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8A – Daily News – Friday, January 14, 2011 WORLD BRIEFING 9/11 flag raised at Ariz. victim’s funeral TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The family of the youngest victim of the mass shooting in Arizona held hands and paused in a moment of silence Thursday under the large American flag recovered from Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks, and later escorted the 9-year-old’s small brown casket into the church as little girls about her age cried. Several hundred other mourners, many in white T-shirts, lined a road near the church to show sup- port. Christina Taylor Green was born on Sept. 11, 2001, and featured in a book called ‘‘Faces of Hope’’ that chronicled one baby from each state born on the day terrorists killed nearly 3,000 peo- ple. Christina’s funeral is the first for the six victims killed when police said a gunman opened fired on a crowd at an event for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, criti- cally injuring the con- gresswoman and wound- ing 13 others. The third-grader had an interest in politics and had recently been elected to her student council. She was the only girl on her Canyon del Oro Little League baseball team and played second base, and had told her father she wanted to become the first woman to play in the major leagues. The game was in her blood. Her dad is a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers and her grandfa- ther, former big league pitcher Dallas Green, managed the 1980 world champion Philadelphia Phillies. Rep. Giffords makes ’leap forward’ in recovery TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Gabrielle Giffords has made a ‘‘major leap for- ward’’ in her recovery progress, opening both eyes and moving her legs and arms, her doctors said Thursday. The Arizona congress- woman remains in critical condition after being shot in the head Saturday. Few people who take a bullet to the brain — just 10 per- cent — survive such a devastating wound. With her closest friends from Congress holding her hand Wednes- day evening, Giffords opened her unbandaged left eye and tried to focus on loved ones for the first time. ‘‘This is a major leap forward. This is a major milestone for her and we’re hoping that she crosses through many more,’’ said her neurosur- geon Dr. Michael Lemole. Sen. Kirsten Gilli- brand, who was present for the eye opening, said: ‘‘It was raw courage. It was raw strength. It was so beautiful and so mov- ing.’’ Death toll at 381 in Brazil mudslides Barack Obama’s appeal for civility, history sug- gests any move toward cooler political rhetoric after the Arizona shoot- ings will soon fade. An early test will come Jan. 25, when some lawmak- ers are asking Democrats and Republicans to sit side by side for Obama’s State of the Union speech, rather than splitting the House chamber by party as usual. TERESOPOLIS, Brazil (AP) — The power was out, but lightning flashes illuminated the horror as villagers watched neigh- bors’ homes vanish under a wall of mud and water, turning neighborhoods into graveyards. Survivors dug at the earth barehand- ed Thursday, but all they found were bodies. It was a scene of muddy destruction in mountain towns north of Rio, where at least 381 people were killed when torrential rains unleashed mudslides in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday, burying peo- ple alive as they slept. In the remote Campo Grande neighborhood of Teresopolis, now accessi- ble only by a perilous five- mile (eight-kilometer) hike through mud-slicked jungle, family members pulled the lifeless bodies of loved ones from the muck. They carefully laid the corpses on dry ground, covering them with blan- kets. A young boy cried out as his father’s body was found: ‘‘I want to see my dad! I want to see my dad!’’ Flooding and mud- slides are common in Brazil when the summer rains come, but this week’s slides were among the worst in recent memory. The disasters unduly pun- ish the poor, who often live in rickety shacks perched perilously on steep hillsides with little or no foundations. But even the rich did not escape the damage in Teresopolis, where large homes were washed away. Will shootings inspire new civility in politics? WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite President WHY PAY EXTRA! OUR LISTINGS ARE FREE YOUR TV ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE TV LISTINGS Initial reactions to that idea on Capitol Hill were not encouraging, espe- cially from the Republi- can side. A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said House members may ‘‘sit where they choose.’’ Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had no comment on the suggestion, which was offered by Democrat- ic Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nev., signaled he might be open to the idea but wanted more discussion. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., embraced it. In a sometimes-emo- tional speech Wednesday night in Tucson, Obama implored Americans to reflect on the fatal shoot- ings at Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ out- door forum, but ‘‘not on the usual plane of politics and point-scoring and pet- tiness that drifts away with the next news cycle.’’ A lack of civility did not cause the tragedy, he said, but ‘‘only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation.’’ Should Atlanta have been better prepared for winter storm? ATLANTA (AP) — Days after a few inches of snow crippled the city, children are still home from school, icy high- ways are still littered with hundreds of abandoned cars and grocery stores are still running low on staples such as milk and juice. Life in Atlanta proba- bly won’t return to nor- mal until late Friday, when temperatures finally rise above freezing. But the city’s helplessness in the face of a relatively mild winter storm raises a question: Should one of the South’s largest popu- lation centers have been better prepared? Frustrated drivers and stranded travelers could- n’t help but lament Atlanta’s too-little, too- late response. ‘‘You’ve got the busiest airport in the world, and the snow they got we would have cleaned in a matter of Classes January 15 @ 11am Bare Root Planting & Care January 16 @ 1pm Salad Bowl Fruit Tree Prunning & Care January 23 @ 1pm Sports • Movies • Trivia Celebrity News • Games in the... Every week D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 TV Listings Red Bluff Garden Center 766 Antelope Blvd. (next to the fairgrounds) 527-0886 Free just 10- to 15-pounds. Computer ’Jeopardy!’ edges out game-show champions Y ORKT O W N HEIGHTS, N.Y. (AP) — The clue: It’s the size of 10 refrigerators, has access to the equivalent of 200 million pages of information and knows how to answer in the form of a question. The correct response: minutes,’’ said Wayne Ulery, an Ohio man who was stuck at Hartsfield- Jackson Airport for three days. ‘‘They used things that we use for our drive- ways here trying to get the airport cleaned up.’’ London and Heathrow Airport had similar prob- lems recently. Hundreds of thousands of passen- gers were stranded in the run-up to Christmas after a five-inch snowstorm canceled flights and ruined holiday plans. The airport’s embarassed owner had to launch an inquiry into why the snow halted traffic. Hutchison announces plans to retire WASHINGTON (AP) — Kay Bailey Hutchi- son, a Republican who was the first woman elected to the U.S. Sen- ate from Texas and has held the seat for nearly two decades, announced Thursday she will retire next year when her cur- rent term ends. In a letter addressed to her Texas constituents and also sent to mem- bers in the media, Hutchison said she would not seek re-elec- tion in 2012. She had previously signaled she might retire but changed her mind several times in the last few years. In 2010, she challenged Gov. Rick Perry in the GOP primary for gover- nor, but lost. In her letter, the state’s senior senator said she had intended to leave office sooner but was persuaded to stay on to ‘‘avoid disadvantage to our state.’’ ‘‘The last two years have been particularly difficult, especially for my family, but I felt it would be wrong to leave the Senate during such a critical period,’’ Hutchi- son said. ‘‘Instead of putting my seat into a special election, I felt it was my duty to use my experience to fight the massive spending that has increased our national debt; the gov- ernment takeover of the our health care system; and the growth of the federal bureaucracy, which threatens our economy.’’ Hutchison said she would ‘‘continue that fight’’ until the end of her term. She is the first senator to announce their retirement ahead of the 2012 election. Newly discovered dinosaur set the stage for giant T. rex WASHINGTON (AP) — Back at the dawn of the dinosaur era, a quick-moving predator set the stage for the famous and fearsome giants that followed in its footsteps, according to new research. ‘‘It was a little dinosaur, but it carried a big evolution- ary stick,’’ said Paul C. Sereno of the University of Chicago, a leader of the team that discovered Eodromaeus. The 4-foot-long hunter lived 230 million years ago in what is now South America and appears to be the ances- tor of such creatures as Tyrannosaurus rex. ‘‘It is stunning,’’ Sereno said of the find, reported in Friday’s edi- tion of the journal Sci- ence. Its features, such as a balancing tail and air pockets in the skull, show it was closely related to T. rex, he said. But while it stood on two feet like T. rex, Eodromaeus (pro- nounced eyo-DRO-may- us) was a lightweight at ‘‘What is the computer IBM developed to become a ‘Jeopardy!’ whiz?’’ Watson, which IBM claims as a profound advance in artificial intelligence, edged out game-show champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on Thursday in its first public test, a short practice round ahead of a million-dol- lar tournament that will be televised next month. Later, the human con- testants made jokes about the ‘‘Terminator’’ movies and robots from the future. Indeed, four questions into the round you had to wonder if the rise of the machines was already upon us — in a trivial sense at least. Watson tore through a category about female archaeologists, repeat- edly activating a mechanical button before either Ken Jen- nings or Brad Rutter could buzz in, then nail- ing the questions: ‘‘What is Jericho?’’ ‘‘What is Crete?’’ Steele’s time as RNC chairman seems closing OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele’s bid for re-elec- tion looks in serious doubt, but it’s not clear which of his rivals has a clear advantage heading into balloting. Steele sought support from his party’s member on Thursday after a gaffe-filled and costly two years. Four chal- lengers campaigned to replace him in an unpre- dictable race to lead the party into the 2012 pres- idential and congres- sional campaigns. The rivals included Wisconsin GOP chair- man Reince Priebus, former Missouri chair- woman Ann Wagner and former Michigan chair- man Saul Anuzis. For- mer Bush administra- tion official Maria Cino also is seeking the job when 168 RNC mem- bers vote on Friday. Each would face at least $15 million in RNC debt and demoral- ized donors who are frustrated with Steele’s management.