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Friday, April 8, 2011 – Daily News – 7A WORLD BRIEFING Negotiations at White House but no deal so far WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and congressional leaders bargained and blustered by turns Thurs- day, still short of an agreement to cut federal spending and head off a midnight-Friday govern- ment shutdown that no one claimed to want. Obama met with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., at the White House at mid-day, and the three agreed to reconvene after dinner. In the interim, they dis- patched aides to pursue a deal in negotiations in the Capitol. Meanwhile, Republi- cans passed legislation through the House to fund the Pentagon for six months, cut $12 billion in domestic spending and keep the federal bureau- cracy humming for an additional week. Obama threatened to veto the bill even before it passed on a 247-181, mostly party-line vote. The administration issued a statement calling it ‘‘a distraction from the real work’’ of agreeing on leg- islation to cover the six months left in the current fiscal year. Each side insisted the other would be to blame for the pain of a partial shutdown. Strong aftershock rattles Japan SENDAI, Japan (AP) — A big aftershock rocked quake-weary Japan late Thursday, rattling nerves as it knocked out power to the northern part of the country and prompted tsunami warnings that were later canceled. The quake was initially measured at magnitude-7.4, though the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., later downgraded it to 7.1. Either way, it was the strongest aftershock since several were recorded on March 11 — the day of the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami that killed as many as 25,000 people and touched off a nuclear crisis last month. There were no immedi- ate reports of serious injuries or major damage, and the operator of the tsunami-ravaged Fukushi- ma Dai-ichi nuclear plant said there was no sign the aftershock had caused new problems there. Workers retreated to a quake-resis- tant shelter in the complex, with no injuries. The aftershock around 11:30 p.m. was strong enough to knock items off store shelves and move a least five fighters and sharply boosting anger among anti-government forces after the second bungled mission in a week blamed on the mili- tary alliance. large automated teller machine at a FamilyMart convenience store in the major northern industrial center of Sendai. The city is far enough inland that it avoided major tsunami damage, but people there were without gas and elec- tricity for weeks. Manager Takehiko Akagi said 100 people had showed up within an hour of Thursday’s aftershock and cleared the shelves of ice, water and instant noo- dles — items that were in short supply after the bigger quake. Gunman opens fire in Rio school, 11 children dead RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A gunman roamed the halls of an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday and killed 11 chil- dren, lining them up against a wall and shooting them in the head at point-blank range as he shouted, ‘‘I’m going to kill you all!’’ It was the worst school shooting in Brazil — and would have been deadlier if the gunman had not been shot in the legs by a police officer, who said the man then fell down some stairs and shot himself in the head. Images taken with a cell phone and posted on YouTube showed students fleeing wildly, screaming for help, many with their white and blue school shirts soaked in blood. At least 18 people, most- ly students, were injured, many by gunfire, and taken to local hospitals, said Rio state Health Secretary Ser- gio Cortes. At least four were in grave condition. The dead included 10 girls and one boy, plus the gunman, Cortes said. The ages of the children were not immediately known. Social Security stopping statements WASHINGTON (AP) — Those yearly state- RANDAL S. ELLOWAY DDS IMPLANTS DENTISTRY 2426 SO. 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And a river runs through it. ments that Social Security mails out — here’s what you’d get if you retired at 62, at 66, at 70 — will soon stop arriving in workers’ mailboxes. It’s an effort to save money and steer more people to the agency’s website. The government is working to provide the statements online by the end of the year, if it can resolve security issues, Social Security Commis- sioner Michael Astrue said. If that fails, the agency will resume the paper statements, which cost $70 million a year to mail, he said. ‘‘We’ll provide it, we expect, one way or anoth- er, before the end of the calendar year,’’ Astrue told The Associated Press. ‘‘We’re just right now trying to figure out the most cost-effective and convenient way to provide that to the Ameri- can public.’’ The statements, mailed to 150 million people each year, project future benefit payments, helping workers plan for retire- ment. The decision to sus- pend the mailings was unrelated to the talk of a possible partial govern- ment shutdown. It was, however, related to the agency’s operating bud- get, which has essentially been frozen at 2010 levels — minus about $350 mil- lion in economic stimulus money the agency had been using to handle claims. Libyan rebel anger swells after deaths AJDABIYA, Libya (AP) — An apparent NATO airstrike slammed into a rebel combat con- voy Thursday, killing at The attack — outside the strategic oil port of Brega — brought fresh questions about coordina- tion between NATO and the patchwork of rebel militias in a conflict described by a senior U.S. commander as a stalemate that could eventually require the Pentagon to reassert more power, and possibly even send in ground forces. Tensions between the rebels and NATO were flaring even before the latest accident, with the fighters criticizing the alliance for doing too lit- tle to help them. A rebel commander described the attack as a likely NATO accident, but said it would be a ‘‘bigger mistake’’ if it was waged by Moam- mar Gadhafi’s pilots and exposed holes in NATO’s efforts to ground Libyan warplanes. In a sign of the hair- trigger tensions along the front, thousands of civil- ians and fighters raced out of the rebel-held city of Ajdabiya in eastern Libya after reports that Gad- hafi’s forces gained ground in the chaos after the bombing. Some mili- tiamen shouted insults against NATO as they retreated. ‘‘We don’t want NATO anymore!’’ cried fighter Basit bin Nasser. Another yelled: ‘‘Down, down with NATO.’’ Gates reassures troops on allowing gays to serve WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday reassured U.S. warfight- ers in Iraq that allowing gays to serve openly in the military will have lit- tle impact on the armed forces, an argument large- ly echoed by the top lead- ers of the Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy. Visiting troops at Camp Liberty in Bagh- dad, Gates was asked when repeal of the 17- year-old policy common- ly known as ‘‘don’t ask, don’t tell’’ would occur and what its effect would be. ‘‘My guess is you won’t see much change at all because the whole thrust of the training is you’re supposed to go on treating everybody like you’re supposed to be treating everybody now, with dignity, respect and discipline,’’ Gates told the troops. ‘‘And the same kind of military discipline that applies to — and reg- ulations that apply to het- erosexual relationships — will apply in terms of homosexual relation- ships.’’ In Washington, leaders from the four services tes- tified before the House Armed Services Commit- tee on the implementation of the new policy. Several expressed reservations last December when a divided Congress voted to repeal the law and Presi- dent Barack Obama signed the legislation. The repeal did not occur immediately as training and certification by the department were required before the ban is lifted. Training for the service members began around March 1 and is slated to be finished by summer’s end. NJ governor says teachers should be evaluated by colleagues NEW YORK (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday called for public school teachers to be evaluated based equally on their classroom performance and student achievement and accused the state’s largest teachers union of being a group of ‘‘bullies and thugs.’’ Christie laid out his proposal in a speech in New York sponsored by the Brookings Institute, a Washington think tank. A teachers union spokesman called the governor’s plan an ‘‘educational disaster.’’ Since taking office last year, the Republican Christie has emerged as a popular figure among conservatives nationally for his willingness to con- front public employee unions, including teach- ers, over their salaries and pensions. Several other governors have since fol- lowed suit, saying such benefits for public employees are unsustain- able over time. Christie kept up the anti-union drumbeat Thursday, referring to the New Jersey Education Association as a bunch of ‘‘bullies and thugs’’ who pressured the Democrat- controlled Legislature to resist reform. ‘‘I don’t know how they sleep at night,’’ he said of the union. Christie spoke broadly about the need to reform public education, saying seniority-based tenure should be abolished and that good teachers should be paid more than bad teachers. Trump goes after Obama citizenship WASHINGTON (AP) — Real estate tycoon Donald Trump said Thursday he isn’t con- vinced that President Barack Obama was born in the United States ,but says he hopes the presi- dent can prove that he was. Officials in Hawaii have certified Obama’s citizenship, but ‘‘birthers’’ have demand- ed additional proof. And Trump, who is weighing whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination, says not all the questions have been answered. In an interview broad- cast Thursday, Trump told NBC News he plans to decide by June whether to run, and said that if he is the GOP nominee, ‘‘I’d like to beat him straight up,’’ not on the basis of the ques- tion of where Obama was born. Trump insisted he did- n’t introduce the citizen- ship issue, but he isn’t letting go of it either. Since he was asked about it during an interview several weeks ago, the real estate executive said, he’s looked into it and now believes ‘‘there is a big possibility’’ Obama may have violated the Constitution. ‘‘I’d like to have him show his birth certifi- cate,’’ Trump said. ‘‘And to be honest with you, I hope he can.’’