Democrats urge torture probe by special counsel

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer Larry Margasak, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 28, 11:45 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Congressional Democrats turned up the pressure on the Obama administration Tuesday to start a criminal investigation by a special counsel into harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects.

It would be a conflict of interest for President Barack Obama's Justice Department to investigate lawyers from the Bush administration, even though they no longer work for the government, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, the Democrats wrote, "It is impossible to determine at this stage, and before conclusion of the necessary investigation, whether additional conflicts of interest might exist or arise."

The letter said a special counsel's investigation would insulate the department from accusations that the investigation was politically inspired.

Most of the 16 signers were Democratic liberals. Seven committee Democrats did not sign the letter, nor did any of the 16 Republicans.
Read more


get daily headlines and news right on your kindle2. suscribe low newspapers monthly fee

  Continue Reading »

US department trying to reduce impact of swine flu

WASHINGTON – With global anxiety spreading even faster than the new swine flu — and a vaccine still months away — health authorities are struggling to reduce the impact of an outbreak that can't be contained by simply shutting borders.

The world has no vaccine to prevent infection but U.S. health officials aim to have a key ingredient for one ready in early May, the big step that vaccine manufacturers are awaiting. But even if the World Health Organization ordered up emergency vaccine supplies — and that decision hasn't been made yet — it would take at least two more months to produce the initial shots needed for human safety testing.

"We're working together at 100 miles an hour to get material that will be useful," Dr. Jesse Goodman, who oversees the Food and Drug Administration's swine flu work, told The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, health authorities are preparing for the worst. "I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection," said Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. is shipping to states not only enough anti-flu medication for 11 million people, but also masks, hospital supplies and flu test kits. President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to help build more drug stockpiles and monitor future cases, as well as help international efforts to avoid a full-fledged pandemic.

"It's a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable," the WHO's flu chief, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, told a telephone news conference.
Read more

get daily headlines and news right on your kindle2. suscribe low newspapers monthly fee
Continue Reading »

Bipartisanship didn't last long in Obama's first 100 days

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- There's little debate that Democrats who run Congress mark President Obama's 100-day milestone with some significant victories.

First and foremost, they passed the president's $787 billion measure intended to stimulate the economy with warp speed, meeting his February deadline.

Congressional Democrats also made good on promises to push through several priorities that President Bush had refused to sign into law.

They finally approved last year's bill to fund the government, with significant increases in spending for things such as education, health care and transportation.
Read more

  Continue Reading »

Mexico faces criticism over swine flu response

MEXICO CITY – Two weeks after the first known swine flu death, Mexico still hasn't given medicine to the families of the dead. It hasn't determined where the outbreak began or how it spread. And while the government urges anyone who feels sick to go to hospitals, feverish people complain ambulance workers are scared to pick them up.

A portrait is emerging of a slow and confused response by Mexico to the gathering swine flu epidemic. And that could mean the world is flying blind into a global health storm.

Despite an annual budget of more than $5 billion, Mexico's health secretary said Monday that his agency hasn't had the resources to visit the families of the dead. That means doctors haven't begun treatment for the population most exposed to swine flu, and most apt to spread it.
Read more

  Continue Reading »

Democrats announce agreement on budget pact

WASHINGTON – Congressional Democrats sealed an agreement Monday night on a budget plan that would help President Barack Obama overhaul the health care system but allows his signature tax cut for most workers to expire after next year.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., announced the agreement and key details in a statement.

Most importantly, the congressional budget plan would prevent Senate Republicans from delaying or blocking Obama's plan to vastly expand government-subsidized health care when it advances this fall.

The $3.5 trillion plan for the budget year starting Oct. 1 embraces several of Obama's key goals besides health care reform, including funds for domestic programs and clean energy, and a tax increase for individuals making more than $200,000 a year or couples making more than $250,000.
Read more

  Continue Reading »

Snoop Dogg testifies in civil trial

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Snoop Dogg told jurors on Monday that he didn't hit a man suing him for millions of dollars with a brass-knuckle microphone during a melee at one of his 2005 concerts.

The rapper (real name: Calvin Broadus) took the stand for nearly two hours and denied that he hit Richard Monroe Jr. during the show near Seattle. Broadus said he went back to his tour bus immediately after Monroe jumped on stage and was tackled by security.

Broadus described the people who were on stage during a melee in which Monroe claims he was seriously injured. He identified several people near the struggle as being affiliated with The Game, a fellow rapper who toured with Snoop on the "How the West Was Won" tour.
Read more

  Continue Reading »

Jet flyover in lower Manhattan sets off panic

NEW YORK – One of the president's official planes and a supersonic fighter jet zoomed past the lower Manhattan skyline in a flash just as the work day was beginning Monday. Within minutes, startled financial workers streamed out of their offices, fearing a nightmarish replay of Sept. 11.

For a half-hour, the Boeing 747 and F-16 jet circled the Statue of Liberty and the lower Manhattan skyline near the World Trade Center site. Offices evacuated. Dispatchers were inundated with calls. Witnesses thought the planes were flying dangerously low.
Read more
  Continue Reading »

U.S. sailor sues ship owner over Somali pirate attack

HOUSTON – A member of the crew on the U.S.-flagged ship hijacked by African pirates sued the owner and another company Monday, accusing them of knowingly putting sailors in danger. Richard E. Hicks alleges in the suit that owner Maersk Line Limited and Waterman Steamship Corp., which provided the crew, ignored requests to improve safety measures for vessels sailing along the Somali coast.

Hicks was chief cook on the Maersk Alabama. Pirates held the ship's captain hostage for five days until the U.S. Navy rescued him.

Hicks' lawsuit seeks at least $75,000 in damages and improved safety.

Officials for Norfolk, Va.-based Maersk Line and Mobile, Ala.-based Waterman said their companies don't comment on pending litigation.

Hicks asked that the two companies improve safety for ships by providing armed security or allowing crew members to carry weapons, sending ships through safer routes, and placing such safety measures on ships as barbed wire that would prevent pirates from being able to board vessels.
Read more
  Continue Reading »

Pakistani leader: Bin Laden 'may be dead' — or not ( says pakistanis leader)

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's president said Monday his intelligence agencies believe Osama bin Laden may be dead, but he added there is no proof. Other Pakistani officials and a U.S. counterterrorism official said they thought the al-Qaida chief is alive. U.S. officials said bin Laden is most likely hiding in the mountains along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, in particular the lawless tribal regions.

"We continue to believe that bin Laden is alive," said the U.S. official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the matter on the record.

Reports of bin Laden's death or of near-captures have punctuated his years on the run since the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S., only to be seemingly debunked by periodic audio and video recordings.

The latest recordings emerged in March, in which bin Laden referred to the December-January Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, calling it a "holocaust," and spoke of the January election of Somalia's U.N.-backed president, calling for him to be overthrown.
Read more

  Continue Reading »

Quake jars already-nervous Mexico City residents

MEXICO CITY – A strong earthquake struck central Mexico on Monday, swaying tall buildings in the capital and rattling nerves in a city already tense from a swine flu outbreak suspected of killing as many as 149 people nationwide

Near the epicentre in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, two women aged 67 and 75 died of heart attacks during or shortly after the earthquake, and four homes and a perimeter wall collapsed in and around the resort of Acapulco, state police reported.

"I'm scared," said Sarai Luna Pajas, a 22-year-old social services worker standing outside her Mexico City office building moments after it hit. "We Mexicans are not used to living with so much fear, but all that is happening — the economic crisis, the illnesses and now this — it feels like the Apocalypse."
Read more

  Continue Reading »

WHO raises global alert level on swine flu

MEXICO CITY – The swine flu epidemic entered a dangerous new phase Monday as the death toll climbed in Mexico and the number of suspected cases there and in the United States nearly doubled. The World Health Organization raised its alert level but stopped short of declaring a global emergency
Read more

  Continue Reading »

Suspected swine flu deaths in Mexico top 100

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government is trying to stem the spread of a deadly strain of swine flu as a new work week begins by urging people to stay home Monday if they have any symptoms of the virus believed to have killed more than 100 people.

Officials have already closed schools in three states and canceled hundreds of public events. But as the number of suspected cases and deaths rose again on Sunday — and millions returning to work on Monday — they looked to other measures to control the outbreak.
Read more

  Continue Reading »

Holder close to making decision on Gitmo detainees AP

ONDON – The United States is "relatively close" to making decisions on what to do with an initial group of Guantanamo Bay detainees, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday.

Holder spoke to The Associated Press during a flight to London, the first of several stops where he will visit with European leaders to discuss terrorism, drugs, and cyber-crime.
Read more

  Continue Reading »

Ahmadinejad: Iran would accept 2 state solution if Palestinians did

(CNN) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in an interview broadcast Sunday, said his government would accept a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians if Palestinians did.

"Whatever decision they take is fine with us," he told ABC's "This Week."

"We are not going to determine anything. Whatever decision they take, we will support that. We think that this is the right of the Palestinian people. However we fully expect other states to do so as well."


  Continue Reading »