Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/12244
10A – Daily News – Saturday, June 19, 2010 WORLD BRIEFING Oil leak footage could be symbol of problems facing Obama WASHINGTON (AP) — Will the Gulf oil leak cam engulf President Barack Obama? It’s nearly impossible to avoid the live video of the coal-gray oil gushing from BP’s well a mile below the Gulf of Mexico’s sur- face. According to an Associated Press-GfK Poll this week, 88 percent of the public has viewed it — a picture so sharp that it’s tantalizingly easy to wonder why someone doesn’t just stuff a rag into the ruptured pipe. The video is a daily reminder that two months after the oil rig explosion that killed 11 and caused the massive leak and resulting environmental and eco- nomic damage, BP still hasn’t plugged the well. The AP-GfK Poll shows that so far people are more upset with BP than Obama: 83 percent disapprove of how the British-based oil company is handling the disaster, compared with 52 percent unhappy with the president. It was the White House and Democratic lawmakers who originally pressed BP to make the videos available. Yet if the crude continues to flow, the images could morph into a vivid symbol of the intractable prob- lems Obama has yet to solve to the satisfaction of a demanding public — not just the Gulf’s environmental disaster, but the limp economy and feeble job market, too. ‘‘Certainly what they want is for us to focus on what they’ve done right,’’ Paul Freedman, who teaches about public opinion, media and politics at the Univer- sity of Virginia, said of the White House. ‘‘And to the extent that that’s still a problem, I’m not sure it helps them,’’ he said of the video. Democrats and environmental advocates say the relentless pic- tures are helpful politically because they highlight a problem that people know was caused by by rampaging mobs of ethnic Kyrgyz who forced nearly half of the region’s roughly 800,000 Uzbeks to flee for their lives. The U.N. says as many as 1 million people will need aid, and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued an appeal Friday for $71 million. ‘‘There are shortages of food, water and electricity in the affected areas, due to looting, lack of supply, and restrictions on movement,’’ he said. ‘‘Hospi- tals and other institutions are running low on medical sup- plies.’’ Last batch of Kagan files set to an oil company, not the presi- dent. They also hope the images — plus pictures of oil-covered birds and beaches — will win greater public acceptance of cleaner energy sources. Obama called for such a transition in an Oval Office speech Tuesday. Son kills father who translated for US troops BAGHDAD (AP) — An al- Qaida-linked insurgent shot and killed his own father as he slept in his bed Friday for refusing to quit his job as an Iraqi interpreter for the U.S. military, police said, a rare deadly attack on a close family member over allegations of collaborating with the enemy. The attack happened on a par- ticularly bloody day in Iraq, with at least 27 people killed nation- wide in bombings and ambushes largely targeting the houses of government officials, Iraqi secu- rity forces and those seen as allied with them. Hameed al-Daraji, 50, worked as a contractor and translator for the U.S. military for seven years since shortly after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. He was shot in the chest about 3 a.m. while sleeping in his house in Samarra, a former insurgent stronghold 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Bagh- dad, police Lt. Emad Muhsin said. Senate bill to spare doctors doesn’t pass WASHINGTON (AP) — After a week of partisan wran- gling, the Senate on Friday passed legislation to spare doc- tors a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments looming for months. But the last-ditch effort came too late. Moments after the Senate acted, Medicare announced it would begin processing claims it has already received for June at the lower rate. The reason: the House cannot act on the fix until next week. That means doctors, nurse practitioners, physical therapists and other providers who bill under Medicare’s physician fee schedule will have to resubmit their claims if they want to be made whole, with added paper- work costs both for the providers and for taxpayers. ‘‘Congress is playing Russian roulette with seniors’ health care,’’ Dr. Cecil B. Wilson, pres- ident of the American Medical Association, said in a statement. ‘‘This is no way to run a major health coverage program.’’ AARP, the seniors’ lobby, home-delivered subscription to Convert your Daily News called the cut ‘‘unprecedented’’ and ‘‘dangerous’’ even if it’s only temporary. Nancy Lea- Mond, the group’s executive vice president, warned it would undermine confidence in the sta- bility of the giant health care pro- gram for 46 million elderly and disabled people. Ethnic Uzbeks in squalid tent camps fear returning home VLKSM, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — Ethnic Uzbeks sheltering in squalid tent camps say they don’t have enough food or clean water but are terrified of going back to live alongside those they hold responsible for days of shoot- ings, arson and sexual assaults. That air of suspicion was rife Friday among the hundreds of refugees crowded into gray can- vas tents on a patch of arid scrub in this Kyrgyz village near the border with Uzbekistan. ‘‘Where can we go now? Our belief in the future is dead,’’ said Mamlyakat Akramova, who lived in the center of Osh, Kyr- gyzstan’s second-largest city and the epicenter of the violence that broke out last week. Entire Uzbek neighborhoods of southern Kyrgyzstan have been reduced to scorched ruins be released WASHINGTON (AP) — Ever wish you could comb through a public figure’s e-mail? Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s e-mails are about to go public as part of the Senate Judi- ciary Committee’s preparations for her confirmation hearings in a little more than a week. The William J. Clinton Presi- dential Library in Little Rock, Ark., is set Friday to release approximately 80,000 pages of e-mails — about 11,000 of them written by Kagan. It’s the final installment of documents related to her service as a domestic poli- cy aide and White House counsel to former President Bill Clinton. It’s the third week in a row the files will be made public on a Friday afternoon — the custom- ary time in official Washington for dribbling out unfavorable information or disclosures one hopes won’t draw too much attention. Another roughly 80,000 pages of paper files already have been released, revealing Kagan’s role in managing the scandals of the Clinton administration, her pragmatic streak dealing with complex issues such as tobacco regulation and her political instincts weighing in on issues such as abortion, gun control and drug sentencing. PAY No more checks to write, stamps to buy, trips to the Daily News office to pay your paper bill, or big payments in advance to get a lower rate Now you can …. SAVE over 17% compared to the regular subscription price! with a painless charge every 13 weeks to your Visa or Mastercard. 13 weeks Home Delivery – only $ Other time increments available also at discounted rates. 530 527-2151 Or use our new online Subscription Concierge service: www.redbluffdailynews.com Click on Subscription Services, upper right on the home page. 24! For more information or to convert or extend your subscription, call