World/Nation Briefs 5.4.2012
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
BEIJING (AP) — Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng’s high-profile pleas for U.S. sanctuary upped the pressure Friday on Washington and Beijing to resolve his fate, with China saying he could apply for permission to study abroad.
The slight concession, offered in a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement, pointed to a possible way out of the diplomatic standoff. Even so, he remained in a guarded Beijing hospital ward, unable to see U.S. officials. His wife’s movements are being monitored, he said, and the couple with their two children feel in danger.
‘‘I can only tell you one thing. My situation right now is very dangerous,’’ Chen said. ‘‘For two days, American officials who have wanted to come and see me have not been allowed in.’’
A self-taught lawyer and symbol in China’s civil rights movement, Chen embroiled Washington and Beijing in their most delicate diplomatic crisis in years after he escaped house arrest and sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy last week. He left six days later under a negotiated deal in which he and his family were to be safely relocated in China. But he then upended the agreement by saying they wanted to go abroad.
Since his release to a Beijing hospital where he was reunited with his wife, son and daughter, Chen’s conversations with The Associated Press, other foreign media and friends have resonated around the world, and even become part of Washington politics in a presidential election year.
———
Economists forecast modest US hiring in April, leaving unemployment rate unchanged
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. hiring likely picked up last month after its March swoon, though the gains are expected to be modest.
Economists predict employers added 163,000 jobs in April. That would be better than the disappointing 120,000 jobs created in March. But it’s not enough to lower the unemployment rate, which is expected to stay at 8.2 percent — a three-year low.
The Labor Department will release the report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Friday.
The economy created an average of 246,000 jobs a month from December through February. The hiring slowdown in March sparked fears that job growth was weakening.
Some economists have said that a mild winter led some companies to accelerate hiring in January and February. That may have weakened March’s figures. For many, April’s report will serve as more of a bellwether.
———
WWII correspondent, fired for big scoop on surrender, gets posthumous apology from the AP
NEW YORK (AP) — In World War II’s final moments in Europe, Associated Press correspondent Edward Kennedy gave his news agency perhaps the biggest scoop in its history. He reported, a full day ahead of the competition, that the Germans had surrendered unconditionally at a former schoolhouse in Reims, France.
For this, he was publicly rebuked by the AP, and then quietly fired.
The problem: Kennedy had defied military censors to get the story out. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Harry Truman had agreed to suppress news of the capitulation for a day, in order to allow Stalin to stage a second surrender ceremony in Berlin. Kennedy was also accused of breaking a pledge that he and 16 other journalists had made to keep the surrender a secret for a time, as a condition of being allowed to witness it firsthand.
Sixty-seven years later, the AP’s top executive is apologizing for the way the company treated Kennedy.
‘‘It was a terrible day for the AP. It was handled in the worst possible way,’’ said president and CEO Tom Curley.
———
Don’t break oaths and don’t kill Muslims: In letters, bin Laden worried about al-Qaida image
CAIRO (AP) — During his last months holed up in a villa in Pakistan, one of the concerns on Osama bin Laden’s mind was image control: Al-Qaida’s branches and allies were making the terror network look bad in the eyes of the Islamic world.
A newly released selection of letters captured in the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden a year ago shows the al-Qaida leader was meticulous in tracking how his associates’ actions and public statements reflected on the cause of jihad, or holy war. And he frequently tried to keep them in line.
In an October 2010 letter to a top lieutenant, bin Laden complains about Faisal Shahzad, the militant recruited by the Pakistani Taliban to set off a car bomb in New York’s Times Square. The May 2010 bombing failed. During his trial, Shahzad — a Pakistani who gained U.S. citizenship — told the court he ‘‘didn’t mean it’’ when he took his American citizenship oath, which includes a vow not to harm the United States.
Bin Laden said lying about an oath breaks Islamic law.
‘‘This is not the kind of lying to the enemy that is permitted. It is treachery,’’ bin Laden wrote. He told his lieutenant to take it up with Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and ensure it didn’t happen again.
———
Gay-rights leaders press Obama for further moves on workplace bias, same-sex marriage
The refrain sounded by his aides is accurate: Barack Obama has done more for the cause of gay rights than any president before him.
Nonetheless, gay-rights activists and organizations are on the president’s case these days, pressing him for further steps on two fronts and suggesting that political timidity is holding him back.
One source of frustration is Obama’s stance on same-sex marriage — he has yet to endorse it even though he advocates equal rights for gay and lesbian couples. Tensions may mount as activists and many leading Democrats call for the Democratic National Convention to support marriage equality in the platform it will adopt in September.
The other dispute involves a months-long campaign by gay-rights advocates urging Obama to issue an executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The White House says Obama supports the goal of such workplace protections but believes the best solution is for Congress to pass the long-pending Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would extend those protections to workers in all sectors nationwide.
———
Sept 11 case returns to Guantanamo, still haunted by claims of unfairness and brutality
ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Maryland (AP) — Five men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks, including the self-proclaimed mastermind, are headed back to a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay on Saturday, more than three years after President Barack Obama put the case on hold in a failed effort to move the proceedings to a civilian court and close the prison at the U.S. base in Cuba.
This time the defendants may put up a fight.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who told military authorities that he was responsible for the planning of the terror assault ‘‘from A to Z,’’ previously mocked the tribunal and said he would welcome the death penalty. His co-defendant, Ramzi Binalshibh, told the court that he was proud of the attacks.
But Jim Harrington, the civilian lawyer for Binashibh, said the defendants are expected to fight the charges against them, which include murder and terrorism and carry a potential death penalty.
‘‘He has no intention of pleading guilty,’’ Harrington said. ‘‘I don’t think anyone is going to plead guilty. ‘‘Harrington declined to say what would be the basis of his defense and lawyers for Mohammed did not respond to messages seeking comment.
———
Killings of Mexican journalists spreading fear, snuffing out independent reporting on drug war
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Four of the last reporters and photographers willing to cover crime stories have been slain in less than a week in violence-torn Veracruz state, where two Mexican drug cartels are warring over control of smuggling routes and targeting sources of independent information.
The brutal campaign is bleeding the media and threatening to turn Veracruz into the latest state in Mexico where fear snuffs out reporting on the drug war.
Three photojournalists who worked the perilous crime beat in the port city of Veracruz were found dismembered and dumped in plastic bags in a canal Thursday, less than a week after a reporter for an investigative newsmagazine was beaten and strangled in her home in the state capital of Xalapa.
Press freedom groups said all three photographers had temporarily fled the state after receiving threats last year. The organizations called for immediate government action to halt a wave of attacks that has killed at least seven current and former reporters and photographers in Veracruz over the last 18 months.
Like most of those, the men found Thursday were among the few journalists left working on crime-related stories in the state. Threats and killings have spawned an atmosphere of terror and self-censorship, and most local media are too intimidated to report on drug-related violence. Social media and blogs are often the only outlets reporting on serious crime.
———
Is a click worth a thousand words? Judge says Facebook ’like’ not protected by First Amendment
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The ‘‘like’’ button on Facebook seems like a relatively clear way to express your support for something, but a federal judge says that doesn’t mean clicking it is constitutionally protected speech.
Exactly what a ‘‘like’’ means — if anything — played a part in a case in Virginia involving six people who say Hampton Sheriff B.J. Roberts fired them for supporting an opponent in his 2009 re-election bid, which he won. The workers sued, saying their First Amendment rights were violated.
Roberts said some of the workers were let go because he wanted to replace them with sworn deputies while others were fired because of poor performance or his belief that their actions ‘‘hindered the harmony and efficiency of the office.’’
One of those workers, Daniel Ray Carter, had ‘‘liked’’ the Facebook page of Roberts’ opponent, Jim Adams.
While public employees are allowed to speak as citizens on matters of public concern, U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson ruled that clicking the ‘‘like’’ button does not amount to expressive speech. In other words, it’s not the same as actually writing out a message and posting it on the site.
———
3 years later, the Octomom, Bankrupt Mom and possibly Porno Mom show continues to fascinate
LOS ANGELES (AP) — From Miracle Mom to Octomom and now, perhaps very soon, Porno Mom, the bizarre life of Nadya Suleman and her 14 children has been a subject that rarely ceases to amaze.
But with Suleman filing for bankruptcy this week and revealing she owes everyone from her parents to her gardener to her baby-sitters nearly $1 million, could the Octomom Odyssey finally be grinding to an inglorious halt?
Not only is Suleman flat broke, but it has come to light in recent weeks that the La Habra home where she and her children have lived the past two years is about to be put on the auction block.
Last week that home was visited by child welfare officials who had received a tip that Suleman was neglecting her children. They took no action but have said they are continuing to investigate.
Meanwhile, TMZ reported that to make ends meet Suleman has agreed to make a porn film, but only if, to put it delicately, she has no co-star. It would be something known in the industry as a solo tape.
———
Yankees closer Mariano Rivera tears knee ligaments, likely ending season, possibly his career
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mariano Rivera drifted back to the outfield wall, just like he’d done in batting practice so many times before, baseball’s greatest closer tracking down another fly ball with childlike joy.
Everything changed before anybody could blink.
The Yankees’ 12-time All-Star caught his cleat where the grass meets the warning track in Kansas City, his right knee buckling before he hit the wall. Rivera landed on the dirt, his face contorted in pain, as Alex Rodriguez uttered the words ‘‘Oh, my God’’ from some 400 feet away.
Bullpen coach Mike Harkey was the first to reach Rivera, whistling toward the Yankees’ dugout for help. Manager Joe Girardi had been watching from behind the batter’s box and set off at a run down the third-base line, angling toward center field and his fallen reliever.
‘‘My thought was he has a torn ligament, by the way he went down,’’ Girardi said later.
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BEIJING (AP) — Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng’s high-profile pleas for U.S. sanctuary upped the pressure Friday on Washington and Beijing to resolve his fate, with China saying he could apply for permission to study abroad.
The slight concession, offered in a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement, pointed to a possible way out of the diplomatic standoff. Even so, he remained in a guarded Beijing hospital ward, unable to see U.S. officials. His wife’s movements are being monitored, he said, and the couple with their two children feel in danger.
‘‘I can only tell you one thing. My situation right now is very dangerous,’’ Chen said. ‘‘For two days, American officials who have wanted to come and see me have not been allowed in.’’
A self-taught lawyer and symbol in China’s civil rights movement, Chen embroiled Washington and Beijing in their most delicate diplomatic crisis in years after he escaped house arrest and sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy last week. He left six days later under a negotiated deal in which he and his family were to be safely relocated in China. But he then upended the agreement by saying they wanted to go abroad.
Since his release to a Beijing hospital where he was reunited with his wife, son and daughter, Chen’s conversations with The Associated Press, other foreign media and friends have resonated around the world, and even become part of Washington politics in a presidential election year.
———
Economists forecast modest US hiring in April, leaving unemployment rate unchanged
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. hiring likely picked up last month after its March swoon, though the gains are expected to be modest.
Economists predict employers added 163,000 jobs in April. That would be better than the disappointing 120,000 jobs created in March. But it’s not enough to lower the unemployment rate, which is expected to stay at 8.2 percent — a three-year low.
The Labor Department will release the report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Friday.
The economy created an average of 246,000 jobs a month from December through February. The hiring slowdown in March sparked fears that job growth was weakening.
Some economists have said that a mild winter led some companies to accelerate hiring in January and February. That may have weakened March’s figures. For many, April’s report will serve as more of a bellwether.
———
WWII correspondent, fired for big scoop on surrender, gets posthumous apology from the AP
NEW YORK (AP) — In World War II’s final moments in Europe, Associated Press correspondent Edward Kennedy gave his news agency perhaps the biggest scoop in its history. He reported, a full day ahead of the competition, that the Germans had surrendered unconditionally at a former schoolhouse in Reims, France.
For this, he was publicly rebuked by the AP, and then quietly fired.
The problem: Kennedy had defied military censors to get the story out. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Harry Truman had agreed to suppress news of the capitulation for a day, in order to allow Stalin to stage a second surrender ceremony in Berlin. Kennedy was also accused of breaking a pledge that he and 16 other journalists had made to keep the surrender a secret for a time, as a condition of being allowed to witness it firsthand.
Sixty-seven years later, the AP’s top executive is apologizing for the way the company treated Kennedy.
‘‘It was a terrible day for the AP. It was handled in the worst possible way,’’ said president and CEO Tom Curley.
———
Don’t break oaths and don’t kill Muslims: In letters, bin Laden worried about al-Qaida image
CAIRO (AP) — During his last months holed up in a villa in Pakistan, one of the concerns on Osama bin Laden’s mind was image control: Al-Qaida’s branches and allies were making the terror network look bad in the eyes of the Islamic world.
A newly released selection of letters captured in the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden a year ago shows the al-Qaida leader was meticulous in tracking how his associates’ actions and public statements reflected on the cause of jihad, or holy war. And he frequently tried to keep them in line.
In an October 2010 letter to a top lieutenant, bin Laden complains about Faisal Shahzad, the militant recruited by the Pakistani Taliban to set off a car bomb in New York’s Times Square. The May 2010 bombing failed. During his trial, Shahzad — a Pakistani who gained U.S. citizenship — told the court he ‘‘didn’t mean it’’ when he took his American citizenship oath, which includes a vow not to harm the United States.
Bin Laden said lying about an oath breaks Islamic law.
‘‘This is not the kind of lying to the enemy that is permitted. It is treachery,’’ bin Laden wrote. He told his lieutenant to take it up with Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and ensure it didn’t happen again.
———
Gay-rights leaders press Obama for further moves on workplace bias, same-sex marriage
The refrain sounded by his aides is accurate: Barack Obama has done more for the cause of gay rights than any president before him.
Nonetheless, gay-rights activists and organizations are on the president’s case these days, pressing him for further steps on two fronts and suggesting that political timidity is holding him back.
One source of frustration is Obama’s stance on same-sex marriage — he has yet to endorse it even though he advocates equal rights for gay and lesbian couples. Tensions may mount as activists and many leading Democrats call for the Democratic National Convention to support marriage equality in the platform it will adopt in September.
The other dispute involves a months-long campaign by gay-rights advocates urging Obama to issue an executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The White House says Obama supports the goal of such workplace protections but believes the best solution is for Congress to pass the long-pending Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would extend those protections to workers in all sectors nationwide.
———
Sept 11 case returns to Guantanamo, still haunted by claims of unfairness and brutality
ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Maryland (AP) — Five men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks, including the self-proclaimed mastermind, are headed back to a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay on Saturday, more than three years after President Barack Obama put the case on hold in a failed effort to move the proceedings to a civilian court and close the prison at the U.S. base in Cuba.
This time the defendants may put up a fight.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who told military authorities that he was responsible for the planning of the terror assault ‘‘from A to Z,’’ previously mocked the tribunal and said he would welcome the death penalty. His co-defendant, Ramzi Binalshibh, told the court that he was proud of the attacks.
But Jim Harrington, the civilian lawyer for Binashibh, said the defendants are expected to fight the charges against them, which include murder and terrorism and carry a potential death penalty.
‘‘He has no intention of pleading guilty,’’ Harrington said. ‘‘I don’t think anyone is going to plead guilty. ‘‘Harrington declined to say what would be the basis of his defense and lawyers for Mohammed did not respond to messages seeking comment.
———
Killings of Mexican journalists spreading fear, snuffing out independent reporting on drug war
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Four of the last reporters and photographers willing to cover crime stories have been slain in less than a week in violence-torn Veracruz state, where two Mexican drug cartels are warring over control of smuggling routes and targeting sources of independent information.
The brutal campaign is bleeding the media and threatening to turn Veracruz into the latest state in Mexico where fear snuffs out reporting on the drug war.
Three photojournalists who worked the perilous crime beat in the port city of Veracruz were found dismembered and dumped in plastic bags in a canal Thursday, less than a week after a reporter for an investigative newsmagazine was beaten and strangled in her home in the state capital of Xalapa.
Press freedom groups said all three photographers had temporarily fled the state after receiving threats last year. The organizations called for immediate government action to halt a wave of attacks that has killed at least seven current and former reporters and photographers in Veracruz over the last 18 months.
Like most of those, the men found Thursday were among the few journalists left working on crime-related stories in the state. Threats and killings have spawned an atmosphere of terror and self-censorship, and most local media are too intimidated to report on drug-related violence. Social media and blogs are often the only outlets reporting on serious crime.
———
Is a click worth a thousand words? Judge says Facebook ’like’ not protected by First Amendment
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The ‘‘like’’ button on Facebook seems like a relatively clear way to express your support for something, but a federal judge says that doesn’t mean clicking it is constitutionally protected speech.
Exactly what a ‘‘like’’ means — if anything — played a part in a case in Virginia involving six people who say Hampton Sheriff B.J. Roberts fired them for supporting an opponent in his 2009 re-election bid, which he won. The workers sued, saying their First Amendment rights were violated.
Roberts said some of the workers were let go because he wanted to replace them with sworn deputies while others were fired because of poor performance or his belief that their actions ‘‘hindered the harmony and efficiency of the office.’’
One of those workers, Daniel Ray Carter, had ‘‘liked’’ the Facebook page of Roberts’ opponent, Jim Adams.
While public employees are allowed to speak as citizens on matters of public concern, U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson ruled that clicking the ‘‘like’’ button does not amount to expressive speech. In other words, it’s not the same as actually writing out a message and posting it on the site.
———
3 years later, the Octomom, Bankrupt Mom and possibly Porno Mom show continues to fascinate
LOS ANGELES (AP) — From Miracle Mom to Octomom and now, perhaps very soon, Porno Mom, the bizarre life of Nadya Suleman and her 14 children has been a subject that rarely ceases to amaze.
But with Suleman filing for bankruptcy this week and revealing she owes everyone from her parents to her gardener to her baby-sitters nearly $1 million, could the Octomom Odyssey finally be grinding to an inglorious halt?
Not only is Suleman flat broke, but it has come to light in recent weeks that the La Habra home where she and her children have lived the past two years is about to be put on the auction block.
Last week that home was visited by child welfare officials who had received a tip that Suleman was neglecting her children. They took no action but have said they are continuing to investigate.
Meanwhile, TMZ reported that to make ends meet Suleman has agreed to make a porn film, but only if, to put it delicately, she has no co-star. It would be something known in the industry as a solo tape.
———
Yankees closer Mariano Rivera tears knee ligaments, likely ending season, possibly his career
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mariano Rivera drifted back to the outfield wall, just like he’d done in batting practice so many times before, baseball’s greatest closer tracking down another fly ball with childlike joy.
Everything changed before anybody could blink.
The Yankees’ 12-time All-Star caught his cleat where the grass meets the warning track in Kansas City, his right knee buckling before he hit the wall. Rivera landed on the dirt, his face contorted in pain, as Alex Rodriguez uttered the words ‘‘Oh, my God’’ from some 400 feet away.
Bullpen coach Mike Harkey was the first to reach Rivera, whistling toward the Yankees’ dugout for help. Manager Joe Girardi had been watching from behind the batter’s box and set off at a run down the third-base line, angling toward center field and his fallen reliever.
‘‘My thought was he has a torn ligament, by the way he went down,’’ Girardi said later.
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