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Wednesday, February 1, 2012 – Daily News WORLD BRIEFING American Crossroads raised $51 million in 2011 WASHINGTON (AP) — American Crossroads, the Republican ''super'' political committee that plans to play a major role in this year's presidential campaign, raised more than $51 million along with its nonprofit arm last year, The Associated Press has learned. The figures from Crossroads — the group backed by for- mer George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove — were among the first financial reports being made public Tuesday, the dead- line for super PACs and presidential candidates to file finan- cial reports with federal election officials. While most recent public attention has focused on groups spending major sums for negative TV ads assailing GOP presidential primary rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, Tuesday's figures are a sign of even greater spending to come in the general election battle between the Republican nominee and Democratic President Barack Obama. Other big super PACs required to disclose their donors Tuesday include Restore Our Future, the Romney-leaning PAC that has contributed to a deluge of ads hammering Gin- grich, and Winning Our Future, the Gingrich-supportive group that has been critical of Romney's time at a venture capital firm. Both super PACs are run in part by former advisers to the candidates. The American Crossroads PAC has about $15.6 million cash on hand, representing only part of the money it has in the bank to spend on defeating Obama. Financial details from Crossroads GPS — the nonprofit arm — are unclear because it doesn't have to disclose its donors under IRS rules, althoughCrossroads GPS was responsible for most of the groups' fundraising haul. Gingrich's moon base talk not much of an oddity WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candi- date Newt Gingrich wants to create a lunar colony that he says could become a U.S. state. There's his grand research plan to figure out what makes the human brain tick. And he's warned about electromagnetic pulse attacks leaving America without electricity. To some people, these ideas sound like science fiction. But mostly they are not. Several science policy experts say the former House speaker's ideas are based in mainstream science. But some- how, Gingrich manages to make them sound way out there, taking them first a small step and then a giant leap further than where other politicians have gone. Gingrich's promise that ''by the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon'' got amped up in a recent debate in Florida, which lost thousands of jobs with the end of the space shuttle program. By then, the lunar base had become a colony and even a potential state, and his moon ideas were ridiculed by rival Mitt Rom- ney. Returning to the moon and building an outpost there is not new. Until three years ago, it was U.S. policy and billions of dollars were spent on that idea. Iran not yet decided on building a bomb, but definitely ready to strike WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday asserted that Iran has the means to build a nuclear weapon but has not yet decided to follow through, in contrast to Israel's insistence that time is running out to stop Iran from developing such a weapon. But Iran is likely to strike out at U.S. interests if it feels threatened, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee in an annual report to Congress on threats facing America. Citing last year's thwarted Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in the U.S., ''some Iranian officials — probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ... are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime,'' Clapper said. Iran has the technical ability to build a nuclear weapon, Clapper said. But he, CIA Director David Petraeus and oth- ers reasserted their stance that Iran is not building nuclear weapons, in subtle contrast to Israeli officials' statements that Iran could have nuclear capability within a year. ''There is dissension and debate in the political hierarchy of Iran'' over whether to build a weapon, Clapper said. ''There is not unanimity about this'' as Iranian political offi- cials weigh the regional prestige they believe they may gain by possessing a weapon against the cost of further interna- tional sanctions and the risk of retaliatory military action by Israel or the West. LAteacher fired, charged with molesting 23 kids LOS ANGELES (AP) — A veteran elementary school teacher was arrested on horrifying child molestation charges after a film processor gave police photos showing blindfold- ed children with their mouths taped and cockroaches on their faces, authorities said Tuesday. Mark Berndt, 61, was arrested Monday at his Torrance home and remained jailed on $2.3 million bail, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department statement. The charges involve 23 boys and girls ages 6 to 10 between 2008 and 2010. The investigation started when the film processor gave authorities some 40 photographs depicting blindfolded chil- dren in a classroom with their mouths taped shut. Berndt worked for more than 30 years at Miramonte Ele- mentary School in an unincorporated area of South Los Angeles before being fired as a result of the investigation. Miramonte serves a poor, mainly Hispanic neighborhood. More than half of its approximately 1,400 students are still learning English, according to the school's website. Some of the photos showed Berndt with his arm around children or with his hand over their mouth. Other pictures depicted girls with what appears to be a spoon up to their mouths as if they were going to ingest a clear-white liquid. Syria troops push back rebels as diplomats exert pressure at UN for Assad to yield power BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops crushed pockets of rebel soldiers Tuesday on the outskirts of Damascus and the U.N. Security Council took up a draft resolu- tion demanding that President Bashar Assad halt the violence and yield power. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the Security Council that action to end the violence in Syria would be different from U.N. efforts to pacify Libya. ''I know that some members here may be concerned that the Security Council is headed toward another Libya,'' she said. ''That is a false analogy.'' ''It is time for the international community to put aside our own differences and send a clear message of support to the people of Syria,'' Clinton said. Russia, one of Assad's strongest backers, has sig- naled it would veto any U.N. action against Damascus, fearing it could open the door to eventual international military involvement, the way an Arab-backed U.N. resolution led to NATO airstrikes in Libya. 3B The busiest local information website in Tehama County! • 338,883 monthly page views • 49,162 unique visitors St. Elizabeth Community Hospital A member of CHW 2550 Sister Mary Columba Dr., Red Bluff (530) 529-8000 http://www.redbluff.mercy.org GROWNEY MOTORS 1160 Main Street, Red Bluff (530) 527-1034 22805 Antelope Blvd. in Red Bluff www.redbluffyamaha.com • (530) 527-1466 Auto Recycling Inc. 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