Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/15381
6B – Daily News – Thursday, August 26, 2010 WORLD BRIEFING Man held in stabbing of cab driver after asking whether he’s Muslim NEW YORK (AP) — A col- lege student who did volunteer work in Afghanistan was charged Wednesday with using a folding tool to slash the neck and face of a New York City taxi driver after the driver said he is Muslim. A criminal complaint alleged that Michael Enright uttered an Arabic greeting and told the vic- tim, ‘‘Consider this a checkpoint,’’ before the brutal bias attack occurred Tuesday night inside the yellow cab on Manhattan’s East Side. Police say Enright was drunk at the time. A judge ordered Enright, 21, held without bail on charges of attempted murder and assault as a hate crime and weapon posses- sion. The handcuffed defendant, wearing a polo shirt and cargo shorts, did not enter a plea during the brief court appearance. In addition to a serious neck wound, Ahmed H. Sharif suffered cuts to forearms, face and one hand while trying to fend off Enright, prosecutor James Zeleta said while arguing against bail. More bad news for the economy has people talking recession WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s starting to feel like another reces- sion. Businesses are ordering fewer goods. Home sales are the slowest in decades. Jobs are scarce, and unemployment claims are rising. Perhaps most worrisome, manu- facturing activity, which had been one of the economy’s few bright spots, is faltering. ‘‘The odds of a double-dip are rising and uncomfortably high,’’ said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, referring to country. In Florida, political new- comer Rick Scott beat longtime congressman and state Attorney General Bill McCollum for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. And in Alaska, tea party activists and Sarah Palin pushed Sen. Lisa Murkowski to the brink of defeat, depending on absentee ballot counts in her race against outsider Joe Miller. the possibility that the nation will tip back into recession. ‘‘Nothing else can go wrong. There is no cushion left.’’ On Wednesday, the govern- ment offered the latest dose of grim news about the economic recovery: Companies cut back last month on their investments in equipment and machines. And Americans bought new homes at the weakest pace in nearly half a century. Earlier this week came news that sales of previously occupied homes fell last month to the low- est level in 15 years. Migrants found dead may have been killed by drug gang MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican drug cartel massacred 72 Central and South American migrants within 100 miles of the U.S. border that they were trying to reach, according to an Ecuadorean survivor who escaped and stumbled wounded to a high- way checkpoint where he alerted marines, official said Wednesday. The marines fought the cartel gunmen at a ranch in the northern state of Tamaulipas on Tuesday, a battle that left one marine and three suspects dead. They found the bodies of 58 men and 14 women in a room, some piled on top of each other. The Ecuadorean migrant told investigators that his captors iden- tified themselves as members of the Zetas drug gang, said Vice Adm. Jose Luis Vergara, a spokesman for the Mexican Navy. Authorities believe the migrants were from Honduras, El Salvador, Brazil and Ecuador. It is the biggest massacre to date in Mexico’s drug war and the most horrifying example yet of the dangers faced by immigrants try- ing to get to the U.S. ‘‘It’s absolutely terrible and it demands the condemnation of all of our society,’’ said Alejandro Poire, the government’s security spokesman. Outsider Republicans keep winning WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican civil war is raging, with righter-than-thou conserva- tives dominating ever more pri- maries in a fight for the party’s soul. And the Democrats hope to benefit. The latest examples of conser- vative insurgents’ clout came Tuesday at opposite ends of the The GOP is likely to survive its bitter intraparty battles in such states as Alaska and Utah, even if voters oust veteran senators in both. But tea party-backed candi- dates might be a godsend to des- perate Democrats elsewhere — in Nevada, Florida and perhaps Ken- tucky, where the Democrats por- tray GOP nominees as too extreme for their states. If Murkowski joins Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, as a victim of party activists who demand ideo- logical purity, other Republicans are still likely to win in November, though Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would have to deal with more maverick mem- bers who are loathe to compro- mise. And the conservative insur- gency is hardly all-powerful, as Sen. John McCain proved by eas- ily winning renomination in Ari- zona despite a challenge from the right by J.D. Hayworth. The Republican Party’s chief danger lies in battleground states such as Florida and Nevada, where great opportunities might slip away. President Barack Obama and his Democrats see a silver lining amid political trou- bles driven by high unemploy- ment and a stubbornly slow eco- nomic recovery. Attacks on Iraqi police kill 56 BAGHDAD (AP) — Bombers and gunmen killed at least 56 Iraqis in more than two dozen attacks across the country Wednesday, mostly targeting security forces and rekindling memories of the days when insur- gents ruled the streets. The attacks made August the deadliest month for Iraqi police- men and soldiers in two years, and came a day after the U.S. declared the number of U.S. troops had fall- en to fewer than 50,000, their low- est level since the war began in 2003. Powerful blasts targeting secu- rity forces struck where they are supposed to be the safest, turning police stations into rubble and bringing down concrete walls erected to protect them from insurgents. ‘‘Where is the protection, where are the security troops?’’ said Abu Mohammed, an eyewit- ness to a car bombing near Bagh- dad’s Adan Square that killed two passers-by. ‘‘What is going on in the country?’’ Iraq’s foreign minister said insurgents are attempting to sow as much chaos as possible, as law- makers struggle to form a new government and Americans with- draw troops. Eggs from Iowa could come to table near you Millions of eggs from the Iowa farms at the heart of a massive salmonella recall are not destined for the garbage but for a table near you. The recalled eggs that were already shipped to grocery stores and restaurants are being dumped by the truckload. But the eggs still being laid by potentially infected chickens will be pasteurized to kill any bacteria. Then they can be sold as liquid eggs or put in other products such as mayonnaise or ice cream. It’s a common if little-known practice in the food industry — salvaging and selling products that may have been tainted with disease. After pasteurization, the bac- teria ‘‘are all going to be dead, and if they’re dead, they’re not going to hurt anybody,’’ said University of Illinois food sci- ence professor Bruce Chassy. Officials from the two farms that have recalled more than a half-billion eggs said Wednes- day there’s no reason not to use the eggs while federal officials investigate the outbreak.