Red Bluff Daily News

October 03, 2012

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Wednesday, October 3, 2012 – Daily News WORLD BRIEFING 5B White House widens covert war in Africa WASHINGTON (AP) — Small teams of special operations forces arrived at American embassies throughout North Africa in the months before militants launched the fiery attack that killed the U.S. ambassador in Libya. The soldiers' mission: Set up a network that could quickly strike a terrorist target or rescue a hostage. Romney sparks new flashpoint on But the teams had yet to do much counterterrorism work in Libya, though the White House signed off a year ago on the plan to build the new military task force in the region and the advance teams had been there for six months, according to three U.S. counterterror officials and a former intelligence offi- cial. All spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not autho- rized to discuss the strategy publicly. The counterterror effort indicates that the administration has been worried for some time about a growing threat posed by al-Qaida and its offshoots in North Africa. But officials say the military organization was too new to respond to the attack in Benghazi, where the admin- istration now believes armed al-Qaida- linked militants surrounded the lightly guarded U.S. compound, set it on fire and killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Republicans have questioned whether the Obama administration has been hid- ing key information or hasn't known what happened in the immediate after- math of the attack. They are using those questions in the final weeks before the U.S. elections as an opportunity to assail President Barack Obama on foreign pol- icy, an area where he has held clear leads in opinion polls since the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. On Tuesday, leaders of a congression- al committee said requests for added security at the consulate in Benghazi were repeatedly denied, despite a string of less deadly terror attacks on the con- sulate in recent months. Those included an explosion that blew a hole in the secu- rity perimeter and another incident in which an explosive device was tossed over the consulate fence. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told Con- gress in a letter responding to the accu- sations that she has set up a group to investigate the Benghazi attack, and it is to begin work this week. Hezbollah has stood by Syrian Presi- dent Bashar Assad since the uprising began 18 months ago, even after the group supported revolts in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Bahrain. Assad's fall would be a dire scenario for Hezbollah. Any new regime led by Syria's majority Sunni Muslims would likely be far less friendly — or even out- right hostile — to Shiite Muslim Hezbollah. Iran remains the group's most important patron, but Syria is a crucial supply route. Without it, Hezbol- lah will struggle to get money and weapons as easily. killed in Syria BEIRUT (AP) — A Hezbollah com- mander and several fighters have been killed inside Syria, a Lebanese security official said Tuesday, a development that could stoke already soaring tensions over the Lebanese militant group's role in the civil war next door. Hezbollah's reputation has taken a beating over its support for the Syrian regime, but any sign that the group's fighters are taking part in the battle raises fears that the conflict could expand into a wider fight engulfing the region. Hezbollah commander, fighters immigration WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican White House candidate Mitt Romney is offering new ideas on the controversial issues of taxes and immigration, spark- ing a fresh flashpoint with President Barack Obama before their inaugural debate Wednesday. In interviews, the GOP nominee sug- gested an option of limiting deductions to pay for his across-the-board income tax cut and revealed that he would honor temporary permission the Obama administration granted to young illegal immigrants to allow them to stay in the country. The candidates stepped off the cam- paign trail Tuesday for debate practice and left their running mates to rally vot- ers in swing states. The Romney cam- paign pounced after Vice President Joe Biden told a North Carolina audience that the middle class has ''been buried the last four years.'' Romney posted on Twitter that he agrees with Biden. ''The middle class has been buried the last 4 years, which is why we need a change in November.'' The campaign also scheduled a confer- ence call with former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu to criticize Biden's comments. Biden told about 1,000 people in Charlotte: ''This is deadly earnest. How they can justify, how can they justify raising taxes on a middle class that has been buried the last four years? How in Lord's name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts?'' NYPD monitoring Facebook to fight to undo the ban. Many cities have struggled with med- ical marijuana ordinances, but none has had a bigger problem than Los Angeles, where pot shops have proliferated. Though dispensary owners can now remain open without fear of local authorities, they still run the risk of get- ting shut down by federal authorities who last week started targeting stores in Los Angeles they said were raking in huge sums of money and attracting crime. Pot remains illegal under federal law. ''What weighs heavy in my mind is that no matter what we do, the federal government will still come in and shut them down,'' said Councilman Ed Reyes, who voted for the ban in July. ''It's a very confusing time for everyone. Those who chose to continue to open up for the right reasons are at risk and those who are doing it out of gamesmanship, out of opportunism, out of profit at the cost of our lives and the public safety in our communities will also be at risk.'' US Embassy car was targeted in Mexico Opposition supporters began celebrating as soon as the polls closed, and the mood could have turned ugly very quickly if they thought they were being deprived of a victory. Border Patrol agent shot and killed while official says there is strong circumstantial evidence that Mexican federal police who fired on a U.S. Embassy vehicle, wounding two CIA officers, were working for orga- nized crime on a targeted assassination attempt. attack on officers MEXICO CITY (AP) — A senior U.S. knowledge of the case on the Aug. 24 ambush confirmed on Tuesday that prose- cutors are investigating whether the Beltran Leyva Cartel was behind the attack. The Mexican official said that is among Meanwhile, a Mexican official with gating two gangs called the Very Cripsy Gangsters and the Rockstarz didn't need to spend all their time pounding the pavement for leads. Instead, they fired up their computers and followed the trash talk on Facebook. ''Rockstarz up 3-0,'' one suspect boasted — a reference to the body count from a bloody turf war between the Brooklyn gangs that ultimately resulted in 49 arrests last month. Authorities in New York say a new generation of gang members is increas- ingly using social media to boast of their exploits and issue taunts and challenges that result in violence. And police and prosecutors have responded over the past several years by closely monitoring Facebook and other sites for leads and evidence. On Tuesday, New York Police Com- missioner Raymond Kelly announced plans to beef up the NYPD's cyber crackdown by expanding the use of aggressive online investigative tactics and doubling the size of the depart- ment's gang unit to 300 investigators. The reinforcements will focus less on established gangs like the Bloods and Crips and more on loosely knit groups of teenagers who stake out a certain block or section of a housing project as their turf and exact vengeance on those who trespass or fail to show the proper respect. gang violence NEW YORK (AP) — Police investi- Los Angeles votes to repeal ban dealing with marijuana dispensaries The Syrian uprising has left Assad deeply isolated — making his remaining allies such as Iran and Russia all the more important. At last week's gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, dozens of nations excoriated the Assad regime for its role in a conflict that activists estimate has killed at least 30,000 Syrians. LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles City Council reversed course Tuesday and repealed a ban on pot shops that it passed just two months ago to shutter hundreds of medical marijuana storefronts. negate its July decision to rid the nation's second-largest city of pot dis- pensaries. The repeal came after oppo- nents gathered enough signatures to place a referendum on the ballot seeking Council members voted 11-2 to who was wounded, nor did they say whether any weapons were seized at the site of the shooting. At a news conference in Naco, an FBI agent was shot to death Tuesday in Arizona near the U.S.-Mexico line, the first fatal shooting of an agent since a deadly 2010 firefight with Mexican bandits that spawned congressional probes of a botched govern- ment gun-smuggling investigation. The agent, Nicholas Ivie, 30, and a col- league were on patrol in the desert near Naco, Ariz., about 100 miles from Tucson, when shooting broke out shortly before 2 a.m., the Border Patrol said. The second agent was shot in the ankle and buttocks, and was reported to be in stable condition Tuesday afternoon. Authorities have not identified the agent on patrol in Arizona NACO, Ariz. (AP) — A Border Patrol official said the agency still was processing the crime scene and it might take several days to complete. The FBI and the Cochise County Sheriff's Office, which is also inves- tigating, declined to say whether investiga- tors have recovered guns or bullet casings. No arrests have been made, but authori- ties suspect that more than one person fired at the agents. several lines of investigation into the shoot- ing up of an armored SUV that was clearly marked with diplomatic license plates on a rural road near Cuernavaca south of Mexico City. Federal police, at times battered by allegations of infiltration and corruption by drug cartels, have said the shooting was a case of mistaken identity as officers were looking into the kidnapping of a govern- ment employee in that area. ''That's not a 'We're trying to shake down a couple people for a traffic violation sort of operation. That's a 'We are specifi- cally trying to kill the people in this vehi- cle','' a U.S. official familiar with the inves- tigation told The Associated Press. ''This is not a 'Whoops, we got the wrong people.' '' Photos of the gray Toyota SUV, a model known to be used by Drug Enforcement Administration agents and other U.S. Embassy employees working in Mexico, showed it riddled with heavy gunfire. The U.S. Embassy called the attack an ''ambush.'' Georgian president expectations, President Mikhail Saakashvili conceded Tuesday that his party had lost Georgia's parliamentary election and his opponent had the right to become prime minister, setting the stage for political turmoil in the final year of his presidency. The new Georgian government will be led by billionaire businessman and philan- thropist Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia and until recently was lit- tle known to the 4.5 million people in his homeland on the Black Sea. concedes party lost TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Defying the first time in Georgia's post-Soviet his- tory that the government changed by the ballot box rather than through revolution. Saakashvili came to power through the peaceful Rose Revolution after a rigged parliamentary vote in 2003. By conceding defeat even before the results of Monday's election were released, the 44-year-old Saakashvili defied the opposition's expectations that he would cling to power at all costs and preserved his legacy as a pro-Western leader who brought democracy to the former Soviet republic. In one notable accomplishment, it was He also prevented potential violence on the emotionally charged streets of the capi- tal, Tbilisi, where support for the opposi- tion Georgian Dream coalition is strongest. he's innocent of theft VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Bene- dict XVI's onetime butler declared Tues- day he was innocent of a charge of aggravated theft of the pope's private correspondence, but acknowledged he photocopied the papers and said he feels guilty that he betrayed the trust of the pontiff he loves like a father. Paolo Gabriele took the stand Tues- day in a Vatican courtroom to defend himself against accusations of his role in one of the most damaging scandals of Benedict's pontificate. Prosecutors say Gabriele stole the pope's letters and doc- uments alleging power struggles and corruption inside the Vatican and leaked them to a journalist in an unprecedented papal security breach. Gabriele faces four years in prison if he is found guilty, although most Vatican watchers expect he will receive a papal pardon if he is convicted. Pope's butler says LEGAL NOTICE ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF TEHAMA PETITION OF: Russell Zackery Hardy FOR CHANGE OF NAME CASE NUMBER: 67020 ______________________/ TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner, Russell Zackery Hardy, filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Russell Zackery Hardy to Zackery Russell Lange THE COURT ORDERS that all per- sons interested in this matter shall appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the peti- tion for change of name should not be granted. NOTICE OF HEARING Date: October 15, 2012 Time: 1:30 p.m. Dept.: 3. The address of the court is 633 Washington St., Rm 17, Red Bluff, CA 96080. A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the peti- tion in the Red Bluff Daily News a newspaper of general circula- tion, printed in this county. Actual notice to minors father shall not be required. Notice to his legal conservator shall be sufficient enough notice. DATE: September 6, 2012 S/By: Jonathan W. Skillman JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT Publish: Sept. 12, 19, 26 & Oct. 3, 2012

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