World/Nation Briefs 5.16.2012
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
Without fanfare, the nation’s nuclear power regulators have overhauled community emergency planning for the first time in more than three decades, requiring fewer exercises for major accidents and recommending that fewer people be evacuated right away.
The revamp, the first since the program began after Three Mile Island in 1979, also eliminates a requirement that local responders always practice for a release of radiation.
At least four years in the works, the changes appear to clash with more recent lessons of last year’s reactor crisis in Japan.
Under the new rules, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which run the program together, have added one new exercise: More than a decade after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, state and community police will now take part in exercises that prepare for a possible assault on their local plant.
Still, some emergency officials say this new exercise doesn’t go far enough.
———
Facebook CEO’s pledge to make world more connected contrasts sharply with public persona
When Hollywood set out to tell the story of how Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, it enjoyed the flexibility of portraying a man who, despite his social network’s worldwide reach, was all but unknown to the public.
A year and half later, the movie ‘‘The Social Network’’ and the attention that followed have dispelled much of the mystery surrounding Zuckerberg, sketching out the essentials of his story line. But as Facebook promotes the vision of its 28-year-old CEO as part of this week’s first-ever sale of stock to the public, one of the most striking features of his persona is the contradiction between the public and private that remains at its center.
Zuckerberg avoids questions about himself and once sued a magazine for publishing documents revealing details from his past. Yet he is the architect of a revolutionary platform built on people freely disclosing information about themselves, offering up the stuff of everyday life as worthy of the biggest stage.
‘‘Facebook was not originally created to be a company,’’ Zuckerberg wrote in a letter, included with a regulatory filing needed for the initial public offering. ‘‘It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.’’
Zuckerberg has built Facebook, which could be valued at up to $104 billion by the stock offering, into an international phenomenon by stretching the lines of social convention and embracing a new and far more permeable definition of community. Along the way, he’s proven deft at recognizing the way people use social networks, reshaping and expanding Facebook’s capabilities to draw in more users.
———
Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic’s genocide trial under way at UN war crimes court
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Twenty years after his troops began brutally ethnically cleansing Bosnian towns and villages of non-Serbs, Gen. Ratko Mladic went on trial Wednesday at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal accused of 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The ailing 70-year-old Mladic’s appearance at the U.N. court war crimes tribunal marked the end of a long wait for justice to survivors of the 1992-95 war that left some 100,000 people dead. The trial is also a landmark for the U.N. court and international justice — Mladic is the last suspect from the Bosnian war to go on trial here.
Mladic, in a suit and tie and looking healthier than at previous pretrial hearings, gave a thumbs-up and clapped to supporters in the court’s public gallery as the trial got under way Wednesday. He occasionally wrote notes and showed no emotion as prosecutors began outlining his alleged crimes.
Munira Subasic, who lost 22 family members in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, was among a group of relatives of war dead in the courtroom’s public gallery to face Mladic.
The 65-year-old said she wanted to look him in the eye ‘‘and ask him if he will repent for what he did.’’
———
SPIN METER: Never mind: GOP also-rans make nice, airbrush their anti-Romney scripts
WASHINGTON (AP) — Remember Newt Gingrich calling Mitt Romney a liar? Michele Bachmann saying Romney’s unelectable? Rick Santorum calling Romney ‘‘the worst Republican in the country’’ to run against Obama?
They’re hoping you don’t. And acting like it never happened (even though most of their words are just clicks away online.)
One by one — with the exception of holdout Ron Paul — the GOP also-rans have coughed up endorsements of their onetime rival. And as they do, they’re pulling rhetorical backflips to distance themselves from their former harsh assessments of Romney.
Don’t try this at home, folks. It takes a professional politician to pull it off with a straight face.
A sampling of the also-rans’ anti-Romney rhetoric when they were candidates and their obligatory niceness after endorsing Romney.
———
Iran tough stance in nuclear talks reflects ‘political capital’ in standoff
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The negotiating stance from Iranian officials never varies: The Islamic Republic will not give up its capabilities to make nuclear fuel. But embedded in the messages are meanings that reach beyond Tehran’s talks with world powers.
It points to the struggles within Iran’s ruling system as it readies for the next round of talks scheduled to begin next week in Baghdad.
Iran’s Islamic leadership — which crushed an opposition groundswell nearly three years ago and later swatted back a power grab by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — has now staked its political credibility on its ability to resist Western sanctions and hold firm to its rights under U.N. treaties to enrich uranium.
Any concessions — either too great or too fast — could risk internal rifts within Iran’s power structure. And that could draw powerful forces into the mix, including the Revolutionary Guard that acts as defender of the theocracy and overseer of the nuclear program. As talks deepen, so do the political considerations for an Islamic establishment that cannot afford to appear to come away empty handed.
‘‘Insisting on a halt to enrichment is a deal breaker,’’ said Tehran-based political analyst Behrooz Shojaei. ‘‘It is Iran’s red line.’’
———
GOP insurgent Fischer to face Kerrey in Nebraska; Romney pushes toward nomination
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — After an improbable Nebraska primary victory, state Sen. Deb Fischer has emerged from relative obscurity to take the mantle as one of the GOP’s best hopes for picking up a U.S. Senate seat — though she’ll have to beat a famous Democratic politician to do it — popular former Sen. Bob Kerrey.
On the presidential front, Republican Mitt Romney continued to pile up the delegates he will need to claim the GOP nomination, but he has already moved into general election mode against President Barack Obama. Romney inched closer to his all-but-certain nomination with wins in two more states.
Romney was expected to pick up most — if not all — of Oregon’s 25 delegates. Nebraska Republicans also picked Romney although no delegates would be allotted in a vote that amounts to a beauty contest. The state’s 32 delegates to the Republican National Convention later this year will be determined at the state convention on July 14.
Romney began the day 171 delegates short of the 1,144 needed for the nomination and was on pace to get them before the month ended.
In Nebraska, Republicans know they need to find someone to go toe-to-toe with Kerrey in the fall and could have opted for one of two statewide office holders — Attorney General Jon Bruning or Treasurer Don Stenberg, both of whom were better funded and better known than Fischer.
———
Former Colombian interior minister survives bomb attack in Bogota; 2 killed, 39 injured
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A midday bombing that killed two bodyguards of an archconservative former interior minister and injured at least 39 people in a busy commercial district of Bogota has raised fears that violence not seen in the Colombian capital in years could return.
Former Interior Minister Fernando Londono, 68, had glass shards removed from his chest and was out of danger, authorities said.
But the ex-minister’s driver and another bodyguard were killed almost instantly. Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro said a pedestrian attached an explosive to a door of Londono’s armored SUV and set it off remotely.
Authorities said they had video of Tuesday’s attack and Petro said the culprit ‘‘walked away disguised.’’ A wig of long black hair and a hat were found nearby.
It was the first fatal bombing of an apparently political nature in the capital in nearly a decade and it traumatized a capital that two decades earlier was ravaged by car bombs set off by drug traffickers fighting extradition to the United States.
———
Deputies: Fla. mom fatally shot her 4 children then herself; 3 returned to house after fleeing
PORT ST. JOHN, Fla. (AP) — In the middle of the night, Tonya Thomas’ neighbors awoke to the sound of a gunshot and moments later heard a knock on their door.
Three of Thomas’ four children were outside, including one who appeared to have been shot. Before the neighbors could offer help, Thomas came out of her house and called the children back home.
They complied. The neighbors dialed 911 after hearing more gunshots.
Brevard County Sheriff’s deputies found Thomas, 33, dead of an apparent self-inflicted wound and three of her children — Jaxs Johnson, 15; Jazzlyn Johnson, 13; and Joel Johnson, 12 — were fatally shot inside the house. A fourth child, Pebbles Johnson, 17, was found shot to death in the front yard of a neighbor’s house.
Investigators said they didn’t know a motive for the shooting and weren’t sure why the children followed their mother’s orders to return to the house.
———
Students in tornado-hit S. Ind. community await concert by country trio Lady Antebellum
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tornadoes battered their school and their homes. Their spring break was filled with cleanup and recovery work that has only just begun. But for one night, students at a southern Indiana high school hope to put all that aside to enjoy an evening that one of country music’s biggest acts planned just for them.
Henryville, Ind., will share the spotlight with Grammy-winning Lady Antebellum on Wednesday night at the KFC Yum Center in nearby Louisville, Ky., where the trio will stage a ‘‘mini-prom’’ bash for students at Henryville Junior-Senior High School, followed by a benefit for the devastated community.
‘‘With everything’s that’s happened — the tornado and the destruction — now we’ll have something else to remember for the rest of our lives,’’ said Henryville junior class vice president Kaitlyn Maloney, 17, who rode out the March 2 storm with her parents in the basement of their Henryville home. ‘‘This will give us something to remember that’s happy.’’
The battered high school landed both events in late March by winning Lady Antebellum’s online ‘‘Own the Night’’ contest offering one school a concert at its prom. Schools as far away as northern Wisconsin submitted YouTube videos on behalf of Henryville, an unincorporated town hit by two tornadoes — one packing 175 mph winds — on a day when storms killed 13 people in Indiana and 24 in Kentucky.
Singer Hillary Scott said the band was moved by what she called the ‘‘selfless’’ entries from other schools, including rival Silver Creek High School in nearby Sellersburg, Ind.
———
Rested Spurs beat weary Clippers 108-92 in West semis opener to stretch winning streak to 15
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The San Antonio Spurs had just taken Game 1, and Manu Ginobili didn’t want to hear another word about winning 15 in a row or not losing in more than a month.
‘‘I don’t even want to know about that,’’ Ginobili said.
On the other side of the AT&T Center, Clippers’ All-Star Chris Paul needed no reminder that his wretched performance contributed to the Spurs’ 108-92 victory over Los Angeles in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals on Tuesday night.
He just needed to deliver the message to his kid.
‘‘Good game, Daddy,’’ Paul’s young son told this father in the locker room.
[[In-content Ad]]
Without fanfare, the nation’s nuclear power regulators have overhauled community emergency planning for the first time in more than three decades, requiring fewer exercises for major accidents and recommending that fewer people be evacuated right away.
The revamp, the first since the program began after Three Mile Island in 1979, also eliminates a requirement that local responders always practice for a release of radiation.
At least four years in the works, the changes appear to clash with more recent lessons of last year’s reactor crisis in Japan.
Under the new rules, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which run the program together, have added one new exercise: More than a decade after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, state and community police will now take part in exercises that prepare for a possible assault on their local plant.
Still, some emergency officials say this new exercise doesn’t go far enough.
———
Facebook CEO’s pledge to make world more connected contrasts sharply with public persona
When Hollywood set out to tell the story of how Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, it enjoyed the flexibility of portraying a man who, despite his social network’s worldwide reach, was all but unknown to the public.
A year and half later, the movie ‘‘The Social Network’’ and the attention that followed have dispelled much of the mystery surrounding Zuckerberg, sketching out the essentials of his story line. But as Facebook promotes the vision of its 28-year-old CEO as part of this week’s first-ever sale of stock to the public, one of the most striking features of his persona is the contradiction between the public and private that remains at its center.
Zuckerberg avoids questions about himself and once sued a magazine for publishing documents revealing details from his past. Yet he is the architect of a revolutionary platform built on people freely disclosing information about themselves, offering up the stuff of everyday life as worthy of the biggest stage.
‘‘Facebook was not originally created to be a company,’’ Zuckerberg wrote in a letter, included with a regulatory filing needed for the initial public offering. ‘‘It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.’’
Zuckerberg has built Facebook, which could be valued at up to $104 billion by the stock offering, into an international phenomenon by stretching the lines of social convention and embracing a new and far more permeable definition of community. Along the way, he’s proven deft at recognizing the way people use social networks, reshaping and expanding Facebook’s capabilities to draw in more users.
———
Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic’s genocide trial under way at UN war crimes court
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Twenty years after his troops began brutally ethnically cleansing Bosnian towns and villages of non-Serbs, Gen. Ratko Mladic went on trial Wednesday at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal accused of 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The ailing 70-year-old Mladic’s appearance at the U.N. court war crimes tribunal marked the end of a long wait for justice to survivors of the 1992-95 war that left some 100,000 people dead. The trial is also a landmark for the U.N. court and international justice — Mladic is the last suspect from the Bosnian war to go on trial here.
Mladic, in a suit and tie and looking healthier than at previous pretrial hearings, gave a thumbs-up and clapped to supporters in the court’s public gallery as the trial got under way Wednesday. He occasionally wrote notes and showed no emotion as prosecutors began outlining his alleged crimes.
Munira Subasic, who lost 22 family members in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, was among a group of relatives of war dead in the courtroom’s public gallery to face Mladic.
The 65-year-old said she wanted to look him in the eye ‘‘and ask him if he will repent for what he did.’’
———
SPIN METER: Never mind: GOP also-rans make nice, airbrush their anti-Romney scripts
WASHINGTON (AP) — Remember Newt Gingrich calling Mitt Romney a liar? Michele Bachmann saying Romney’s unelectable? Rick Santorum calling Romney ‘‘the worst Republican in the country’’ to run against Obama?
They’re hoping you don’t. And acting like it never happened (even though most of their words are just clicks away online.)
One by one — with the exception of holdout Ron Paul — the GOP also-rans have coughed up endorsements of their onetime rival. And as they do, they’re pulling rhetorical backflips to distance themselves from their former harsh assessments of Romney.
Don’t try this at home, folks. It takes a professional politician to pull it off with a straight face.
A sampling of the also-rans’ anti-Romney rhetoric when they were candidates and their obligatory niceness after endorsing Romney.
———
Iran tough stance in nuclear talks reflects ‘political capital’ in standoff
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The negotiating stance from Iranian officials never varies: The Islamic Republic will not give up its capabilities to make nuclear fuel. But embedded in the messages are meanings that reach beyond Tehran’s talks with world powers.
It points to the struggles within Iran’s ruling system as it readies for the next round of talks scheduled to begin next week in Baghdad.
Iran’s Islamic leadership — which crushed an opposition groundswell nearly three years ago and later swatted back a power grab by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — has now staked its political credibility on its ability to resist Western sanctions and hold firm to its rights under U.N. treaties to enrich uranium.
Any concessions — either too great or too fast — could risk internal rifts within Iran’s power structure. And that could draw powerful forces into the mix, including the Revolutionary Guard that acts as defender of the theocracy and overseer of the nuclear program. As talks deepen, so do the political considerations for an Islamic establishment that cannot afford to appear to come away empty handed.
‘‘Insisting on a halt to enrichment is a deal breaker,’’ said Tehran-based political analyst Behrooz Shojaei. ‘‘It is Iran’s red line.’’
———
GOP insurgent Fischer to face Kerrey in Nebraska; Romney pushes toward nomination
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — After an improbable Nebraska primary victory, state Sen. Deb Fischer has emerged from relative obscurity to take the mantle as one of the GOP’s best hopes for picking up a U.S. Senate seat — though she’ll have to beat a famous Democratic politician to do it — popular former Sen. Bob Kerrey.
On the presidential front, Republican Mitt Romney continued to pile up the delegates he will need to claim the GOP nomination, but he has already moved into general election mode against President Barack Obama. Romney inched closer to his all-but-certain nomination with wins in two more states.
Romney was expected to pick up most — if not all — of Oregon’s 25 delegates. Nebraska Republicans also picked Romney although no delegates would be allotted in a vote that amounts to a beauty contest. The state’s 32 delegates to the Republican National Convention later this year will be determined at the state convention on July 14.
Romney began the day 171 delegates short of the 1,144 needed for the nomination and was on pace to get them before the month ended.
In Nebraska, Republicans know they need to find someone to go toe-to-toe with Kerrey in the fall and could have opted for one of two statewide office holders — Attorney General Jon Bruning or Treasurer Don Stenberg, both of whom were better funded and better known than Fischer.
———
Former Colombian interior minister survives bomb attack in Bogota; 2 killed, 39 injured
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A midday bombing that killed two bodyguards of an archconservative former interior minister and injured at least 39 people in a busy commercial district of Bogota has raised fears that violence not seen in the Colombian capital in years could return.
Former Interior Minister Fernando Londono, 68, had glass shards removed from his chest and was out of danger, authorities said.
But the ex-minister’s driver and another bodyguard were killed almost instantly. Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro said a pedestrian attached an explosive to a door of Londono’s armored SUV and set it off remotely.
Authorities said they had video of Tuesday’s attack and Petro said the culprit ‘‘walked away disguised.’’ A wig of long black hair and a hat were found nearby.
It was the first fatal bombing of an apparently political nature in the capital in nearly a decade and it traumatized a capital that two decades earlier was ravaged by car bombs set off by drug traffickers fighting extradition to the United States.
———
Deputies: Fla. mom fatally shot her 4 children then herself; 3 returned to house after fleeing
PORT ST. JOHN, Fla. (AP) — In the middle of the night, Tonya Thomas’ neighbors awoke to the sound of a gunshot and moments later heard a knock on their door.
Three of Thomas’ four children were outside, including one who appeared to have been shot. Before the neighbors could offer help, Thomas came out of her house and called the children back home.
They complied. The neighbors dialed 911 after hearing more gunshots.
Brevard County Sheriff’s deputies found Thomas, 33, dead of an apparent self-inflicted wound and three of her children — Jaxs Johnson, 15; Jazzlyn Johnson, 13; and Joel Johnson, 12 — were fatally shot inside the house. A fourth child, Pebbles Johnson, 17, was found shot to death in the front yard of a neighbor’s house.
Investigators said they didn’t know a motive for the shooting and weren’t sure why the children followed their mother’s orders to return to the house.
———
Students in tornado-hit S. Ind. community await concert by country trio Lady Antebellum
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tornadoes battered their school and their homes. Their spring break was filled with cleanup and recovery work that has only just begun. But for one night, students at a southern Indiana high school hope to put all that aside to enjoy an evening that one of country music’s biggest acts planned just for them.
Henryville, Ind., will share the spotlight with Grammy-winning Lady Antebellum on Wednesday night at the KFC Yum Center in nearby Louisville, Ky., where the trio will stage a ‘‘mini-prom’’ bash for students at Henryville Junior-Senior High School, followed by a benefit for the devastated community.
‘‘With everything’s that’s happened — the tornado and the destruction — now we’ll have something else to remember for the rest of our lives,’’ said Henryville junior class vice president Kaitlyn Maloney, 17, who rode out the March 2 storm with her parents in the basement of their Henryville home. ‘‘This will give us something to remember that’s happy.’’
The battered high school landed both events in late March by winning Lady Antebellum’s online ‘‘Own the Night’’ contest offering one school a concert at its prom. Schools as far away as northern Wisconsin submitted YouTube videos on behalf of Henryville, an unincorporated town hit by two tornadoes — one packing 175 mph winds — on a day when storms killed 13 people in Indiana and 24 in Kentucky.
Singer Hillary Scott said the band was moved by what she called the ‘‘selfless’’ entries from other schools, including rival Silver Creek High School in nearby Sellersburg, Ind.
———
Rested Spurs beat weary Clippers 108-92 in West semis opener to stretch winning streak to 15
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The San Antonio Spurs had just taken Game 1, and Manu Ginobili didn’t want to hear another word about winning 15 in a row or not losing in more than a month.
‘‘I don’t even want to know about that,’’ Ginobili said.
On the other side of the AT&T Center, Clippers’ All-Star Chris Paul needed no reminder that his wretched performance contributed to the Spurs’ 108-92 victory over Los Angeles in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals on Tuesday night.
He just needed to deliver the message to his kid.
‘‘Good game, Daddy,’’ Paul’s young son told this father in the locker room.
[[In-content Ad]]
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092