Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/55667
4B Daily News – Friday, February 17, 2012 WORLD BRIEFING Syria rebels now include al-Qaida WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. intelligence officials pointed to al- Qaida in Iraq on Thursday as the likely culprit behind recent bombings in Syria, the deadliest attacks against the Syrian government in the 11- month uprising. Though the U.S. has called for Syrian Presi- dent Bashar Assad to step down, his fall could lead to a power vacuum that al-Qaida's largest regional affiliate or other extremist groups could fill, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Con- gress. And that could allow such groups to help themselves to Syria's vast stockpiles of chemical weapons, he said. At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the crisis in Syria has become ''that much more serious'' and worrisome to the United States as a result of indi- cations that al-Qaida has infiltrated the govern- ment's opposition. ''It does raise concerns for us that al-Qaida is try- ing to assert a presence there,'' he said. ''As to just what their role is and how extensive their role is, I think that still remains to be seen.'' In New York, mean- while, the U.N. General Assembly approved a res- olution backing an Arab League plan calling for Assad to step down and strongly condemning human rights violations it said his government had committed. The vote, though not legally bind- ing, reflects widespread world opinion. Nigerian underwear bomber gets life in prison DETROIT (AP) — A federal judge ordered life in prison Thursday for a young Nigerian man who turned away from a privi- leged life and tried to blow up a packed interna- tional flight with a bomb concealed in his under- wear. Umar Farouk Abdul- mutallab, who has said he was on a suicide mission for al-Qaida, was the same defiant man who four months ago pleaded guilty to all charges relat- ed to Northwest Airlines Flight 253. He seemed to relish his mandatory sen- tence and defended his actions as rooted in the Muslim holy book, the Quran. ''Mujahideen are proud to kill in the name of God. And that is exact- ly what God told us to do in the Quran,'' he said. ''Today is a day of victo- ry.'' Earlier, four passen- gers and a crew member who were aboard the plane told U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds that the event forever changed their lives. Abdulmutallab appeared disinterested during their remarks, rarely looking up while seated just a few feet away in a white skull cap and oversized prison T-shirt. Abdulmutallab ''has never expressed doubt or regret or remorse about his mission,'' Edmunds said. ''In contrast, he sees that mission as divinely inspired and a continuing mission.'' Iran says it's the victim in nuclear showdown DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Facing international sanctions over its nuclear program, Iran is taking the position that it's the victim, not the aggressor. Iran is pointing to the cases of five slain scientists whose deaths it blames on Israel and its allies. From Iran's view, it's been the target of clandes- tine hit squads for more than two years while the West has ignored Iran's claims that the Israeli Mossad spy agency is the mastermind. ''Iran's official line is that it's under siege, not the aggressor. This shows up everywhere in Iran's policies and statements,'' said Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Gulf Research Center based in Geneva. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke on national television Wednesday next to photos of five nuclear scientists and researchers killed since 2010. Nearby was a large portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatol- lah Ali Khamenei holding the son of Mostafa Ahma- di Roshan, a senior direc- tor of Iran's main uranium enrichment facility, who was killed last month after a magnetic bomb tore through his car in Tehran. During earlier cere- monies to insert domesti- cally made fuel rods at a Tehran research reactor, Ahmadinejad lifted to his knee the daughter of nuclear electronics expert Darioush Rezaeinejad, who was fatally shot last year by a pair of gunmen on motorcycles. Iran's nuclear chief, Fereidoun Abbasi, embraced the girl. Santorum challenges Mitt Romney in Michigan DETROIT (AP) — An aggressive Rick Santorum went after Mitt Romney on multiple fronts Thursday, challenging the Republican front-runner's economic policies, values and consis- tency in the city of his birth. Santorum criticized his rival's record on federal bailouts in particular, although both men opposed the government's decision to rescue the auto industry. ''Gov. Romney support- ed the bailout of Wall Street and decided not to support the bailout of Detroit. My feeling was that the govern- ment should not be involved in bailouts peri- od,'' Santorum said in an address to the Detroit Eco- nomic Club, just 23 miles from where Romney went to high school. ''I think that's a much more consis- tent position.'' Santorum spoke as Romney campaigned else- where in Michigan, ignor- ing Santorum and two other rivals for the GOP presi- dential nomination alto- gether while focusing his criticism on President Barack Obama. Santorum, who has surged in state and national polls, is showing greater confidence in what should be safe territory for the longtime GOP front-runner. Romney not only grew up in Michigan, he is the son of a former governor. His family members also have been deeply involved in the state's politics for decades. Religious leaders say contraception rule violates religious freedom WASHINGTON (AP) — Religious leaders told a there's no risk of them coming in contact with the girl since she no longer lives in their home. Teacher's mistake led to calls of government overreach RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — It was a tale of govern- ment meddling that out- raged radio talk show hosts and a pair of Congress members: A 4-year-old was forced to dump her packed lunch and eat a state-dictat- ed cafeteria lunch of chick- en nuggets. Now school officials are blaming a teacher's error in making sure the child had a nutri- tious meal. The incident happened House panel Thursday the Obama administration was violating basic rights to religious freedom with its policies for requiring that employees of reli- gion-affiliated institutions have access to birth con- trol coverage. The unity of the reli- gious leaders contrasted with the partisan divide among lawmakers on the Oversight and Govern- ment Reform Committee, with Democrats saying they had been denied the ability to present witness- es who might support the government stance or speak for the rights of women to reproductive health coverage. They asked why women weren't better represented among the 10 witnesses at the hearing. The issue has sparked a political firestorm for the administration, with Catholics and other reli- gious groups strongly protesting an original Health and Human Ser- vices ruling that religion- affiliated institutions such as hospitals and universi- ties must include free birth control coverage in their employee health plans. The churches themselves were exempted from the requirement. Obama last Friday modified that policy so that insurance companies, and not the organization affiliated with a church, pay for birth control costs, but that didn't satisfy those testifying at the hearing. Bishop William E. Lori, representing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, compared the ruling to a law that would force all food providers, including kosher deli- catessens, to serve pork. Stepbrother charged with sexually assaulting Wis. teen MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors on Thurs- day charged the step- brother of a severely malnourished Wisconsin teen with repeatedly sex- ually assaulting her beginning around her 10th birthday, in the same year she claims her father and stepmother began confining her to the basement. Dane County prosecu- tors also charged the girl's father, 40, and stepmother, 42, with child abuse and first- degree reckless endan- germent, which are felonies, as well as a misdemeanor count of neglecting a child. The couple and the girl's stepbrother, 18, appeared in a Madison courtroom Thursday for an initial hearing. Prosecutors allege the stepbrother first sexually assaulted the girl in December 2006, which was the month she turned 10, and again from Feb- ruary 2009 through Feb- ruary 2010. He is charged with first-degree sexual assault of a child without great bodily harm, second-degree sexual assault of a child and child abuse — all felonies. redbluffdailynews.com/jobs D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY The Associated Press is not naming the defen- dants to protect the girl's identity. Robert Burke, an attorney who repre- sented the three until public defenders can be assigned to their cases, requested signature bonds for the father and stepmother. He said both have strong ties to the community and that two weeks ago at an ele- mentary school in Raeford, near Fort Bragg. The girl's parents anonymously tipped off a Raleigh TV station and a conservative blogger after the girl brought home her packed lunch uneaten. Conservatives who see it as yet another example of government overreach leaped on the story, and it reached a pair of North Car- olina's U.S. representatives, Republican Renee Ellmers and Democrat Larry Kissel. They wrote a letter asking U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to investigate. ''The content of a school lunch provided to a child by their parents should be gov- erned only by the child's parents, not another govern- ment bureaucrat,'' they wrote in the letter. ''This is also kind of adding on to a lot of things that we're seeing coming out of the Obama Adminis- tration'' that conservatives oppose, like requiring insur- ance coverage of contracep- tives, Ellmers' press secre- tary Tom Doheny said. ''We're joining this biparti- san call to get any and all information. It's one of those things that if it looks like a rat, and smells like a rat, odds are it could be.'' Dad won't be buried near killed sons SEATTLE (AP) — The man who killed his two sons in an explosive house fire in Washington state will not be buried in the same cemetery as the children, his family said Thursday. Josh Powell's mother, Terri Powell, issued a written statement con- firming that the family had given up a plot ten- tatively reserved at Woodbine Cemetery overlooking the boys' grave. ''We have tried so hard to be loving and considerate and respect- ful in making Josh's bur- ial arrangements,'' she said. ''We love our little Charlie and Braden and want their resting place to be a place of peace and comfort.'' Powell, the husband of missing Utah woman Susan Powell, killed his 5- and 7-year-old sons and himself in a gas- fueled blaze Feb. 5 at a home he was renting in Graham. More than 1,000 mourners attended the boys' funeral Saturday. They were later buried in a single casket at Woodbine, a municipal cemetery in Puyallup. Terri Powell, wracked by grief, realized early this week that no one else was planning for what to do with Josh Powell's remains, said her son-in-law, Kirk Graves. She visited a funeral home and a few cemeteries, he said, and she ''cluelessly'' picked a gravesite just up the hill from where the boys are buried.