Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/36029
Friday, July 8, 2011 – Daily News 7A WORLD BRIEFING Obama calls budget meeting with lawmakers ’constructive’ WASHINGTON (AP) — Deadline approaching, Presi- dent Barack Obama said he and congressional leaders worked through a ‘‘very constructive’’ debt-crisis session Thursday with congressional leaders but the parties were still far apart on deficit reduction proposals. He said he would reconvene the negotiators on Sunday. Thursday’s meeting came amid signals that the White House was willing to reduce costs for major benefit pro- grams including Social Security and Medicare, while Republi- cans indicated they might con- sider new steps to generate gov- ernment revenue. ‘‘People were frank,’’ Obama said, just moments after adjourning the one-and-a-half hour meeting with the eight lawmakers who make up the bipartisan leadership of Con- gress. Obama acknowledged that the ultimate agreement will not satis- fy partisans on both sides, but he said the deal would require both Republican and Democratic votes to pass Congress. ‘‘Everyone acknowledged that pain will be involved polit- ically on all sides,’’ he said. Murdoch kills tainted tabloid LONDON (AP) — The Murdoch media empire unex- pectedly jettisoned the News of the World Thursday after a pub- lic backlash over the illegal guerrilla tactics it used to expose the rich, the famous and the royal and remain Britain’s best-selling Sunday newspaper. The abrupt decision stunned the paper’s staff of 200, shocked the world’s most com- petitive news town and ignited speculation that Rupert Mur- doch’s News Corp. plans to rebrand the tabloid under a new name in a bid to prevent a phone-hacking scandal from wrecking its bid for a far more lucrative television deal. ‘‘This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World,’’ James Murdoch, son of the media magnate, announced in a memo to staff. Mushrooming allegations of immoral and criminal behavior at the paper — including brib- ing police officers for informa- tion, hacking into the voice mail of murdered schoolgirls’ families and targeting the phones of the relatives of sol- diers killed in Afghanistan and the victims of the London tran- sit attacks — cast a dark cloud over News Corp.’s multibillion- dollar plan to take full owner- ship of British Sky Broadcast- ing, an operation far more valu- able than all of Murdoch’s British newspapers. Faced with growing public outrage, political condemnation and fleeing advertisers, Mur- doch stopped the presses on the 168-year-old newspaper, whose lurid scoops have ranged from Sarah Ferguson’s claims she could provide access to ex-hus- band Prince Andrew to motor racing chief Max Mosley’s pen- chant for sadomasochism. Casey Anthony sentenced for lying to police ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Casey Anthony looked like she was ready for freedom. For the first time since her trial began in late May, she let her hair down, and she smiled and occasionally played with it in the courtroom. But she’ll have to spend six more days in jail, and she turned stone-faced as the judge pronounced her sentence for lying to investigators about the death of her 2-year-old daugh- ter, Caylee. Thursday’s sentencing means Anthony will go free only slightly more than a week after she was acquitted in the slaying. The extra time in jail did lit- tle to satisfy throngs of angry people convinced of her guilt who gathered outside the court- house. But it could provide time for the public furor over her acquittal to ease somewhat and give Anthony’s attorneys a chance to plan for her safety. Two days after the verdicts, most of the jury remained silent, with their names still kept secret by the court. One juror explained that the panel agreed to acquit Anthony because prosecutors did not show what happened to the tod- dler. House rejects effort to block funds for Libya WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Thursday to bar military aid to Libyan rebels battling Moammar Gadhafi but stopped short of prohibiting funds for U.S. involvement in a NATO-led mission now in its fourth month. Sending a muddled message in the constitutional challenge to President Barack Obama, House Republicans and Democrats signaled their frus- tration with American partici- pation in a stalemated civil war but also showed their unwilling- ness to end the operation. The congressional unrest stems in large part from Obama’s decision not to seek congressional consent for a third war in addition to years- long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. ‘‘Congress has allowed the president to overreach in Libya,’’ said Rep. Tom Cole, R- Okla. ‘‘We should not be engaged in military action of this level unless it is authorized and funded by Congress.’’ The House voted 225-201 for an amendment sponsored by Cole to bar the Pentagon from providing ‘‘military equipment, training or advice or other sup- port for military activities,’’ to an outside group, such as rebel forces, for military action in or against Libya. EPA, Exxon Mobil to test air in homes near Montana spill BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will collect indoor air samples from homes downstream of a Yellow- stone River oil spill after resi- dents raised concerns about health risks from the tens of thousands of gallons of crude that poured into the water- course. About 150 people showed up at an EPA meeting Wednesday night with questions about health risks, the duration of the cleanup, and whether the oil will permanently damage their livestock or property. George Nilson, 69, said the fumes from oil that washed through his neighbor’s property had been overwhelming. ‘‘I’ve been in it for five days now, and the only way I can breathe is to have all the win- dows open,’’ he said. Health officials say symp- toms residents have reported, such as nausea, dizziness and shortness of breath, are likely to ease as the chemicals in the oil evaporate or break down. WikiLeaks- affiliated company says now processing card donations LONDON (AP) — Wik- iLeaks has again begun accept- ing credit card donations, a company affiliated with the secret-spilling site said Thurs- day. Andreas Fink, the chief exec- utive of Icelandic payment processor DataCell, told The Associated Press that Visa and MasterCard were again pro- cessing payments to WikiLeaks after a seven-month hiatus. Fink claimed the move as a tacit admission of guilt from the credit card companies, but it may well have been accidental. Visa Europe spokesman Simon Kleine told AP that pro- cessing the payments was ‘‘not something that we’ve sanc- tioned’’ and that the company was investigating. An email and phone calls seeking comment from MasterCard were not immediately returned. Visa and MasterCard pulled the plug on the company, Data- Cell ehf, in early December, shortly after WikiLeaks began publishing about 250,000 U.S. State Department cables. But Fink said Thursday that card services had been restored — saying that lawyers had made sure of it by making test dona- tions. Witness saw teen severely beaten in Syrian jail Inside a filthy detention cen- ter in Damascus, eight or nine interrogators repeatedly blud- geoned a skinny teenager whose hands were bound and who bore a bullet wound on the left side of his chest. They struck his head, back, feet and genitals until he was left on the floor of a cell, bleeding from his ears and crying out for his mother and father to help him. Ibrahim Jamal al-Jahamani, a fellow prisoner who said he witnessed the brutal scene in Syria in May, heard the inter- rogators demand that the 15- year-old proclaim strongman Bashar Assad as his ‘‘beloved’’ president. The youth, later identified as Tamer Mohammed al-Sharei, refused. Instead, he chanted an often-heard slogan from anti- regime street protests calling for ‘‘freedom and the love of God and our country.’’ Tamer’s refusal apparently was the final straw for the inter- rogators. ‘‘Guards broke his right wrist, beating him with clubs on his hands, which were tied behind his back,’’ al-Jahamani told The Associated Press after his release from detention, refer- ring to the beatings as torture. Storms cast shadow on last shuttle launch CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Thunderstorms threat- ened to delay the last space shuttle launch, set for Friday, and a lightning strike near the pad prompted NASA to con- vene an engineering panel to discuss any possible damage. The lightning hit a water tower about 500 feet from the launch pad at midday Thursday, the space agency said. Techni- cians hurried out to check for any signs of electrical prob- lems. A review board was quickly assembled; officials said early indications were that the shuttle and pad were fine. Over the years, lightning has struck on or near the launch pad occasionally, delaying a few launches but causing no dam- age. The forecast for Friday, meanwhile, ooked dismal, with only a 30 chance of acceptable weather at launch time. NASA test director Jeff Spaulding pointed out that space shuttles have managed to launch with worse forecasts.