising because it reverses Justice's 2007 order which gave the state's bilingual education programs a passing grade, the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News said in online reports Tuesday.
Some Texas lawmakers said on Monday they were already addressing some of the challenges limited-English students face, even before the judge's ruling.
No Insurance
Sizable number of Texas drivers without insurance
AUSTIN (AP) — A large number of drivers on Texas highways and roads do not have auto insurance, according to a Texas insurance organization.
A 60-day pilot project testing the new TexasSure program, which allows law enforcement personnel via computer to verify coverage status when they stop a motorist, focused on Travis County. During the test which is expected to end soon, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers stopped and ticketed uninsured drivers.
So far, 25.5 percent of 5,012 drivers stopped in Travis County and small portions of nearby Williamson and Hays counties since June 2, did not have auto insurance.
"The numbers show that Texas has an even larger number of uninsured drivers than we had realized," said Mark Hanna, spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas, in a story Tuesday in the online editions of the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News.
The Council has been monitoring the state's new auto insurance verification program.
"Troopers tell us that some areas of the state may have more than half of their drivers uninsured, and that's scary news for everyone else on our roadways," Hanna said.
This spring, the minimum amount of liability insurance Texas drivers are required to have, increased for the first time in 22 years. Hanna said he didn't think the higher requirement was a factor in the lack of coverage because the effect on premiums was "minimal."
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