Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/105587
Friday, January 25, 2013 – Daily News 7B WORLD BRIEFING Panetta: Women are now key to military success WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in lifting a ban on women serving in combat, said women have become integral to the military's success and have shown they are willing to fight and die alongside their male counterparts. ''The time has come for our policies to recognize that reality,'' Panetta said Thursday at a Pentagon news conference with Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Panetta said that not all women will be able to meet the qualifications to be a combat soldier. ''But everyone is entitled to a chance,'' he said. He said the qualifications will not be lowered, and with women playing a broader role, the military will be strengthened. Women have been flying fighter jets for years The Pentagon is knocking down old barriers to women serving in combat, but some already are in risky jobs. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's order, signed Thursday, opens 238,000 new jobs to women. A look at some of the dangerous jobs women can do now, and what will be open to them if they meet the qualifications: PILOTS. In 1991, Congress ended a ban on women flying combat air- craft, and three years later the Air Force had its first woman commanding a fighter squadron. Women may fly every aircraft in the Air Force inventory, including bombers. Just last year, Col. Jeannie Flynn Leavitt became the Air Force's first female wing commander, commanding 5,000 airmen. Women also fly combat aircraft in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. The only Air Force jobs closed to women until now were special operations roles like enlisted pararescue and combat control officer. These jobs were opened Thursday by Panetta's order. As with all combat jobs, the military chiefs have until January 2016 to seek exemptions to bar women from certain jobs. American who played role in 2008 attack on Mumbai sentenced to 35 years CHICAGO (AP) — An American drug dealer who had faced life in prison was sentenced instead to 35 years Thursday for helping plan the deadly 2008 attacks on Mumbai, India — a punishment prosecutors said reflected his broad cooperation with U.S. investigators but that a victim's family member called ''an appalling dishonor.'' It was David Coleman Headley's meticulous scouting missions that facilitated the assault by 10 gunmen from a Pakistani-based militant group on multiple targets in Mumbai, including the landmark Taj Mahal Hotel. TV cameras captured much of the three-day rampage often called India's 9/11. More than 160 people, including children, were killed. Glimpses of the horror came through the teary testimony of one of the victims who described the gory scene as she huddled under a restaurant table with her friends as gunmen sprayed the room with bullets, then walked around executing men, women and children one by one. Her own clothes soaked with blood. ''I know what a bullet can do to every part of the human body,'' said Linda Ragsdale, a Tennessee children's author, who was shot. ''I know the sound of life leaving a 13-year-old child. These are things I never needed to know, never needed to experience.'' Headley faced life in prison, and at 52 years old, even a 35-year term could mean he'll never walk free. But federal prosecutors had asked for a more lenient 30 to 35 years, citing his extraordinary cooperation including as the government's star witness at the 2011 trial of a Chicago businessman convicted in a failed attack on a Danish newspaper. nomic concerns. In elections this week, Lapid's party emerged as the second largest with 19 of 120 seats in parliament, after Netanyahu's rightwing Likud-Yisrael Beitenu bloc that won 31 seats. Netanyahu will keep his job, but will have to bring other parties into his government to win a parliamentary majority, and Lapid's faction is seen as key to any stable coalition. Netanyahu and Lapid met Thursday, two days after the election, though formal coalition negotiations will only start next week, and could take up to six weeks. Kerry spells out foreign policy Palestinian president wants to meet Israeli centrists RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian president wants to meet with newly elected Israeli parliament members to lay out his views on peace, hoping a political surge of centrists will provide an opening to resume long-stalled negotiations on a Palestinian state, a senior aide said Thursday. President Mahmoud Abbas' main target appears to be Yair Lapid, leader of the moderate Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party, who is expected to be influential in setting the priorities of the next government. Lapid has said he wants Israel to make a serious push for peace, though it is unclear how far he will press the issue in coalition negotiations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In recent public appearances, he has barely breached the issue, focusing instead on domestic eco- WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John Kerry, President Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of state, collected pledges of support Thursday and testified at his confirmation hearing that U.S. foreign policy should be defined by a helping hand as well as military strength. The Massachusetts Democrat discussed Iran, Syria, climate change and a variety of issues with members of the Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing that recalled an unusual American life — son of a diplomat, enlisted Navy man in Vietnam, anti-war protester, five-term senator and Obama's unofficial envoy. The nearly four-hour hearing also provided an odd juxtaposition as Kerry, a member of the panel for 28 years and its chairman for the last four, sat alone in the witness chair. At one point, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the incoming chairman who presided, mistakenly referred to Kerry as ''Mr. Secretary.''