Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/19074
Thursday, November 4, 2010 – Daily News – 3B WORLD BRIEFING Republicans gain Indiana Senate seat, tea party favorites Rand Paul, Marco Rubio win, too WASHINGTON (AP) — House con- trol within reach, Republicans piled up gains Tuesday night in a drive to forge a new conservative majority midway through President Barack Obama’s term. Democrats suffered Senate losses, too, but appeared likely to retain control. ‘‘We’ve come to take our government back,’’ Sen.-elect Rand Paul told cheer- ing supporters at a victory party in Bowling Green, Ky., an early Republi- can winner on a night filled with them. A Republican majority in the House would usher in a new era of divided gov- ernment as the nation struggles to emerge from the shadow of the worst recession since the 1930s. Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas lost her seat, and House mem- bers in Florida, Indiana and Virginia were among the Republicans’ victims. First-term Rep. Tom Perriello in Virginia was a casualty despite a late-campaign appearance on his behalf by President Barack Obama. On a good night for Republicans, Paul and tea party favorite Marco Rubio in Florida coasted to easy Senate victo- ries, overcoming months of withering Democratic attacks on their conservative views. But Christine O’Donnell lost badly in Delaware. Despite the Republicans’ gains, a Senate majority seemed out of reach. But the GOP brimmed with confi- dence that it would pick up the 40 seats needed to take control of the House and install Rep. John Boehner as the new speaker. ‘‘This is going to be a big day,’’ he said as he voted near his home in West Chester, Ohio. For those who think the government is spending too much and bailing out too many, he said, ‘‘This is their opportunity to be heard.’’ Democrats conceded nothing. ‘‘Let’s go out there and continue to fight,’’ Speaker Nancy Pelosi exhorted support- ers in remarks before television cameras while the polls were still open in much of the country. Along way from 2008, an anxious, frustrated nation grumbles to the polls The millions of Americans voting in midterm elections Tuesday were not always sure what they wanted, or even whom. But many knew they were unhappy — uneasy about the economy, frustrated with the direction of the coun- try and dissatisfied with politics. On an Election Day that seemed a long way from 2008, disappointment was the theme. ‘‘I’d like to find somebody to blame,’’ said Kimberly Abrudan, a customer ser- vice manager who had voted at a Delaware charter school for Democrat Chris Coons for Senate. ‘‘It would make things a lot easier. But I’m not convinced that it’s any one man.’’ Abrudan said she voted for Barack Obama and felt let down that he had not been able to bridge the partisan divide and bring Americans together. If she could speak to the president in private, she conceded, ‘‘I might shake him around a bit.’’ The sentiment was not hard to find across the country in an election that took place against a backdrop of persis- tently high unemployment, no sign of real improvement in the economy and politics roiled by division. Vicki Goode of Boyle County, Ky., had voted for Obama as well, and said she felt disappointed by his first two years in office and by what she charac- terized as a legislative logjam in Wash- ington. ‘‘I expected more sweeping change,’’ she said after voting for Jack Conway, the Democratic candidate for Senate, over tea party-backed Republican Rand Paul. NM tribe bans twice- monthly newspaper from reservation over coverage of September killing ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The leaders of a small Indian reservation nestled in northern New Mexico’s mesas and red rocks were horrified by the seven-paragraph story recounting a gruesome murder in their community. The Jemez Thunder newspaper described how a tribal member stabbed, slashed and disemboweled another man. Already reeling from the killing, the tribe banned the paper from being sold on its land. Robert Borden, who has pub- lished the newspaper since 1995, said he was disheartened rather than angry at the response. The community ‘‘is hurt by the fact that this occurred at all,’’ he said. ‘‘I did- n’t hurt the community.’’ The tribe was well within its rights as a sovereign government to prohibit, as the governor did, the distribution of the newspaper at the tribal visitor’s center and a convenience store. ‘‘The pueblos enjoy sovereign immu- nity where free speech and the First Amendment are concerned,’’ said Peter Simonson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in New Mexico. The tribe was in the news just a week ago, when it banned trick-or-treating on Halloween. The tribe said it was not part of its traditional culture and was a safety concern because of the small communi- ty’s unlit roads. Exit poll: Economy top issue for voters, who also express deep dissatisfaction with government WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters across the nation Tuesday said they were intensely worried about the future of the economy and unhappy with the way President Barack Obama and Congress are running things. Voters in overwhelming numbers were dissatisfied with the way the feder- al government is working and majorities disapproved of both the Republican and Democratic parties, according to an Associated Press analysis of preliminary exit poll results and pre-election polls. Voters say the economy eclipses any other issue. About a third say their household suf- fered a job loss in the past two years, but that didn’t give a clear direction to their voting. They divided over which party to support in Tuesday’s House races. About four in 10 say they are worse off financially than they were two years ago. More than 80 percent said they were worried about the direction of the economy over the next year. Bombings, mortar strikes kill 76, wound 232 across section of Baghdad BAGHDAD (AP) — Rapid-fire bombings and mortar strikes killed 76 people and wounded more than 200 across Baghdad’s myriad neighborhoods Tuesday, demonstrating the insurgents’ ability to carry out coordinated strikes from one side of the capital to the other. The attack — blasts in at least 13 sep- arate neighborhoods — was clearly designed to hit civilians at restaurants and cafes where many Iraqis were gath- ered to enjoy the warm evening. The sophistication and the targets — Shiites — suggested that al-Qaida-linked Sunni militants were responsible for the dead- liest day in Iraq since May. The strikes, two days after the bloody siege of a downtown church, were stun- ning in their scope — indicating a high degree of coordination and complexity from an insurgency that just a few months ago U.S. and Iraqi officials were saying was all but defeated. ‘‘They say the situation is under the control. Where is their control?’’ said Hussein al-Saiedi, a 26-year-old resident of Baghdad’s sprawling Sadr City slum, where 21 people were killed when a parked car blew up near a market in Tuesday’s deadliest bombing. ‘‘We were just standing on the street when we heard a loud noise, and then saw smoke and pieces of cars, falling from the sky,’’ al-Saiedi said. People were fleeing the site in panic, frantically calling the names of their relatives and friends.’’ Athens hit by wave of mail bombs; one defused at German chancellor’s office ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Suspected Greek terrorists unleashed an unprece- dented two-day wave of mail bomb attacks in Athens and abroad, with one package reaching the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday. Greek militant groups are suspected of mounting the attacks targeting embassies in Athens and international organizations and foreign leaders abroad. If that is confirmed, it would mark a dramatic escalation for organiza- tions that have never before attempted to strike targets abroad. The campaign used small devices that only caused one injury and minimal damage. But it highlights the difficulty of keeping bombs out of the internation- al delivery system — also a target of Yemen-based militants armed with more powerful and potentially deadly explo- sives. Security at all embassies in Athens has been increased and authorities on Tuesday suspended all international mail deliveries from Greece for 48 hours for further checks. By Tuesday evening, at least 11 mail bombs had been detected in the Greek capital — one addressed to French Pres- ident Nicolas Sarkozy and eight to the embassies of Bulgaria, Russia, Ger- many, Switzerland, Mexico, Chile, the Netherlands and Belgium. Two more were destroyed in con- trolled explosions at Athens’ interna- tional airport — one addressed to the European Union’s highest court in Lux- embourg and the other to law enforce- ment agency Europol in the Netherlands. Easing of border blockade has devastated Gaza’s smuggling industry; many tunnels idle RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel’s easing of its Gaza blockade has accom- plished something Israeli bombing raids and an underground steel wall could not: It has devastated the Hamas-ruled territory’s once thriving smuggling industry. Now that most consumer goods can again reach Gaza through Israel — after three years of tight border closures — many of the hundreds of smuggling tun- nels that once served as the Palestinian territory’s lifeline have simply shut down. Only a few dozen are still active, compared to a total of about 400, a Hamas government official said. And an Associated Press spot check in one for- mer smuggling hot spot found only one in four tunnels working. The sharp decline is not believed to have affected a steady influx of weapons and other contraband through special Hamas-controlled tunnels, seen as cru- cial to the militants’ continued hold on power. The Iranian-backed group seized Gaza by force in June 2007. However, when it comes to consumer goods, Gaza merchants prefer to import legally through land crossings with Israel. Those shipments tend to be cheaper and more predictable than the illicit trade, which is subject to Egyptian crackdowns, Israeli attacks and treach- erous collapses. Spanish official says 10-year-old has given birth, who should raise baby? MADRID (AP) — A 10-year-old girl has given birth in southern Spain and authorities are evaluating whether to let her and her family retain cus- tody of the baby, an official said Tuesday. The baby was born last week in the city of Jerez de la Fron- tera, said Micaela Navarro, the Andalusia region’s social affairs min- ister. Navarro told reporters the father of the baby is also a minor, and both the mother and the baby were in good health. Her department declined to give details, including the sex of the baby, but said authorities do not con- sider this a case of rape and that no criminal investigation is under way. Under Spanish law, having consen- sual sex with someone under age 13 is classified as child abuse, an official with the Spanish Justice Ministry in Madrid said. But this particular case is complicated by the fact that the father of the baby is also a minor and it is not clear if he could be charged, the official said. Spanish newspapers said the moth- er is of Romanian origin. The daily Diario de Jerez reported the girl was already pregnant when she arrived in Spain, but did not say when she came to this country. It is not clear if the father is in Spain.