Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/51408
Friday, December 30, 2011 – Daily News 5A WORLD BRIEFING Romney stays above the fray as conservative rivals battle each other for undecideds DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — With time running short, Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich battled Thursday to win over a piv- otal crop of undecided conservative voters. Of all the candi- dates, only Mitt Romney seemed to largely escape attack as he worked to win a state that long seemed out of reach until this week. ''Don't settle for what's not good enough to save the country,'' the newly ascendant Santorum implored Iowans at city hall in Coralville, urging voters to put conservative prin- ciples above everything else and suggesting that his rivals, and specifically Ron Paul, lacked them. For the first time, though, the former Pennsylvania sena- tor became a target. ''When he talks about fiscal conservatism, every now and then it leaves me scratching my head because he was a pro- lific earmarker,'' Perry, the Texas governor, said of Santorum as the day began, referring to special spending projects members of Congress seek. ''He loaded up his bill with Pennsylvania pork.''' Perry also slapped at Santorum in a radio ad and in a new TV commercial that lumps him in with Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Paul and says: ''The fox guarding the henhouse is like asking a congressman to fix Washington: bad idea.'' The maneuvering underscored the fluid — if not convo- luted — state of the GOP presidential race as Tuesday's cau- cuses loom while cultural conservatives and evangelical Republicans, who make up the base of the electorate here, continue to be divided. That lack of unity paves the way for someone who is seen as less consistently conservative. Five days out, public and private polling show Romney and Paul in strong contention to win the caucuses, with coalitions of support cobbled together from across the Republican political spectrum and their get-out-the-vote operations — beefed up from their failed 2008 bids — at the ready. They're the only two with the money and the organi- zations necessary to ensure big turnouts on Tuesday. Iran could disrupt but not halt oil traffic in strait and would pay heavy price, analysts say CAIRO (AP) — With missile batteries, fleets of attack boats and stocks of naval mines, Iran can disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz but probably cannot complete- ly shut down the world's most important oil route, military analysts say. The question for Iran's leadership is whether it is worth the heavy price. Trying to close the strait would bring down a powerful military response on Iran's head from U.S. forces in the Gulf and turn Tehran's few remaining international allies against it. That Iran is making such dire threats at all illustrates its alarm over new sanctions planned by the U.S. that will tar- get oil exports — the most vital source of revenue for its economy. Iran's leaders shrugged off years of past sanctions by the U.S. and United Nations, mocking them as ineffec- tive. But if it cannot sell its oil, its already-suffering econo- my will be sent into a tailspin. ''It would be very, very difficult for Iran even to impede traffic for a significant period of time,'' said Jonathan Rue, a senior research analyst at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. ''They don't have the ability to effectively block the strait.'' What the Iranians can do, Rue and other analysts say, is harass traffic through the Gulf — anything from stopping tankers to outright attacks. The goal would be to panic mar- kets, drive up shipping insurance rates and spark a rise in world oil prices enough to pressure the United States to back down on sanctions. Presence of Arab League monitors re-energizes Syrian protests despite bloodshed HOMS, Syria (AP) — The presence of Arab League monitors in Syria has re-energized the anti-government protest movement, with tens of thousands turning out over the past three days in cities and neighborhoods where the observers are expected to visit. The huge rallies have been met by lethal gunfire from security forces apparently wor- ried about multiple mass sit-ins modeled after Cairo's Tahrir Square. On Thursday, security forces opened fire on tens of thou- sands protesting outside a mosque in a Damascus suburb and killed at least four. The crowd had gathered at the mosque near to a municipal building where cars of the mon- itors had been spotted outside. Troops fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse large protests in several areas of the country, including cen- tral Damascus, killing at least 26 people nationwide, activists said. A key activist network, the Local Coordination Com- mittees, said it has documented the names of 130 people, including six children, who died since the Arab League monitors arrived in Syria Monday night. The ongoing violence, and new questions about the human rights record of the head of the Arab League moni- Refurbished HP Dual Core Laptop $ 3600n Color Laser Printer $ 333 S. Main St. Suite H 225 CUSTOM WE HAVE MOVED TO We carry Copy & Printer Supplies 20% off 200 Labor, Parts & Accessories with this ad mikegibson2@clearwire.net Tehama District Jr. Livestock J. E. C. 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Iowa ad war intense DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — At least $12.5 million and counting has blanketed the airwaves ahead of next Tuesday's Republican presidential caucuses, with hard-hitting com- mercials awash in ghoulish images and startling claims. Most are coming from a proliferation of new independent groups aligned with the candidates. To hear the ads tell it, Newt Gingrich is a ''serial hyp- ocrite,'' Rick Perry ''double dips'' as governor and the ''lib- eral Republican establishment'' is plotting to anoint Mitt Romney as the party's presidential nominee. The attacks, the bulk of the commercials on the air, reflected the volatile state of the race five days before the first votes of the GOP presi- dential nominating contest. After a slow start, the ads in Iowa are coming on fast and furious. On Thursday alone, at least five new commercials were rolled out, including one by Perry castigating his rivals as Washington insiders and saying: ''The fox guarding the hen- house is like asking a congressman to fix Washington: bad idea.'' An outside group aligned with Romney, Restore Our Future, rolled out a new spot that criticizes Gingrich and asks: ''Haven't we had enough mistakes?'' In the final days of the Iowa campaign, most of the ads are deeply negative, thanks in large part to the proliferation of outside groups, known as super PACs, that are doing the dirty work for candidates they support. Gingrich has been the biggest target, withering under attacks from Ron Paul and Rick Perry's campaign as well as from several outside groups like the one aligned with Romney. Polls show that Gingrich's standing in Iowa has slid accordingly. NYC mayor says dispute will keep 9/11 museum from opening on time NEW YORK (AP) — Work on a planned museum at the World Trade Center has ground to a halt because of a finan- cial dispute, and there is now no possibility it will open on time next year, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday. The underground museum commemorating victims of the 9/11 attacks was scheduled to open in September on the 11th anniversary of the disaster, a year after the opening of a memorial at the site that has already drawn 1 million visitors. But in recent months, the National September 11 Memo- rial & Museum foundation has been fighting with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey over who is respon- sible for paying millions of dollars in infrastructure costs related to the project. The Port Authority, which owned the trade center and is building the museum, claims that the foundation owes it $300 million. The foundation claims that the authority actu- ally owes it $140 million, because of delays in the project. The dispute has been simmering for some time, and some details of the work slowdown were reported in November, but Thursday marked the first time that the mayor and other officials have acknowledged that the fight would mean the museum will not open in 2012. Bachmann vows to stay in GOPrace despite top adviser's defection to rival Ron Paul DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Vowing to press ahead through the Iowa caucuses, Republican Michele Bachmann dismissed the notion Thursday that her presidential cam- paign was in disarray. Her comments came a day after a key supporter fled her campaign and she had to fend off other calls to leave the race for the GOP nomination. The Minnesota congresswoman called her campaign organization ''strong'' and said her headquarters had received 150 calls of support after her Iowa campaign chair- man, state Sen. Kent Sorenson, resigned and switched his allegiance to rival Ron Paul. Sorenson backed Paul on Wednesday, a few hours after appearing with Bachmann. She alleges he was offered ''a lot of money'' to change sides, an inducement she said Soren- son had told her about during a telephone conversation on Tuesday. ''I know what I was told in that conversation,'' Bachmann said. Vt. reopens stretch of last highway destroyed by Irene STOCKBRIDGE, Vt. (AP) — After hundreds of thou- sands of tons of rock were hauled out and tens of thousands of man-hours were spent, Vermont celebrated the comple- tion of the biggest single engineering challenge following the flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Irene. Just in time for the new year, and four months after the storm hit, Route 107 between Bethel and Stockbridge was James W. Tysinger, Jr. M.D. Eye Physician & Surgeon Fellow American Academy of Ophthalmology We accept Medical, Medicare & most Insurances Office Hours: Tues-Wed-Thurs 8am-4:30pm Mon & Fri 1pm-4:30pm For Emergencies, After Hours, Week-ends, Call 530-567-5001 345 Hickory St. Red Bluff Tel: (530) 529-4733 Fax: (530) 529-1114 BOOK BARN 619 Oak St., Red Bluff (530) 528-Book 2665 HOLIDAY HOURS Open: Tuesday thru Saturday Dec. 27th to 31st Closed: January 3rd-Jan 7th Ralph's Tax Service has moved to a new location at 855 Walnut St. Ste 2 Ralph welcomes aboard as an associate ~ Daniele Jackson se habla espanol See us for all of your Income Tax, Bookkeeping, Payroll and Financial Service needs. reopened Thursday. The state highway, a major east-west thoroughfare, is the last to reopen after being closed by flooding. The road's reopening was marked with a ceremony at a Stockbridge school, where scores of local residents and state officials tossed fluorescent orange baseball caps into the air. ''It will cut our commute time down, it will lessen our trauma of looking at all the damage and the moonscape,'' said Stockbridge resident Melissa Thompson, who had to navigate a 70-minute detour to get her son to school and to get to work for the past few months. ''We'll probably miss all the flaggers (who) we got to know on the way. It just means so much to us to not have to make that commute every day.'' Much remains to be done on Route 107 and across the state, but Vermonters used the reopening as a moment to pause and celebrate. Many people are still struggling to rebuild their homes and their lives. The state is just totaling up the bill, and the Legislature is preparing to deal with a variety of Irene-induced, long-term challenges. Researchers' database holds details of slave voyages WASHINGTON (AP) — Almost two centuries before there was a man named Obama in the White House, there was a man named Obama shackled in the bowels of a slave ship. There is no proof that the unidentified Obama has ties to President Barack Obama. All they share is a name. But that is exactly the commonality that Emory University researchers hope to build upon as they delve into the origins of Africans who were taken up and sold. They have built an online database around those names, and welcome input from people who may share a name that's in the database, or have such names as part of their family lore. ''The whole point of the project is to ask the African dias- pora, people with any African background, to help us iden- tify the names because the names are so ethno-linguistically specific, we can actually locate the region in Africa to which the individual belonged on the basis of the name,'' said David Eltis, an Emory University history professor who heads the database research team. So far, two men named Obama sit among some 9,500 captured Africans whose names were written on line after line in the registries of obscure, 19th century slave traffick- ing courts. The courts processed the human chattel freed from ships that were intercepted and detoured to Havana, Cuba or Freetown, Sierra Leone. Most of the millions of Africans enslaved before 1807 were known only by num- bers, said James Walvin, an expert on the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Once bought by slave owners, the Africans' names were lost. Africans captured by the Portuguese were bap- tized and given ''Christian'' names aboard the ships that were taking them into slavery. But original African names — surnames were uncom- mon for Africans in the 19th century — are rich with infor- mation. Some reveal the day of the week an individual was born or whether that individual was the oldest, youngest or middle child or a twin. They can also reveal ethnic or lin- guistic groups. Wynonna Judd announces engagement to drummer NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Wynonna Judd is engaged to her boyfriend, the drummer for the country group High- way 101. Judd, 47, and Cactus Moser, 54, got engaged Dec. 24. They are currently touring together as Wynonna and The Big Noise. Judd, who is from Ashland, Ky., has sold more than 30 million albums throughout her 28-year career and has won five Grammys. She and mother Naomi have per- formed as The Judds. Annual Meeting Wed., Jan 11th 6pm held in the Tehama Room @ Tehama District Fairgrounds