WLBT 3 - Jackson, MS: AP News in Brief
Member Center:
Bomb kills 100, mostly women and children, as Clinton arrives in Pakistan to improve US image
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - Suspected militants exploded a car bomb in a market crowded with women and children Wednesday, killing 100 people and turning shops selling wedding dresses, toys and jewelry into a mass of burning debris and bodies.
The attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar was Pakistan's deadliest since 2007 and came as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the country to offer support for its fight against a strengthening al-Qaida and Taliban-led insurgency based along the Afghan border.
Clinton was three hours' drive away in the capital meeting Pakistani government leaders when the bomb went off in Peshawar. Her trip was not announced in advance in Pakistan for security reasons.
The bomb was directed squarely at civilians, unlike many previous blasts that have targeted security forces or government or Western interests. While no one claimed responsibility, the bomb appeared aimed at undercutting public and political support for an ongoing army offensive against militants close to the frontier and showing that the government was unable to keep its people safe.
The shaky, U.S.-backed government said the bombing - the latest in a series this month - had strengthened its resolve to press ahead with the assault in the South Waziristan border region, a militant stronghold and a global training and operations hub for al-Qaida.
___
Obama signs bill authorizing $680 billion in military spending, applauds hate crimes provision
WASHINGTON (AP) - Trumpeting a victory against careless spending, President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed a defense bill that kills some costly weapons projects and expands war efforts. In a major civil rights change, the law also makes it a federal hate crime to assault people based on sexual orientation.
The $680 billion bill authorizes spending but doesn't provide any actual dollars. Rather, it sets guidance that is typically followed by congressional committees that decide appropriations. Obama hailed it as a step toward ending needless military spending that he called "an affront to the American people and to our troops."
Still, the president did not win every fiscal fight. He acknowledged he was putting his name to a bill that still had waste.
The measure expands current hate crimes law to include violence based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. To assure its passage after years of frustrated efforts, Democratic supporters attached the measure to the must-pass defense policy bill over the steep objections of many Republicans.
The White House put most of its focus on what the bill does contain: project after project that Obama billed as unneeded. The bill terminates production of the F-22 fighter jet program, which has its origins in the Cold War era and, its critics maintain, is poorly suited for anti-insurgent battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
___
UN workers scramble over roofs to escape attack on Kabul guest house; 11 killed
KABUL (AP) - Terrified U.N. workers scrambled over the roof or leaped from windows to escape choking smoke and gunfire after being awakened at dawn Wednesday when Taliban militants wearing police uniforms stormed a residential hotel packed with foreigners.
The assault, which killed 11 people including three militants, was one of a series of brazen attacks aimed at undermining the Nov. 7 presidential election runoff. It underscored the risks facing U.N. and Afghan officials in organizing the vote and the massive challenge for the U.S.-led military force in curbing the determined insurgency.
Those challenges were highlighted across the border in Pakistan, where a car bomb killed 100 people - mostly women and children - while visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was in the capital of Islamabad pledging support for the Pakistani campaign against Islamic militants.
Five U.N. employees, including an American, were among those killed at the guest house in Kabul. Nationalities of the other U.N. victims were not released.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the assault as well as rocket attacks at the presidential palace and the city's main luxury hotel. The Taliban have warned Afghans that they risk attacks if they do not stay away from the polls for next week's runoff.
___
House Democrats to unveil health bill with government-run insurance, hefty sign-up requirement
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats reached agreement Wednesday on key elements of a health care bill that would vastly alter America's medical landscape, requiring virtually universal sign-ups and establishing a new government-run insurance option for millions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi planned a formal announcement Thursday morning, but details were still being finalized, lawmakers and aides said. Officials said the legislation could be up for a vote on the House floor next week.
The rollout would cap months of arduous negotiations to bridge differences between liberal and moderate Democrats and blend health care overhaul bills passed by three separate committees over the summer. The developments in the House came as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., tried to round up support among moderate Democrats for his bill, which includes a modified government insurance option that states could opt out of.
Reid met Thursday with Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, who faces a potentially tough re-election next year.
The final product in the House, reflecting many of President Barack Obama's priorities, includes new requirements for employers to offer insurance to their workers or face penalties, fines on Americans who don't purchase coverage and subsidies to help lower-income people do so. Insurance companies would face new prohibitions against charging much more to older people or denying coverage to people with health conditions.
___
Feds: Imam who led radical Sunni Islam group fatally shot in Detroit-area FBI raid
DETROIT (AP) - Federal authorities in Detroit say they fatally shot the leader of a radical fundamentalist Sunni Islam group after he failed to surrender on several criminal charges.
The U.S. attorney's office says Luqman Ameen Abdullah was killed while exchanging gunfire with federal agents Wednesday at a warehouse in Dearborn.
A court document says Abdullah is an imam, or prayer leader, of a radical group whose primary mission is toestablish an Islamic state within the United States. Authorities say he's also known as Christopher Thomas.
The FBI was trying to round up Abdullah and 10 followers on many charges, including conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms.
The FBI says Abdullah regularly preached anti-government rhetoric, and some of his followers converted to Islam while in prison.
___
Woman dies after attack by coyotes during solo hike in Canadian park
TORONTO (AP) - Two coyotes attacked a promising young musician as she was hiking alone in a national park in eastern Canada, and authorities said she died Wednesday of her injuries.
The victim was identified as Taylor Mitchell, 19, a singer-songwriter from Toronto who was touring her new album on the East Coast.
She was hiking solo on a trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia on Tuesday when the attack occurred. She was airlifted to a Halifax hospital in critical condition and died Wednesday morning, authorities said.
Coyotes, which also are known as prairie wolves, are found from Central America to the United States and Canada.
Wildlife biologist Bob Bancroft said coyote attacks are extremely rare because the animals are usually shy.
___
Swine flu prompts hundreds of schools to close, keeping tens of thousands of students home
CHICAGO (AP) - The number of students staying home sick with the flu is multiplying nationwide and normally quiet school nurses' offices suddenly look like big city emergency rooms, packed with students too ill to finish the day.
The federal government has urged schools to close because of the swine flu only as a last resort. But schools are closing by the dozens as officials say they are being hit so hard and so fast by the H1N1 virus that they feel shutting down for a few days is the only feasible option.
"There was nothing else we could do," said Michael Frechette, the superintendent of Connecticut's Middletown Public Schools where a middle school closed for the rest of the week after 120 students stayed home sick Monday and another 25 were sent home by noon. "The only way to stop that transmittal was to keep the kids home for the rest of the week."
At least 351 schools were closed last week alone - affecting 126,000 students in 19 states, according to the U.S. Education Department. So far this school year, about 600 schools have temporarily shut their doors.
The number of closures this year appears on target to surpass the roughly 700 schools closed last spring when the swine flu outbreak first hit.
___
September new home sales post surprise drop as benefit of first-time buyer tax credit wanes
WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of buyers snapping up new homes dipped unexpectedly last month as the effects of a temporary tax credit for first-time owners started to wear off.
The 3.6 percent drop in September's new home sales, reported by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, was the first decline since March and a distinct sign of weakness in a market that had rebounded strongly over the summer.
The report surprised Wall Street. Stocks fell Wednesday with the Dow Jones industrial average off 36.88 to 9,845.29 in midday trading. Homebuilder stocks also tumbled with Hovnanian Enterprises leading the way with a 9 percent drop, or 38 cents, to $3.92.
On the positive side, however, the government reported that orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rose 1 percent in September as demand for machinery offset weakness in commercial aircraft and autos.
Analysts expect that the overall economy, as measuredby gross domestic production, grew at an annual rate of 3.3 percent in the July-September quarter after contracting for a record four straight quarters. The third-quarter GDP report is due Thursday.
___
Ga. grand jury won't indict man accused of stalking Miley Cyrus, cites insufficient evidence
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - A grand jury on Wednesday refused to indict a 53-year-old man jailed since August on charges that he tried to stalk Miley Cyrus as the teen star filmed a movie on the Georgia coast.
The Chatham County grand jury decided prosecutors had insufficient evidence to charge Mark McLeod of Appling, Ga., in Superior Court, which hears felony cases.
A spokeswoman for District Attorney Larry Chisolm said he still plans to prosecute McLeod on two misdemeanor charges, attempted stalking and disorderly conduct, in a lower court.
McLeod has been jailed since Aug. 4 after police arrested him twice over the summer on nearby Tybee Island, where 16-year-old Cyrus was filming the movie "The Last Song."
Police say McLeod told them he was engaged to marry the "Hannah Montana" star and resisted being escorted from the movie set.
___
NFL's Roger Goodell denies link between head injuries and brain diseases before Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) - NFL commissioner Roger Goodell would not acknowledge a connection between head injuries on the football field and later brain diseases while defending the league's policies on concussions before Congress.
Under sometimes-contentious questioning from lawmakers - and suggestions about reconsidering the league's lucrative antitrust exemption - Goodell sat at a witness table Wednesday alongside NFL Players Association head DeMaurice Smith.
Both men agreed to turn over players' medical records to the House Judiciary Committee.
Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., asked Goodell whether he thinks there's an injury-disease link. Goodell responded that the NFL isn't waiting for that debate to play out and is taking steps to make the game safer.
"I just asked you a simple question. What is the answer?" persisted Conyers.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
