Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/145179
Saturday, July 20, 2013 – Daily News 7A WORLD BRIEFING 4 men found captive in Houston garage HOUSTON (AP) — Four men found living in ''deplorable conditions'' in a Houston garage on Friday told police that they were being held captive after being lured by promises of food and cigarettes so that their captor could cash their public-assistance checks, authorities said. Three of the men were malnourished and taken to a hospital after being discovered by officers responding to a 911 call about the home, Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said. Sgt. Steven Murdock described the living conditions as like a ''dungeon.'' Investigators were still trying to determine how long the men lived there, but they said it may have been weeks. Silva said the men told investigators they were forced to live in the garage — which included just one chair, no bed and a possibly malfunctioning air conditioner — so their captor could cash their assistance checks. She said the men were ''given scraps to eat.'' ''They clearly stated to us they were being kept against their will,'' Silva said. No more 'No Child' education bill? WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans voted Friday to dismantle the troubled No Child Left Behind law for evaluating America's students and schools, saying states and local school districts rather than Washington should be setting rules for ensuring that kids are getting good educations. The legislation would eliminate federally required testing of students, which has been controversial from the start. But the measure passed with no Democratic support and drew a veto threat from the Obama administration, which said it would be a ''step backward'' in efforts to better prepare children for colleges and careers and to bring improvements to low-performing schools. Democrats in the Senate, where they hold the majority, are working on their own bill. It would also give states greater flexi- bility in designing school improvement standards. But it would maintain the authority of the federal education secretary to approve those plans. A Senate vote on that legislation is unlikely until autumn. The House bill, which Republicans named the Student Success Act and Democrats dubbed the Letting Students Down Act, passed 221-207, with every Democrat, and 12 Republicans voting against it. That partisanship comes against a background in which nearly everyone agrees that No Child Left Behind, while achieving some successes in improving achievement levels, is too inflexible and needs a major overhaul. Norwegian woman wages public fight against Dubai jail DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Norwegian woman sentenced to 16 months in jail in Dubai for having sex outside marriage after she reported an alleged rape said Friday she decided to speak out in hopes of drawing attention to the risks of outsiders misunderstanding the Islamic-influenced legal codes in this cosmopolitan city. The case has drawn outrage from rights groups and others in the West since the 24-year-old interior designer was sentenced Wednesday. It also highlights the increasingly frequent tensions between the United Arab Emirates' international atmosphere and its legal system, which is strongly influenced by Islamic traditions in a nation where foreign workers and visitors greatly outnumber locals. ''I have to spread the word. ... After my sentence we thought, 'How can it get worse?''' Marte Deborah Dalelv told The Associated Press in an interview at a Norwegian aid compound in Dubai where she is preparing her appeal scheduled for early September. Dalelv, who worked for an interior design firm in Qatar since 2011, claims she was sexually assaulted by a co-worker in March while she was attending a business meeting in Dubai. Almost 20% of Daily News online page views Are NOT made on desktop computers or laptops! Reaching The Daily News online via smartphones or tablets is the fastest growing kind of access to the most-viewed local website in Tehama County, redluffdailynews.com. Targeted advertising to Mobile Device users is the next big thing in digital advertising. All of our website's sections and features are accessible on mobile devices, from police reports to obituaries, shopping to opinion to weather. And in a special format offering easy reading on smaller screens. redbluffdailynews.com enjoyed 288,530 total page views in June. 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