World/Nation Briefs 5.10.2012
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
WASHINGTON (AP) — On the fence no longer, President Barack Obama declared his unequivocal support for gay marriage on Wednesday, a historic announcement that gave the polarizing social issue a more prominent role in the 2012 race for the White House.
The announcement was the first by a sitting president, and Republican challenger Mitt Romney swiftly disagreed with it. ‘‘I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman,’’ he said while campaigning in Oklahoma.
Gay rights advocates cheered Obama’s declaration, which they had long urged him to make. Beyond the words, one man who married his gay partner in Washington, D.C., was stirred to send a $25 contribution to the president’s campaign. ‘‘Making a contribution is the best way to say thank you,’’ said Stuart Kopperman.
Obama revealed his decision after a series of events that made clear the political ground was shifting. He once opposed gay marriage but more recently had said his views were ‘‘evolving.’’
In an interview with ABC in which he blended the personal and the presidential, Obama said ‘‘it wouldn’t dawn’’ on his daughters, Sasha and Malia, that some of their friends’ parents would be treated differently than others. He said he also thought of aides ‘‘who are in incredibly committed monogamous same-sex relationships who are raising kids together.’’
———
Analysis: Obama appeals to liberals, risks swing-state backlash, with gay marriage move
WASHINGTON (AP) — Public opinion about gay marriage has changed so rapidly that President Barack Obama’s historic embrace of it may pose as many political risks to Republicans as to the president and his fellow Democrats.
The president’s dramatic shift on the issue — a watershed moment in U.S. politics, even if many people felt it was inevitable — is the latest sign that Democratic hopes increasingly rest on younger, college-educated and largely urban voters, whose lifestyles are shaped by social mobility more than religious and community traditions. Many young adults find the notion of discriminating against gays and lesbians as incomprehensible as their parents’ and grandparents’ accounts of living through racial segregation.
Yet same-sex marriage remains provocative in some places, including once-reliably Republican states such as North Carolina, where Obama won a narrow but stunning victory in 2008. Only hours before his Wednesday announcement on ABC News, North Carolina voters turned out in huge numbers to approve a constitutional ban on gay marriage.
The immediate reactions to Obama’s statement on gay marriage weighed the political tradeoffs between embracing a social trend that’s important to Democrats’ liberal base, and risking potentially intense opposition from social conservatives in battleground states.
Mainstream Republicans, for the most part, moved warily. They focused their comment on the political calculations involved, not on the actual substance of letting same-sex couples marry.
———
Decade after 9/11, Saudis emerge as key US ally in fight against al-Qaida spinoff in Yemen
WASHINGTON (AP) — A decade after hijackers mostly from Saudi Arabia attacked the United States with passenger jets, the Saudis have emerged as the principal ally of the U.S. against al-Qaida’s spinoff group in Yemen and at least twice have disrupted plots to explode sophisticated bombs aboard airlines.
Details emerging about the latest unraveled plot revealed that a Saudi double agent fooled the terror group, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, passing himself off as an eager would-be suicide bomber. Instead, he secretly turned over the group’s most up-to-date underwear bomb to Saudi Arabia, which gave it to the CIA. Before he was whisked to safety, the spy provided intelligence that helped the CIA kill al-Qaida’s senior operations leader, Fahd al-Quso, who died in a drone strike last weekend.
The role of Saudi Arabia disrupting the plot follows warnings in 2010 from the oil-rich kingdom about a plot to blow up cargo planes inside the U.S., either on runways or over American cities. That plot involved a frantic chase across five countries of two packages containing bombs powerful enough to down an airplane. Twice, a bomb was aboard a passenger plane. Once, authorities were just minutes too late to stop a cargo jet with a bomb from departing for its next destination. Ultimately, no one died and the packages never exploded.
It hasn’t always been this way.
Saudi Arabia, the one-time home of Osama bin Laden, failed to spot and stop the 15 Saudi-born hijackers of the 19 who carried out the September 2001 terror attacks. Questions remain whether two Saudi citizens who had at least indirect links with two of the hijackers were reporting to Saudi government officials. U.S. law enforcement officials accused the Saudi government of failing to help adequately in investigations of the al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000 and Hezbollah’s bombing of the Khobar Towers housing complex, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen in 1996.
———
AP-GfK Poll: Voters tend to trust and like Obama; Romney may gain on economic front
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s popularity among women, minorities and independents is giving him an early edge over his likely GOP rival, Mitt Romney, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.
The Democratic president also earns strong marks on empathy, sincerity, likeability and social issues. But Americans are split over which candidate can best handle the economy, which might open pathways for Romney six months before the November election.
Half of registered voters say they would back Obama in November, while 42 percent favor Romney, the AP-GfK poll found. About a quarter of voters indicated they are persuadable, meaning they are undecided or could change their minds before Election Day.
Forty-one percent of voters say they are certain to vote for Obama, and 32 percent say they are locked in for Romney.
The nationwide poll of 1,004 adults comes as Romney is focusing heavily on fundraising after gaining endorsements from of all but one of his GOP rivals, and conservative voters are reminding politicians of their muscle. Republicans in Indiana on Tuesday ousted a six-term senator accused of being too friendly to Obama, and North Carolina voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
———
Hairstyling giant Sassoon dies at 84; his wash-and-wear hairdos freed women from beehive
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Vidal Sassoon used his hairstyling shears to free women from beehives and hot rollers and give them wash-and-wear cuts that made him an international name in hair care.
When he came on the scene in the 1950s, hair was high and heavy — typically curled, teased, piled and shellacked into place. Then came the 1960s, and Sassoon’s creative cuts, which required little styling and fell into place perfectly every time, fit right in with the fledgling women’s liberation movement.
‘‘His timing was perfect: As women’s hair was liberated, so were their lives,’’ Allure magazine Editor-in-Chief Linda Wells told The Associated Press in a written statement. ‘‘Sassoon was one of the original feminists.’’
Sassoon was at his home in Los Angeles with his family when he died Wednesday at age 84, police spokesman Kevin Maiberger said. Maiberger said police were summoned to the home but found that Sassoon had died of natural causes, and authorities wouldn’t investigate further.
His exact cause of death was unclear, but publicist Mark Sejvar said Sassoon had leukemia for several years.
———
Wreckage of Russian jet found on Indonesian volcano; 47 people were on demonstration flight
CIDAHU, Indonesia (AP) — Helicopters spotted the scattered wreckage a Russian-made passenger plane on the side of a mist-shrouded mountain Thursday after it disappeared during a demonstration flight in Indonesia with 47 people on board. There was no sign of survivors.
Family members who spent the night at the airport broke down in tears on hearing the news.
‘‘Rescuers on the helicopters could clearly see the wreckage located at the top of Mount Salak,’’ including the blue-and-white of the aircraft maker, said Gagah Prakoso, a spokesman for the Search and Rescue National Agency.
‘‘There is no sign of any of the passengers,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re trying to move in closer to the wreckage now.’’
The Sukhoi Superjet-100, Russia’s first new passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago, left Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta on Wednesday afternoon for the second demonstration flight of the day. Potential buyers and journalists were on board.
———
After heated closings, jury deliberates case of man accused of killing Hudson relatives
CHICAGO (AP) — Jurors deliberated late into the night Wednesday without reaching a verdict after sitting through sometimes heated and embittered closing arguments at the Chicago trial of the man accused of slaying Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew.
The actress and singer sobbed and dabbed her eyes when prosecutors displayed photos of the bullet-riddled bodies of her three close relatives during closing arguments earlier in the day.
Prosecutors contend Hudson’s former brother-in-law, William Balfour, killed the family members in October 2008 in an act of vengeance against Hudson’s sister, Julia Hudson, to whom he was married but estranged at the time.
The judge at the high-profile trial told jurors they would be sequestered — staying at a nearby hotel overnights until they reached a verdict. They deliberated for more than four hours Wednesday and were scheduled to return to the courthouse to continue deliberations Thursday morning.
With no surviving witnesses to present, prosecutors spent two weeks laying out a largely circumstantial case against Balfour, a 30-year-old one-time gang member.
———
Tenn. kidnap-slaying suspect claimed 2 abducted girls were his daughters, mother-in-law says
GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man killed a Tennessee mother and her teenage daughter so he could abduct two young sisters who are still missing, according to court documents filed Wednesday, and a relative says the suspect thought the two younger girls might be his daughters.
The developments gave the first hint of a motive in the case that began in southwest Tennessee, stretched into Mississippi and led the FBI to put Adam Christopher Mayes, 35, on its Ten Most Wanted list. Authorities said they think the missing girls, Alexandria, 12, and Kyliyah Bain, 8, are still with Mayes, nearly two weeks after he took them.
Josie Tate, Mayes’ mother-in-law, told The Associated Press that Mayes thought he might be the girls’ father and it caused trouble in the marriage to her daughter, who’s jailed in the case.
‘‘She was tired of him doting on those two little girls that he claimed were his,’’ Tate said in an exclusive phone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. In an earlier interview, her daughter, Bobbi Booth, said Teresa Mayes suspected her husband was having an affair with Jo Ann Bain.
Authorities refused to comment on the motive for the April 27 slayings and abductions at a Wednesday news conference.
———
It’s Joshua Ledet’s world on ’American Idol’ as judges pull out hyperbole for 1 of final 4
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The ‘‘American Idol’’ judges are under Joshua Ledet’s spell, and they aren’t afraid to show it.
For the second week in a row, the panel on Wednesday lavished the 20-year-old from Westlake, La., with praise, especially for his performance of ‘‘It’s a Man’s World.’’ Ledet earned a standing ovation from the judges for the James Brown song and also won them over with a version of Josh Groban’s ‘‘You Raise Me Up.’’
Sixteen-year-old Jessica ‘‘Bebe Chez’’ Sanchez, of San Diego, got her own show of respect for versions of Etta James’ ‘‘Steal Away’’ and Jennifer Holliday’s ‘‘And I’m Telling You (I’m Not Going).’’
Phillip Phillips, 21, of Leesburg, Ga., also won raves for Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain’’ and ‘‘Volcano’’ by Damien Rice.
Only Hollie Cavanagh, 18, of McKinney, Texas, got a split decision from the judges. They loved her version of Journey’s ‘‘Faithfully’’ but said she failed to deliver emotional maturity on Bonnie Raitt’s ‘‘I Can’t Make You Love Me.’’
———
James scores 29, Heat reach 2nd round by ousting Knicks in Game 5, 106-94
MIAMI (AP) — LeBron James decided not to play in New York two summers ago. He won’t be playing there any more this season, either.
The Knicks have been put away, and the Miami Heat are headed to the second round of the NBA playoffs.
James had 29 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade both scored 19 points and the Heat ousted the Knicks 106-94 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference first-round series Wednesday night.
Miami won the series 4-1, and will meet Indiana in the East semifinals starting Sunday in Miami.
‘‘We will savor this win tonight,’’ James said. ‘‘And then we get to work tomorrow and get ready for Indiana.’’
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WASHINGTON (AP) — On the fence no longer, President Barack Obama declared his unequivocal support for gay marriage on Wednesday, a historic announcement that gave the polarizing social issue a more prominent role in the 2012 race for the White House.
The announcement was the first by a sitting president, and Republican challenger Mitt Romney swiftly disagreed with it. ‘‘I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman,’’ he said while campaigning in Oklahoma.
Gay rights advocates cheered Obama’s declaration, which they had long urged him to make. Beyond the words, one man who married his gay partner in Washington, D.C., was stirred to send a $25 contribution to the president’s campaign. ‘‘Making a contribution is the best way to say thank you,’’ said Stuart Kopperman.
Obama revealed his decision after a series of events that made clear the political ground was shifting. He once opposed gay marriage but more recently had said his views were ‘‘evolving.’’
In an interview with ABC in which he blended the personal and the presidential, Obama said ‘‘it wouldn’t dawn’’ on his daughters, Sasha and Malia, that some of their friends’ parents would be treated differently than others. He said he also thought of aides ‘‘who are in incredibly committed monogamous same-sex relationships who are raising kids together.’’
———
Analysis: Obama appeals to liberals, risks swing-state backlash, with gay marriage move
WASHINGTON (AP) — Public opinion about gay marriage has changed so rapidly that President Barack Obama’s historic embrace of it may pose as many political risks to Republicans as to the president and his fellow Democrats.
The president’s dramatic shift on the issue — a watershed moment in U.S. politics, even if many people felt it was inevitable — is the latest sign that Democratic hopes increasingly rest on younger, college-educated and largely urban voters, whose lifestyles are shaped by social mobility more than religious and community traditions. Many young adults find the notion of discriminating against gays and lesbians as incomprehensible as their parents’ and grandparents’ accounts of living through racial segregation.
Yet same-sex marriage remains provocative in some places, including once-reliably Republican states such as North Carolina, where Obama won a narrow but stunning victory in 2008. Only hours before his Wednesday announcement on ABC News, North Carolina voters turned out in huge numbers to approve a constitutional ban on gay marriage.
The immediate reactions to Obama’s statement on gay marriage weighed the political tradeoffs between embracing a social trend that’s important to Democrats’ liberal base, and risking potentially intense opposition from social conservatives in battleground states.
Mainstream Republicans, for the most part, moved warily. They focused their comment on the political calculations involved, not on the actual substance of letting same-sex couples marry.
———
Decade after 9/11, Saudis emerge as key US ally in fight against al-Qaida spinoff in Yemen
WASHINGTON (AP) — A decade after hijackers mostly from Saudi Arabia attacked the United States with passenger jets, the Saudis have emerged as the principal ally of the U.S. against al-Qaida’s spinoff group in Yemen and at least twice have disrupted plots to explode sophisticated bombs aboard airlines.
Details emerging about the latest unraveled plot revealed that a Saudi double agent fooled the terror group, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, passing himself off as an eager would-be suicide bomber. Instead, he secretly turned over the group’s most up-to-date underwear bomb to Saudi Arabia, which gave it to the CIA. Before he was whisked to safety, the spy provided intelligence that helped the CIA kill al-Qaida’s senior operations leader, Fahd al-Quso, who died in a drone strike last weekend.
The role of Saudi Arabia disrupting the plot follows warnings in 2010 from the oil-rich kingdom about a plot to blow up cargo planes inside the U.S., either on runways or over American cities. That plot involved a frantic chase across five countries of two packages containing bombs powerful enough to down an airplane. Twice, a bomb was aboard a passenger plane. Once, authorities were just minutes too late to stop a cargo jet with a bomb from departing for its next destination. Ultimately, no one died and the packages never exploded.
It hasn’t always been this way.
Saudi Arabia, the one-time home of Osama bin Laden, failed to spot and stop the 15 Saudi-born hijackers of the 19 who carried out the September 2001 terror attacks. Questions remain whether two Saudi citizens who had at least indirect links with two of the hijackers were reporting to Saudi government officials. U.S. law enforcement officials accused the Saudi government of failing to help adequately in investigations of the al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000 and Hezbollah’s bombing of the Khobar Towers housing complex, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen in 1996.
———
AP-GfK Poll: Voters tend to trust and like Obama; Romney may gain on economic front
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s popularity among women, minorities and independents is giving him an early edge over his likely GOP rival, Mitt Romney, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.
The Democratic president also earns strong marks on empathy, sincerity, likeability and social issues. But Americans are split over which candidate can best handle the economy, which might open pathways for Romney six months before the November election.
Half of registered voters say they would back Obama in November, while 42 percent favor Romney, the AP-GfK poll found. About a quarter of voters indicated they are persuadable, meaning they are undecided or could change their minds before Election Day.
Forty-one percent of voters say they are certain to vote for Obama, and 32 percent say they are locked in for Romney.
The nationwide poll of 1,004 adults comes as Romney is focusing heavily on fundraising after gaining endorsements from of all but one of his GOP rivals, and conservative voters are reminding politicians of their muscle. Republicans in Indiana on Tuesday ousted a six-term senator accused of being too friendly to Obama, and North Carolina voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
———
Hairstyling giant Sassoon dies at 84; his wash-and-wear hairdos freed women from beehive
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Vidal Sassoon used his hairstyling shears to free women from beehives and hot rollers and give them wash-and-wear cuts that made him an international name in hair care.
When he came on the scene in the 1950s, hair was high and heavy — typically curled, teased, piled and shellacked into place. Then came the 1960s, and Sassoon’s creative cuts, which required little styling and fell into place perfectly every time, fit right in with the fledgling women’s liberation movement.
‘‘His timing was perfect: As women’s hair was liberated, so were their lives,’’ Allure magazine Editor-in-Chief Linda Wells told The Associated Press in a written statement. ‘‘Sassoon was one of the original feminists.’’
Sassoon was at his home in Los Angeles with his family when he died Wednesday at age 84, police spokesman Kevin Maiberger said. Maiberger said police were summoned to the home but found that Sassoon had died of natural causes, and authorities wouldn’t investigate further.
His exact cause of death was unclear, but publicist Mark Sejvar said Sassoon had leukemia for several years.
———
Wreckage of Russian jet found on Indonesian volcano; 47 people were on demonstration flight
CIDAHU, Indonesia (AP) — Helicopters spotted the scattered wreckage a Russian-made passenger plane on the side of a mist-shrouded mountain Thursday after it disappeared during a demonstration flight in Indonesia with 47 people on board. There was no sign of survivors.
Family members who spent the night at the airport broke down in tears on hearing the news.
‘‘Rescuers on the helicopters could clearly see the wreckage located at the top of Mount Salak,’’ including the blue-and-white of the aircraft maker, said Gagah Prakoso, a spokesman for the Search and Rescue National Agency.
‘‘There is no sign of any of the passengers,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re trying to move in closer to the wreckage now.’’
The Sukhoi Superjet-100, Russia’s first new passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago, left Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta on Wednesday afternoon for the second demonstration flight of the day. Potential buyers and journalists were on board.
———
After heated closings, jury deliberates case of man accused of killing Hudson relatives
CHICAGO (AP) — Jurors deliberated late into the night Wednesday without reaching a verdict after sitting through sometimes heated and embittered closing arguments at the Chicago trial of the man accused of slaying Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew.
The actress and singer sobbed and dabbed her eyes when prosecutors displayed photos of the bullet-riddled bodies of her three close relatives during closing arguments earlier in the day.
Prosecutors contend Hudson’s former brother-in-law, William Balfour, killed the family members in October 2008 in an act of vengeance against Hudson’s sister, Julia Hudson, to whom he was married but estranged at the time.
The judge at the high-profile trial told jurors they would be sequestered — staying at a nearby hotel overnights until they reached a verdict. They deliberated for more than four hours Wednesday and were scheduled to return to the courthouse to continue deliberations Thursday morning.
With no surviving witnesses to present, prosecutors spent two weeks laying out a largely circumstantial case against Balfour, a 30-year-old one-time gang member.
———
Tenn. kidnap-slaying suspect claimed 2 abducted girls were his daughters, mother-in-law says
GUNTOWN, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man killed a Tennessee mother and her teenage daughter so he could abduct two young sisters who are still missing, according to court documents filed Wednesday, and a relative says the suspect thought the two younger girls might be his daughters.
The developments gave the first hint of a motive in the case that began in southwest Tennessee, stretched into Mississippi and led the FBI to put Adam Christopher Mayes, 35, on its Ten Most Wanted list. Authorities said they think the missing girls, Alexandria, 12, and Kyliyah Bain, 8, are still with Mayes, nearly two weeks after he took them.
Josie Tate, Mayes’ mother-in-law, told The Associated Press that Mayes thought he might be the girls’ father and it caused trouble in the marriage to her daughter, who’s jailed in the case.
‘‘She was tired of him doting on those two little girls that he claimed were his,’’ Tate said in an exclusive phone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. In an earlier interview, her daughter, Bobbi Booth, said Teresa Mayes suspected her husband was having an affair with Jo Ann Bain.
Authorities refused to comment on the motive for the April 27 slayings and abductions at a Wednesday news conference.
———
It’s Joshua Ledet’s world on ’American Idol’ as judges pull out hyperbole for 1 of final 4
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The ‘‘American Idol’’ judges are under Joshua Ledet’s spell, and they aren’t afraid to show it.
For the second week in a row, the panel on Wednesday lavished the 20-year-old from Westlake, La., with praise, especially for his performance of ‘‘It’s a Man’s World.’’ Ledet earned a standing ovation from the judges for the James Brown song and also won them over with a version of Josh Groban’s ‘‘You Raise Me Up.’’
Sixteen-year-old Jessica ‘‘Bebe Chez’’ Sanchez, of San Diego, got her own show of respect for versions of Etta James’ ‘‘Steal Away’’ and Jennifer Holliday’s ‘‘And I’m Telling You (I’m Not Going).’’
Phillip Phillips, 21, of Leesburg, Ga., also won raves for Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain’’ and ‘‘Volcano’’ by Damien Rice.
Only Hollie Cavanagh, 18, of McKinney, Texas, got a split decision from the judges. They loved her version of Journey’s ‘‘Faithfully’’ but said she failed to deliver emotional maturity on Bonnie Raitt’s ‘‘I Can’t Make You Love Me.’’
———
James scores 29, Heat reach 2nd round by ousting Knicks in Game 5, 106-94
MIAMI (AP) — LeBron James decided not to play in New York two summers ago. He won’t be playing there any more this season, either.
The Knicks have been put away, and the Miami Heat are headed to the second round of the NBA playoffs.
James had 29 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade both scored 19 points and the Heat ousted the Knicks 106-94 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference first-round series Wednesday night.
Miami won the series 4-1, and will meet Indiana in the East semifinals starting Sunday in Miami.
‘‘We will savor this win tonight,’’ James said. ‘‘And then we get to work tomorrow and get ready for Indiana.’’
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