Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/13434
10A – Daily News – Friday, July 16, 2010 WORLD BRIEFING BP finally cuts off Gulf oil leak NEW ORLEANS (AP) — BP finally choked off the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday — 85 days and up to 184 million gallons after the crisis unfolded — then began a tense 48 hours of watching to see whether the capped- off well would hold or blow a new leak. To the relief of millions of people along the Gulf Coast, the big, billowing brown cloud of crude at the bottom of the sea disap- peared from the underwater video feed for the first time since the disaster began in April, as BP closed the last of three openings in the 75- ton cap lowered onto the well earlier this week. But the company stopped far short of declar- ing victory over the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. his- tory and one of the nation’s worst environmental disas- ters, a catastrophe that has killed wildlife and threat- ened the livelihoods of fish- ermen, restaurateurs, and oil industry workers from Texas to Florida. Now begins a waiting period during which engi- neers will monitor pressure gauges and watch for signs of leaks elsewhere in the well. The biggest risk: Pres- sure from the oil gushing out of the ground could fracture the well and make the leak even worse. ‘‘For the people living on the Gulf, I’m certainly not going to guess their emo- tions,’’ BP vice president Kent Wells said. ‘‘I hope they’re encouraged there’s no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. But we have to be careful. Depending on what the test shows us, we may need to open this well back up.’’ Congress OKs Wall Street crackdown WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress on Thursday passed the stiffest restric- tions on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression, clamping down on lending practices and expanding consumer pro- tections to prevent a repeat of the 2008 meltdown that knocked the economy to its knees. A year in the making and 22 months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers trig- gered a worldwide panic in credit and other markets, the bill cleared its final hurdle with a 60-39 Senate vote. It now goes to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature, expect- ed as early as Wednesday. The law will give the government new powers to break up companies that threaten the economy, cre- ate a new agency to guard consumers in their financial transactions and shine a light into shadow financial markets that escaped the oversight of regulators. Large, failing financial institutions would be liqui- dated and the costs assessed on their surviving peers. The Federal Reserve is get- ting new powers while falling under greater con- gressional scrutiny. From storefront payday lenders to the biggest bank- boarded 183 times. Ter- rorist suspect Abu Zubay- dah was subjected to the procedure at least 83 times. Vatican revises rules on clerical ing and investment houses on Wall Street, few players in the financial world are immune to the bill’s reach. Consumer and investor transactions, whether sim- ple debit card swipes or the most complex securities trades, face new safeguards or restrictions. Iraqis take charge of last prison in US control BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq assumed control of the last U.S.-run prison camp in the country on Thursday, a milestone that casts a spot- light on the Iraqi govern- ment’s troubled record of caring for inmates amid allegations of torture and overcrowding at Iraqi-run facilities. The change in command at Camp Cropper — which was renamed Karkh Prison — marks the end of a trou- bling chapter in the U.S. presence in the country, which was marred in the early years by photographs showing American soldiers abusing inmates at the noto- rious Abu Ghraib prison. It also raised questions about how well prepared the Iraqis are to handle the detainees. Inmates in Iraqi detention facilities have repeatedly complained about torture and beatings by the police, as well as overcrowding and poor conditions behind bars. Prisoners in U.S. custody, meanwhile, have benefited from reforms in the wake of the 2004 Abu Ghraib scan- dal. ‘‘The main problem in the Iraqi-run prisons, whether in Baghdad or other provinces, is the incompetent administra- tion,’’ said Abdul-Rahman Najim al-Mashhadani, head of the Iraqi human rights organization Hammurabi. ‘‘That leads to violations against prisoners, deliberate or not.’’ With the handover of the maximum-security prison near the Baghdad interna- tional airport, Iraq has taken control of the last of three such prisons formerly con- trolled by U.S. forces. Dur- ing a ceremony, the Ameri- cans symbolically handed over a key to the prison on the capital’s southwestern outskirts, which holds 1,500 detainees. Lawyer tells panel CIA interrogation unauthorized WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the key Bush administration lawyers in the evolution of the CIA’s interrogation program cast doubt on whether the Jus- tice Department approved some of the harsh steps the agency took to get ter- rorist suspects to talk. Former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee’s remarks were contained in a transcript sent to the special prose- cutor investigating CIA interrogations by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., who also made a copy public on Thursday. Interviewed by Judicia- ry Committee members on May 26, Bybee stressed the limits that he helped set on how far the CIA could go while at the same time acknowledging that his legal advice helped pave the way for tactics such as water- boarding, which evokes the sensation of drowning. ‘‘I do wish to repeat that we said on page 2 of the techniques memo ... that repetition will not be substantial’’ on water- boarding, Bybee remind- ed the committee in quot- ing from one of his own legal memoranda. The professed master- mind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, was water- sex abuse VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican revised its in-house rules to deal with clerical sex abuse cases Thursday, targeting priests who molest the mentally disabled as well as children and doubling the statute of limitations for such crimes. Abuse victims said the rules are little more than administrative house- keeping since they made few substantive changes to current practice, and what is needed are bold new rules to punish bish- ops who shield pedophiles. Women’s ordination groups criticized the new rules because they includ- ed the attempted ordina- tion of women as a ‘‘grave crime’’ subject to the same set of proce- dures and punishments meted out for sex abuse. The rules, which cover the canonical procedures and penalties for the most serious sacramental and moral crimes, were issued as the Vatican confronts one of the worst scandals in recent history: revela- tions of hundreds of new cases of priests who raped and sodomized children, bishops who covered up for them, and Vatican officials who stood by passively for decades. In 2003, the Vatican streamlined its 2001 pro- cedures for disciplining abusive priests, allowing them to be defrocked without a lengthy canoni- cal trial if the evidence against them was over- whelming. The rules issued Thursday codified those procedures into church law. Dr. Andrew PomazalD.O. Physician & Surgeon General Medicine Saturday Appointments Available • High Blood Pressure • Diabetes • Joint & Muscle Pain • Lung Problems We offer Osteopathic Manipulation 530 528-2066 2050 Main St, Red Bluff Accepting New Patients