Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/10521
Saturday, May 15, 2010 – Daily News – 5B WORLD BRIEFING Obama pledges to end ’cozy’ ties between oil, regulators WASHINGTON (AP) — Declaring himself as angry as the rest of the nation, President Barack Obama assailed oil drillers and his own administra- tion Friday as he ordered extra scrutiny of drilling permits to head off any repeat of the sick- ening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Engineers worked des- perately to stop the leak that’s belching out at least 210,000 gallons of crude a day. As Louisiana wildlife offi- cials reported huge tar balls lit- tering a beach, BP PLC techni- cians labored to accomplish an engineering feat a mile below the water surface. They were gingerly moving joysticks to guide deep-sea robots and thread a mile-long, 6-inch tube with a rubber stopper into the 21-inch pipe gushing oil from the ocean floor — a task one expert compared to stuffing a cork with a straw through it into a gushing soda bottle. It’s the latest scheme to stop the flow after all others have failed, more than three weeks since the oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers and set off the disastrous leak. Obama, whose comments until now have been measured, heatedly condemned a ‘‘ridicu- lous spectacle’’ of oil execu- tives shifting blame in congres- sional hearings and denounced a ‘‘cozy relationship’’ between their companies and the federal government. ‘‘I will not tolerate more fin- gerpointing or irresponsibility,’’ Obama said in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by mem- bers of his Cabinet. Space shuttle Atlantis soars on final voyage CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Space shuttle Atlantis thundered away on its final voy- age to orbit Friday, hoisting an experienced crew of six and a full shipment of space station gear. Atlantis sped through a per- fectly clear afternoon sky, blaz- ing a trail over the Atlantic before huge crowds eager to catch one of the few remaining shuttle launches. More than 40,000 guests — the biggest launch-day crowd in years — packed the Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle’s destination is the International Space Station, which was soaring over the South Pacific at the time of liftoff. The shuttle should catch up with the orbiting complex and its six residents Sunday morning. A piece of orbiting junk, however, was threatening to come too close to the space sta- tion. If necessary, Mission Con- trol will order up a maneuver so the station can dodge the debris the night before Atlantis’ arrival. The docking will not be delayed, even if the station has to move out of the way of the unidentified piece, NASA offi- cials said. ‘‘Good luck, godspeed and have a little fun up there,’’ launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts just before liftoff. He said he was speaking on behalf of all those who have worked on Atlantis since con- struction began in 1980. Relatives break news to surviving boy TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Relatives broke the news to a Dutch boy who is the sole sur- vivor of a plane crash in Libya that his parents and brother died in the disaster, as author- ities said the 9-year-old would return home on Saturday. Rescuers found Ruben van Assouw still strapped in his seat and breathing in an area of desert sand strewn with the plane’s debris. His father, mother and 11-year-old broth- er are believed to have been among the 103 people on board who were killed Wednesday when their flight from South Africa crashed short of the runway in Tripoli. Since then, he has been undergoing treatment at a Tripoli hospital, with an aunt and uncle who rushed in from Amsterdam at his bedside. On Friday, his aunt and uncle released a statement saying they had told the boy of the deaths of his parents, Trudy and Patrick van Assouw, and his brother, Enzo. ‘‘Under the circumstances Ruben is doing well. He sleeps a lot. Now and then he is awake and then he is alert,’’ they said in the statement. Criminal probe into W.Va. mine WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Friday they are investigating whether there was ‘‘willful criminal activity’’ by the company that operates the West Virginia mine where 29 workers died in an accident last month. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of West Virginia said in a letter that investigators are looking into actions by the mine’s operator, Performance Coal, and its directors, officers and agents. The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, asks the Labor Department to hold off pursuing dozens of civil cases against Performance for alleged mine safety violations. Performance is a subsidiary of Massey Energy Co., which owns the Upper Big Branch mine. Last month, federal law enforcement officials said the FBI had interviewed nearly two dozen current and former employees of Massey in the probe. But the Justice Depart- ment declined to publicly con- firm there was a criminal inves- tigation. Palin: Obama would ban guns if he could CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin warned NRA members Friday that President Barack Obama wants to gut the Second Amend- ment and told a separate gather- ing that ‘‘mama grizzlies’’ will help Republicans win this November, sweeping away the Democratic agenda. Palin, a potential 2012 presi- dential candidate, told National Rifle Association members dur- ing their annual meeting that the only thing stopping Obama and his Democratic allies from try- ing to ban guns is political back- lash. ‘‘Don’t doubt for a minute that, if they thought they could get away with it, they would ban guns and ban ammunition and gut the Second Amendment,’’ said Palin, a lifelong NRA member who once had a baby shower at a local gun range in Alaska. ‘‘It’s the job of all of us at the NRA and its allies to stop them in their tracks.’’ Palin, the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential nominee, also praised tea party activism as a ‘‘beautiful movement,’’ drawing a rousing applause from thou- sands of NRA members who gathered in an arena used by the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats. During an event earlier Fri- day in Washington sponsored by an anti-abortion group, she chal- lenged Republican women to help the GOP ‘‘take this country back’’ and elect anti-abortion lawmakers. She praised female leaders of the tea party move- ment and invoked the 2008 acceptance speech where she compared herself to a pit bull. Jobs involved in investigation over lost iPhone SAN FRANCISCO(AP) — Brian Hogan’s world closed in fast almost as soon as he sold the next-generation iPhone he found in a Silicon Valley bar to a popular technology Web site for a stack of $100 bills, accord- ing to court documents released Friday. By April 19, Hogan’s room- mate was cooperating with investigators, Apple’s top lawyers were meeting with police to press for criminal charges and Steve Jobs himself was personally demanding the iPhone’s return. The saga began March 25, when Apple engineer Robert ‘‘Gray’’ Powell left the iPhone prototype in the bar area of Red- wood City’s Gourmet Haus Staud restaurant, according to a sworn statement by San Mateo Sheriff’s Detective Matthew Broad that was unsealed Friday. Broad’s 10-page statement was used to obtain a search war- rant for the home and car of Jason Chen, an editor with the technology website Gizmodo. It said Gizmodo paid Hogan $5,000 for the device, cracked it opened and posted images of it on April 20 despite a phone call from Jobs the day before demanding website editors return the gadget. Gizmodo promised Hogan an additional $3,500 bonus if Apple formally unveiled the device by July, according to Broad. LAprosecutor meets with Polanski actress LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County prosecu- tors have met with a British actress who claims she was sex- ually abused by director Roman Polanski in his Paris apartment when she was 16 — years before she appeared in one of his movies. Charlotte Lewis, 42, said Fri- day that the filmmaker abused her ‘‘in the worst possible way’’ in the 1980s. Lewis provided no evidence to support her claims, and her attorney, Gloria Allred, did not permit her to answer questions during a news conference in her office. However, Allred said the woman provided evidence to a police detective and officials from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. She refused to provide specifics and also refused to answer ques- tions about whether her client’s allegations involved drugs or rape. ‘‘Our detectives did conduct the interview but the depart- ment has not begun an investi- gation,’’ said police spokesman Richard French. He did not know when the interview was conducted. Official placed on leave after student talent show striptease PARAMOUNT (AP) — The assistant principal at a Califor- nia high school has been placed on leave after a campus talent show where male students pranced seductively in under- wear and Speedos. The Paramount Unified School District began an inves- tigation after video of the stu- dent performances showed up on YouTube and local television news reports. One performer, Christian Dominguez, says he simply wanted to ‘‘pump up’’ the class at Paramount High School. But some parents com- plained. Superintendent David Ver- dugo says the performance was inappropriate and the assistant principal who was present has been placed on administrative leave while the district investi- gates who arranged and man- aged the acts. No students have been disci- plined. Bret Michaels announces return to stage NEW YORK (AP) — Bret Michaels is set to return to the stage a little more than a month after suffering a brain hemor- rhage. His representative announced Friday that the rock- er and reality star would per- form at the Hard Rock Live in Biloxi, Miss., on May 28. Michaels has been sidelined since April. On April 12, he had an emergency appendectomy. 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