Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/101542
Thursday, January 3, 2013 ��� Daily News 5A WORLD BRIEFING Rep. King says Speaker Boehner promises votes on Superstorm Sandy aid WASHINGTON (AP) ��� A New York lawmaker says House Speaker John Boehner has promised votes to aid victims of Superstorm Sandy by Jan. 15. Republican Rep. Peter King says the speaker will schedule a vote Friday for $9 billion in flood insurance and another on Jan. 15 for a remaining $51 billion in the package. The votes will be taken by the new Congress that will be sworn in Thursday. Boehner���s decision to cancel an expected vote Tuesday night had outraged lawmakers from New York, New Jersey and elsewhere, including many in his own party. King said Boehner made the promise in a private meeting with lawmakers from affected states. King and others said they were now satisfied that the aid will be forthcoming. UN says more than 60,000 dead in Syrian civil war BEIRUT (AP) ��� The United Nations gave a grim new count Wednesday of the human cost of Syria���s civil war, saying the death toll has exceeded 60,000 in 21 months ��� far higher than recent estimates by anti-regime activists. The day���s events illustrated the escalating violence that has made recent months the deadliest of the conflict: As rebels pressed a strategy of attacking airports and pushing the fight closer to President Bashar Assad���s stronghold in Damascus, the government responded with deadly airstrikes on restive areas around the capital. A missile from a fighter jet hit a gas station in the suburb of Mleiha, killing or wounding dozens of people who were trapped in burning piles of debris, activists said. Gruesome online video showed incinerated victims ��� one still sitting astride a motorcycle ��� or bodies torn apart. ������He���s burning! The guy is burning!������ an offcamera voice screamed in one video over a flaming corpse. Hillary Clinton speaking to staff, reviewing papers WASHINGTON (AP) ��� Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been speaking with staff and reviewing paperwork from the New York hospital where she is recovering from a blood clot in her head, the State KWIK KUTS Family Hair Salon 20 % off ANY RETAIL PRODUCT with any chemical service of $50 or more 2 Regular $ Haircut 00 off Reg. $13.95 Not good with other offers Expires 12/31/12 With coupon 1064 South Main St., Red Bluff ��� 529-3540 New school for Sandy Hook survivors renamed for old school Department said Wednesday. Doctors continue to monitor Clinton���s progress and her response to blood thinners intended to dissolve the clot. Aides said there was no update Wednesday on her condition, but emphasized that the secretary remained engaged with staff in Washington who are handling U.S. foreign policy in her absence. ������She���s been quite active on the phone with all of us,������ said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. Clinton was admitted Sunday to New YorkPresbyterian Hospital for treatment of a clot stemming from a concussion she suffered earlier in December. While at home battling a stomach virus, Clinton had fainted, fallen and struck her head, a spokesman said. Clinton, 65, hasn���t been seen publicly since Dec. 7. Doctors found the clot, located in a vein that runs through the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear, during a follow-up exam and began administering blood thinners. Her physicians said Monday that there was no neurological damage and that they expect she will make a full recovery. Pa. governor sues NCAA in bid to block Penn State sanctions STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ��� In a bold challenge to the NCAA���s powers, Pennsylvania���s governor claimed in a lawsuit Wednesday that college sports��� governing body overstepped its authority and ������piled on������ when it penalized Penn State over the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal. Gov. Tom Corbett asked that a federal judge throw out the sanctions, which include an unprecedented $60 million fine and a four-year ban on bowl games, arguing that the measures have harmed students, business owners and others who had nothing to do with Sandusky���s crimes. A small number of top NCAA officials inserted themselves ������into an issue they had no authority to police under their own bylaws and one that was clearly being handled by the justice system,������ Corbett said at a news conference. The case, filed under federal antitrust law, could define just how far the NCAA���s authority extends. Up to now, the federal courts have allowed the organization broad powers to protect the integrity of college athletics. In a statement, the NCAA said the lawsuit has no merit and called it an ������affront������ to Sandusky���s victims. Egypt panel on protest deaths adds pressure for new trial of Mubarak CAIRO (AP) ��� An Egyptian fact-finding mission determined that Hosni Mubarak watched the uprising against him unfold through a live TV feed at his palace, despite his later denial that he knew the extent of the protests and crackdown against them, a member of the mission said Wednesday. The mission���s findings increase pressure for a retrial of the 84year old ousted president, who is already serving a life sentence for the deaths of 900 protesters. But its report could hold both political gains and dangers for his successor, Mohammed Morsi. A new prosecution of Mubarak would be popular, since many Egyptians were angered that he was convicted only for failing to stop the killing of protesters, rather than for ordering the crackdown. But the report also implicates the military and security officials in protester deaths. Any move to prosecute them could spark a backlash from powerful generals and others who still hold positions under Morsi���s government. Rights activists said they would watch carefully how aggressively Morsi pursues the evidence, detailed by a fact-finding mission he commissioned. ������This report should be part of the democratic transformation of Egypt and restructuring of security agencies,������ Ahmed Ragheb, a member of the commission and a rights lawyer, told The Associated Press. ������At the end of the day, there will be no national reconciliation without revealing the truth, and ensuring accountability.������ MONROE, Conn. (AP) ��� The children who escaped last month���s shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown will be returning to classes in a neighboring town in a refurbished school now named after their old one, school officials said Wednesday. Newtown Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson announced that the students��� new school, the former Chalk Hill Middle School in Monroe, has been renamed Sandy Hook Elementary School. She said the Sandy Hook staff made that decision. ������That���s who they are. They���re the Sandy Hook family,������ Robinson said after a news conference at a park in Monroe a few miles from the school, which will open for classes Thursday morning. An open house was held for parents and students on Wednesday. Robinson added that renaming the Chalk Hill school will allow staff and students to keep ������their identity and a comfort level.������ The school where the shootings occurred remains closed and guarded by police. Newtown officials haven���t decided yet on the building���s future. Relatives of 9 killed in movie theater reject ���disgusting��� invitation to reopening DENVER (AP) ��� Relatives of the majority of people killed in a Colorado movie theater rejected an invitation on Wednesday to attend its reopening this month, calling it a ������disgusting offer������ that came at a terrible time ��� right after the first Christmas without their loved ones. The parents, grandparents, cousins and widow of nine of the 12 people killed said they were asked to attend an ������evening of remembrance������ followed by a movie when the Aurora theater reopens on Jan. 17. They released a letter sent to the theater���s owner, Cinemark, in which they criticized the Plano, Texas-based company for not previously reaching out to them to offer condolences and refusing to meet with them without lawyers. ������Our family members will never be on this earth with us again and a movie ticket and some token words from people who didn���t care enough to reach out to us, nor respond when we reached out to them to talk, is appalling,������ the letter said. Cinemark had no immediate comment. The company announced last month that it would reopen the theater on Jan. 17 and invite people affected by the attack and other guests, a move that Aurora officials said has strong support in the community. Gov. John Hickenlooper plans to attend. ���Tennessee Waltz��� singer Patti Page dies at 85 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ��� Unforgettable songs like ������Tennessee Waltz������ and ������(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window������ made Patti Page the best-selling female singer of the 1950s and a star who would spend much of the rest of her life traveling the world. When unspecified health problems finally stopped her decades of touring, though, Page wrote a sad-but-resolute letter to her fans late last year about the change. ������Although I feel I still have the voice God gave me, physical impairments are preventing me from using that voice as I had for so many years,������ Page wrote. ������It is only He who knows what the future holds.������ Page died on New Year���s Day in Encinitas, Calif., according to publicist Schatzi Hageman, ending one of pop music���s most diverse careers. She was 85 and just five weeks away from being honored at the Grammy Awards with a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy. Page achieved several career milestones in American pop culture, but she���ll be remembered for indelible hits that crossed the artificial categorizations of music and remained atop the charts for months to reach a truly national audience. Twin mothers in Ohio give birth the same day AKRON, Ohio (AP) ��� Aiden and Donavyn didn���t wait until New Year���s Day to come screaming into the world, but the circumstances of their births are still pretty special: The babies were born about two hours apart to Ohio mothers who are identical twins. The Akron Beacon Journal reports that the 19-year-old mothers ��� Aimee and Ashlee Nelson ��� weren���t raised to do things alike and did not plan the births to come at the same time. In fact, their due dates were about a week apart. Aimee���s son, Donavyn Scott Bratten, was born just after noon on the last day of 2012. Ashlee���s son, Aiden Lee Alan Dilts, made his appearance at about 2 p.m. They were delivered by the same doctor at Summa Akron City Hospital. Mom: Boy didn���t steal plane in crash JASPER, Ala. (AP) ��� A teen pilot killed along with two friends in an Alabama plane crash had his own key to the aircraft and had flown it many times, his mother said Wednesday, denying authorities��� assertion that the plane had been taken without permission. Sherrie Smith said her 17-year-old son Jordan Smith was the one flying the plane that went down in the Alabama woods Tuesday night. The Federal Aviation Administration said the Piper PA 30 crashed less than a mile from the Walker County Airport in Jasper, which is northwest of Birmingham. Smith says the owner of the plane had let her son fly it many other times and had given him his own key. Her son was a high school junior who fell in love with flying at an early age and was one test short of earning his private pilot���s license. ������He had used the plane many times before,������ she said. Her son had left the house around 6 p.m. to meet some friends at another airport in the area, and she said she last spoke to him by cell phone about four hours later. One of her son���s friends called later about reports of a plane crash, and she tried to reach Jordan again but couldn���t. Walker County sheriff���s Chief Deputy James Painter said earlier Wednesday that authorities believed the three teenagers took off in the plane without permission. ������We don���t know for sure but we think it was some teenagers who stole the plane and were sort of joyriding it,������ Painter told The Associated Press. A call to the National Transportation Safety Board was not immediately returned Wednesday. Ivory Coast stampede survivors blame barricades ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) ��� Survivors of a stampede in Ivory Coast that killed 61 people, most of them children and teenagers, after a New Year���s Eve fireworks display said Wednesday that makeshift barricades stopped them from moving along a main boulevard, causing the crush of people. Ivory Coast police said unknown people put tree trunks across the Boulevard de la Republique where the trampling took place. ������For security, because there were so many important people at the event, we closed certain main streets,������ said a police officer who was overheard briefing Ivory Coast President Alassane Outtara on the incident. The police officer said the tree trunks were put out unofficially by people who are not known. ������After the fireworks we reopened the other streets, but we had not yet removed the tree trunks from the Boulevard de la Republique, in front of the Hotel Tiana near the National Assembly (parliament) building,������ she said. ������That is where the stampede happened when people flooded in from the other streets.������ Ouattara ordered three days of national mourning and launched an investigation into the causes of the tragedy. Albertson Training Center - KIDS SPECIAL Babysitting Classes Ages: 8 to 12 welcome Call to register 530-527-4997 margescpr@juno.com 80 Gurnsey Ave. - Red Bluff, CA 96080 (Behind Guy Rents) LIC# OH89548 HOURS: Mon-Fri 9am-5:30pm Working for our neighbors and yours! 1115 MAIN ST. RED BLUFF FAST FREE 530-527-5158 PHONE Evening Appts. TEHAMAINSURANCEBROKERS.COM QUOTES Available SAT-SUN 10-2