Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/191616
4B Daily News – Saturday, October 12, 2013 WORLD BRIEFING Obama, GOP try to negotiate without appearing to negotiate WASHINGTON (AP) — Efforts accelerated in Congress on Friday to keep the U.S. Treasury from defaulting as early as next week and to end the partial government shutdown that stretched through an 11th day. At the White House and Capitol, President Barack Obama and top aides consulted repeatedly with both House and Senate Republicans. ''Let's put this hysterical talk of default behind us and instead start talking about finding solutions,'' said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. There was no shortage of suggestions. Yet there also was no evidence of agreement to end crises that have caused financial markets to shudder and interest rates to rise, while closing some federal offices and sending 350,000 workers home on furlough, without pay. Senate and House Republicans each offered to reopen the government and raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit — but only as part of broader approaches that envision deficit savings, changes to the health care law known as Obamacare and an easing of across-the-board spending cuts that the White House and Congress both dislike. The details and timing differed. ''We're waiting to hear'' from administration officials, said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Air Force fires general in charge of nuclear missile force WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force fired the general in charge of its nuclear missiles on Fri- day, just two days after a Navy admiral with top nuclear weapons responsibilities was sacked. Both men are caught up in investigations of alleged personal misconduct, adding to a cascade of turmoil inside the nation's nuclear weapons force. The Air Force removed Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, a 35-year veteran, from his command of 20th Air Force, responsible for all 450 of the service's intercontinental ballistic missiles. Carey, who took his post in Wyoming in June 2012, will be reassigned pending the outcome of an investigation into personal misbehavior, the service said. The Air Force would not specify what Carey is alleged to have done wrong, but two officials with knowledge of the investigation indicated that it was linked to alcohol use. They said it was not related to the performance or combat readiness of ICBM units or to his stewardship of the force. Removing senior officers in the nuclear force is rare but has happened twice this week. Another migrant ship capsizes off Italy island, 27 dead VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — For the second time in a week, a smugglers' boat overloaded with migrants capsized in the Canal of Sicily on Friday as it made the perilous crossing from Africa to Europe. At least 27 people drowned, but 221 people were rescued in a joint Italian-Maltese operation, officials said. Helicopters ferried the injured to Lampedusa, the Italian island that is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland and the destination of choice for most smugglers' boats leaving Tunisia or Libya. It was off Lampedusa that a migrant ship from Libya capsized Oct. 3 with some 500 people aboard. Only 155 survived. Friday's capsizing occurred 65 miles (105 kilometers) southeast of Lampedusa, but in waters where Malta has search and rescue responsibilities. The two shipwrecks were the latest grim reminder of the extreme risks that migrants and asylum-seekers often take in an effort to slip into Europe every year by boat. Facing unrest and persecution in Africa and the Middle East, many of the migrants think the Lampedusa escape route to Europe, which is barely 70 miles (113 kilometers) from northern Africa, is worth the risk. ''They do know that they are risking their lives, but it is a rational decision,'' said Maurizio Albahari, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. ''Because they know for a fact they will be facing death or persecution at home — whatever remains of their home, or assuming there is a home in the first place.'' Obamacare so far? Lack of enrollment numbers makes it hard to say ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — After more than a week in action, is a key feature of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul a success or a bust? Judging by the dearth of data, it's virtually impossible to say. The federal government has released no comprehensive data on how many people have enrolled for health insurance using federally run exchanges, the online marketplaces being used in 36 states for residents to compare and buy insurance. In the 14 states running their own exchanges, the situation isn't much better. Officials with California's exchange say it will be mid-November until they can say how many people signed up. In Oregon and Colorado, the official number of completed applications is zero. And in Minnesota, which billed itself as a eight ambulances arrived at the hospital. She didn't immediately know the condition of the arrivals. Medical personnel also were tending to those who arrived by bus. New report on abuses by Syrian rebels could feed Western unease leader in implementing the Affordable Care Act, officials won't release data until next week about the number of applications started and completed. As a result, a nation obsessed with keeping score to determine winners and losers is finding it difficult to pass immediate judgment on a law that will in large part define the president's legacy. ''Obamacare has a lot of cynics in this country, and it needs to get off to a better start than what we see so far if it's going to be a success,'' said Bob Laszewski, a Washington, D.C.-based health care industry consultant. Nobel Peace Prize goes to chemicalweapons watchdog BEIRUT (AP) — The watchdog agency working to eliminate the world's chemical weapons won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a powerful endorsement of the inspectors now on the ground in Syria on a per- ilous mission to destroy the regime's stockpile of poison gas. In honoring the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said ''recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons.'' The prize came 10 days after OPCW inspectors started arriving in war-torn Syria to oversee the dismantling of President Bashar Assad's chemical arsenal. While world leaders and former Nobel laureates praised the group's selection, some in Syria lamented that the prize would do nothing to end the bloodshed, most of which is being inflicted with conventional weapons. ''The killing is continuing, the shelling is continuing and the dead continue to fall,'' said Mohammed al-Tayeb, an activist who helped film casualties after the deadly chemical attack in August that the rebels and the government have blamed on each other. 1 dead, dozens hurt in collision between logging truck, train CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A logging truck collided with a train taking passengers on a scenic tour amid fall foliage in eastern West Virginia, killing one person and injuring more than 60 others Friday, emergency services officials said. The cause of the accident between the truck and the Durbin & Greenbrier Railroad train on a trip at the height of the autumn leaf-watching season wasn't immediately known. Two passenger cars overturned in the accident at 1:30 p.m. Friday along U.S. Route 250 about 160 miles east of Charleston near Cheat Mountain, said emergency services director Shawn Dunbrack of Pocahontas County. Randolph County emergency services director Jim Wise said at least three people were critically injured. He said 21 people were taken to a hospital in Elkins by ambulances and 45 others were transported there by bus with lesser injuries. There were no immediate details on the death and the nature of the injuries. Hospital spokeswoman Tracy Fath said at least BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian villagers described watching rebels advance on their homes, as mortars thudded around them. By the end of the August attack, 190 civilians had been killed, including children, the elderly and the handicapped, a human rights group said Friday in its most detailed account of alleged war crimes committed by those fighting the Damascus regime. Human Rights Watch said the offensive against 14 pro-regime villages in the province of Latakia was planned and led by five Islamic extremist groups, including two linked to al-Qaida. Other rebel groups, including those belonging to the Free Syrian Army, a Western-backed alliance, participated in the campaign, but there is no evidence linking them to war crimes, the 105-page report said. The new allegations are bound to heighten Western unease about those trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad and about who would take over if they were to succeed. ''It creates justifiable alarm that the opposition has been infiltrated and undermined by radicals,'' said David L. Phillips, a former U.S. State Department adviser on the Middle East. The Free Syrian Army distanced itself from the five groups identified by HRW as the main perpetrators, saying it is not cooperating with extremists. ''Anyone who commits such crimes will not belong to the revolution anymore,'' said spokesman Louay Mikdad. Remains of woman buried in front yard must be removed MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday rejected an elderly north Alabama man's appeal to keep the grave of his late wife in the front yard of the home they shared for decades. The justices, in an 8-3 decision that didn't include a written opinion, issued a brief order, agreeing with other courts in saying that Patsy Davis' body must be removed from the front yard in Stevenson where it had been since 2009. James Davis has said he buried his wife in front of their log home because it was her dying wish. Parker Edmiston, an attorney representing the city, said work to remove the grave from Davis' yard could begin as early as next week. The 74-year-old Davis said he does not have the money to pursue the case any further and does not know what will happen next. He said the city has tried to get him to remove the body on his own, but he won't do it, regardless of court rulings. ''I still ain't got no justice,'' he said.