Sunday, July 15, 2012

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria’s 16-month bloodbath crossed an important symbolic threshold Sunday as the international Red Cross formally declared the conflict a civil war, a status with implications for potential war crimes prosecutions.

The Red Cross statement came as United Nations observers gathered new details on what happened in a village where dozens were reported killed in a regime assault. After a second visit to Tremseh on Sunday, the team said Syrian troops went door-to-door in the small farming community, checking residents’ IDs and then killing some and taking others away.

According to the U.N., the attack appeared to target army defectors and activists.

“Pools of blood and brain matter were observed in a number of homes,” a U.N. statement said.

Syria denied U.N. claims that government forces had used heavy weapons such as tanks, artillery and helicopters during the attack Thursday.

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NKorea says powerful army chief and key adviser to leader relieved of posts because of illness

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Kim Jong Un’s top military official — a key mentor to North Korea’s new young leader — has been removed from all posts because of illness, state media said Monday.

The decision to relieve Ri Yong Ho of his duties was made at a Workers’ Party meeting Sunday, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. It was not immediately clear who would take Ri’s place, and the North Korean media dispatch did not elaborate on Ri’s condition or future.

Ri was vice marshal of the Korean People’s Army and the military’s General Staff chief, as well as a top figure in the Workers’ Party.

He has been at Kim Jong Un’s side since the young man emerged as father Kim Jong Il’s successor in 2010, often standing between father and son at major events. That role appeared to deepen after Kim Jong Il’s death in December, helping Kim to solidify support among the military.

Kim Jong Il’s “military first” policy made the army North Korea’s most powerful institution. Ri wielded power from his position at the intersection of three crucial institutions: the Korean People’s Army, the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party and the Standing Committee of the party’s influential Political Bureau.

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As Clinton urges dialogue, Egypt’s military chief takes tough stance on Brotherhood

CAIRO (AP) — The head of Egypt’s military took a tough line Sunday on the Muslim Brotherhood, warning that he won’t let the fundamentalist group dominate the country, only hours after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged him to work with Egypt’s elected Islamist leaders.

Clinton’s visit to Egypt underscored the difficulty Washington faces in trying to wield its influence amid the country’s stormy post-Hosni Mubarak power struggles. Protesters chanting against the U.S. — sometimes reaching several hundred — sprung up at several sites Clinton visited this weekend. On Sunday, protesters threw tomatoes, water bottles and shoes at her motorcade as she left a ceremony marking the opening of a new U.S. consulate in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

Islamist Mohammed Morsi, a longtime Brotherhood figure, was sworn two weeks ago as Egypt’s first democratically elected president. Led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the military handed over power to him June 30 after ruling Egypt for 16 months. The military, however, dissolved the Brotherhood-led parliament and stripped Morsi of significant authorities in the days before his inauguration, while retaining overwhelming powers for itself, including legislative power and control of the writing of a new constitution.

The United States is in a difficult spot when it comes to dealing with post-Mubarak Egypt — eager to be seen as a champion of democracy and human rights after three decades of close ties with the ousted leader despite his abysmal record in advancing either.

This has involved some uncomfortable changes, including occasional criticism of America’s longtime faithful partners in Egypt’s military as it grabs more power and words of support for Islamist parties far more skeptical of U.S. intentions in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East.

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Obama clings to some advantages from 2008 while reaching for new ways to offset faded assets

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four months from Election Day, President Barack Obama has an edge in support among women, African-Americans, Hispanics and young people, groups that could swing the race in November.

He retains the power of incumbency and people generally like him.

But there are indications that Obama’s supporters aren’t as enthusiastic about him as they once were, and the Democrat no longer is in a fundraising league of his own, with Republican Mitt Romney and GOP-leaning groups raking in the campaign cash.

Plus, the shaky economy, which crashed in fall of 2008 and helped Obama capture the presidency, is a huge vulnerability. Come November, it could trump all his other advantages.

A look at Obama’s assets and liabilities:

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GOP hopeful Mitt Romney faces summer of hurdles and opportunities in fight to unseat Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the White House challenger, Mitt Romney can seize on the attention that accompanies the selection of a running mate. When the London Olympics get under way, he can use that spotlight to play up his leadership of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

His candidacy also is benefiting from the fundraising power of outside GOP-aligned political groups that are spending millions on TV ads to promote him and undercut President Barack Obama. The weak economic recovery offers the chance for Romney to make inroads among unhappy voters.

Not all is rosy, however, for the former Massachusetts governor.

Health care is the last thing Romney wants to talk about. As he appeals to independent voters, he has to fend off charges that by moving to the middle, he’s changing core positions for political purposes.

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Feds to reroute SF Bay ship traffic after spike in whale-ship collisions

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Scientists studying the carcass of a 47-foot fin whale that washed up on a beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore last month found the creature’s spine and ribs severed, likely from the propeller of one of the huge cargo ships that sail those waters.

There have been many victims of such accidents in recent years as migrating blue, fin and humpback whales have been lured close to California’s shore by plentiful krill, the shrimp-like organisms they eat. All three species are endangered.

Now, after a two-year effort spurred by the uptick in accidents, federal maritime officials have approved a plan to protect whales in and around San Francisco Bay. It includes rerouting shipping traffic and establishing better ways to track whale locations.

The changes crafted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shipping industry representatives, whale researchers and the Coast Guard will likely take effect next year, after a final review by the United Nations International Maritime Organization.

“In 2010 it really struck home when a female blue whale carrying a calf was found dead on the beach,” said Maria Brown, NOAA’s superintendent for the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. “And blue whales’ numbers are so small — to lose a female and a new whale coming into the population really sent home the message that we needed to look at the whale strike issue.”

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Cities weigh controversial but inventive way to fix mortgages: condemn them

FONTANA, Calif. (AP) — In the foreclosure-battered inland stretches of California, local government officials desperate for change are weighing a controversial but inventive way to fix troubled mortgages: Condemn them.

Officials from San Bernardino County and two of its cities have formed a local agency to consider the plan. But investors who stand to lose money on their mortgage investments have been quick to register their displeasure.

Discussion of the idea is taking place in one of the epicenters of the housing crisis, a working-class region east of Los Angeles where housing prices have plummeted. Last week brought another sharp reminder of the crisis when the 210,000-strong city of San Bernardino, struggling after shrunken home prices walloped local tax revenues, announced it would seek bankruptcy protection.

Now — and amid skepticism on many fronts — officials from the surrounding county of San Bernardino and cities of Fontana and Ontario have created a joint powers authority to consider what role local governments could take to stem the crisis. The goal is to keep homeowners saddled by large mortgage payments from losing their homes — which are now valued at a fraction of what they were once worth.

“We just have too much pain and misery in this county to call off a public discussion like this,” said David Wert, a county spokesman.

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Montana Superfund town marks milestone with asbestos cleanup at new park, but dangers remain

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Grass and freshly planted trees are sprouting in a new town park that sits atop the site of a vermiculite plant that once spewed asbestos dust across the mountain community of Libby — a welcome dose of normalcy for a city that has become synonymous with lung disease and death.

It’s a major milestone for the mining town of about 3,000 people near the Canadian border where an estimated 400 people to date have been killed by asbestos exposure. More than 1,700 have been sickened. Lethal dust from the WR. Grace and Co. plant and the company’s nearby mine once blanketed the town, and asbestos illnesses are still being diagnosed more than two decades after the mine was shuttered.

Following a 12-year cleanup, Riverfront Park hosted a wedding last weekend. Officials said another wedding and a blues festival are scheduled for early August. For Mayor Doug Roll, the federal government’s recent transfer of the park to the city offers a symbolic break from Libby’s lethal past.

“It’s sort of like Phoenix rising from the ashes,” Roll said. “We’ve had a lot of negative stuff going on and we’re trying to turn that around.”

But the park — the first major finished piece of a federal cleanup that so far has cost $447 million — carries a significant asterisk: Because of the difficulty of removing all the asbestos-containing vermiculite from the highly-contaminated site, federal regulators say some of the dangerous material remains.

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Speed dating on the farm: ‘Weed dating’ allows singles to meet while getting their hands dirty

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — For one night a year, a neighborhood farm in northwest Boise turns into a respite for singles who are tired of the same old dating scene.

A poster board planted at the entrance of Earthly Delights Farm in late June advertised “Weed Dating,” with a heart-stamped arrow guiding visitors to a sign-in table, where they were each assigned a number and invited to sample beer provided by a local brewer.

The farm is among a handful across the country offering an unconventional form of speed dating. Typically, speed daters meet at a bar or restaurant and switch conversational partners every few minutes, in hopes of finding someone compatible. With weed dating, this rapid-fire courtship takes place on the farm, with singles working together in the fields.

The payoff for their toil? A chance at romance.

Joe Peraino, 27, met his previous girlfriend while weed dating at the Boise farm last year. They were together for nine months and found that few others couples could top their account of how they met, said Peraino, who has since relocated to South Carolina.

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NY Knicks’ Jason Kidd arrested on drunken-driving charge; police say he crashed into pole

Jason Kidd mentoring Jeremy Lin was a nice story last week.

Then Kidd was arrested on a drunken-driving charge, Lin’s departure from New York for a “ridiculous contract” in Houston became more realistic, and a position of strength suddenly was one of turbulence for the Knicks.

Kidd’s arrest came within hours of the Knicks agreeing to a trade for fellow point guard Raymond Felton, raising the possibility they will refuse to match Lin’s offer sheet with the Rockets.

Police said Kidd crashed his SUV into a telephone pole in the Hamptons on Sunday, days after signing with the Knicks.

Treated at a hospital for minor injuries after the crash, Kidd was arraigned on a misdemeanor driving-while-intoxicated charge and released without bail, Southampton Town police said.