World/Nation Briefs 7.9.2012
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
WASHINGTON (AP) — Having trouble getting online?
Some may find their smartphones working overtime because the family computer couldn’t seem to connect to the Internet Monday morning.
You may be one of thousands across the United States who waited too long or simply didn’t believe the warnings, and your Internet may have shut down just after midnight because of malware that took over computers around the world more than a year ago.
At 12:01 a.m. EDT, the FBI turned off the Internet servers that were functioning as a temporary safety net to keep infected computers online for the past eight months. The court order the agency had gotten to keep the servers running expired, and it was not renewed.
Now, if your computer is infected, your only hope is your Internet service provider’s help desk.
———
Supreme Court’s decision renews questions about IRS capability to enforce health care mandate
WASHINGTON (AP) — Can the Internal Revenue Service police President Barack Obama’s health care mandate while simultaneously collecting all the taxes for running the federal government?
The question is being renewed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision upholding most of the 2010 Affordable Care Act as a tax issue rather than one of interstate commerce.
Nearly 2 1/2 years before taxpayers will have to start providing proof on their tax returns that they have health insurance, key Republicans suspect the agency already is diverting resources from collecting taxes to gear up for becoming the government’s health care cop.
‘‘Knowing the complexity of the health law, there’s no question that the IRS is going to struggle with this,’’ said Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., R-La., chairman of the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee. ‘‘The IRS wants more resources. Well, we need to start digging down into what are they doing with the resources and personnel.’’
Ways and Means Committee Republicans have accused the IRS of obscuring its cost of putting in place the health care law by absorbing it into other parts of the agency’s budget. They cite a June report by the Government Accountability Office that said the IRS has not always accurately identified spending related to the new health care law.
———
Republican Party conservatives give business a hard time on transportation, other issues
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative Republicans have roughed up the business community this year — and it’s not over yet.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and major companies like Boeing Co. and Caterpillar Inc. all wanted quick reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, which helps finance American companies’ overseas sales. Congress had reaffirmed the independent federal agency some two dozen times since its creation in 1934. But this year it took months of pleas, briefings and negotiations to overcome conservative opposition.
Similarly, industries ranging from asphalt to steel pressed for the popular transportation bill to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. Conservatives wanted to give authority to the states. Nine short-term extensions later — and almost three years after the last transportation bill expired — businesses finally prevailed last month.
The business community is now pressing the Senate to ratify a treaty governing the high seas, arguing that it would open a new path to oil, gas and other resources and produce thousands of jobs. Prospects are uncertain as conservatives stand united in opposition. They condemn the pact as a threat to U.S. sovereignty.
Perhaps the most telling clue is that proponents call it the Law of the Sea Convention — shorthand LOSC — while opponents refer to it as the Law of the Sea Treaty — LOST.
———
In Wisconsin, Democrat Tammy Baldwin looks to end party’s losing streak with Senate race
FRIENDSHIP, Wis. (AP) — Rep. Tammy Baldwin stood in the Friendship Cafe, giving voters a populist pitch for why she should be elected to keep Wisconsin’s open Senate seat in Democratic hands, where it’s been for the last 55 years.
When she began to field questions, a 70-year-old retiree offered the first comment, and hit on one of the most difficult issues confronting Baldwin as she tries to break the Democrats’ recent losing streak in the battleground state.
‘‘I’m not sure how to deal with your situation of who you love and who your partner is,’’ said Harry Davis, a retired Internal Revenue Service worker.
For Baldwin, the first openly gay candidate elected to Congress, questions about her sexuality evoke her reputation as an unabashed liberal and a product of left-leaning Madison, and reinforce concerns about her viability in the more conservative parts of the state she’ll need to win the Senate seat in November.
‘‘I ran into all kinds of people who thought Obama was a Muslim,’’ said Davis, a Democratic activist from nearby Adams, adding that he’s worried Baldwin will struggle to get votes beyond Dane and Milwaukee counties, the more liberal parts of Wisconsin.
———
’You gotta go to work’: Motto right to the end of durable Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine
LOS ANGELES (AP) — He was a tubby tough guy with a pug of a mug, as unlikely a big-screen star or a romantic lead as could be imagined.
Yet Ernest Borgnine won a woman’s love and an Academy Award in one of the great lonelyhearts roles in ‘‘Marty,’’ a highlight in a workhorse career that spanned nearly seven decades and more than 200 film and television parts.
Borgnine, who died Sunday at 95, worked to the end. One of his final roles was a bit part as a CIA records-keeper in 2010’s action comedy ‘‘Red’’ — fittingly for his age, a story of retired spies who show that it’s never too late to remain in the game when they’re pulled back into action.
‘‘I keep telling myself, ‘Damn it, you gotta go to work,’’’ Borgnine said in a 2007 interview with The Associated Press. ‘‘But there aren’t many people who want to put Borgnine to work these days. They keep asking, ‘Is he still alive?’’’
And yet people put him to work — and kept him working — from his late-blooming start as an actor after a 10-year Navy career through modern times, when he had a recurring voice role on ‘‘SpongeBob SquarePants,’’ became the oldest actor ever nominated for a Golden Globe and received the lifetime-achievement award last year from the Screen Actors Guild.
———
Gunmen kill 8 at Pakistani army camp in city where thousands of hardline Islamists spent night
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Gunmen killed eight people in an attack Monday on a Pakistani army camp in a city where thousands of hardline Islamists spent the night on their way to the capital to protest the government’s recent decision to reopen the NATO supply line to Afghanistan, police said.
Police were searching for the culprits and it was unclear if any of the Islamist protesters were involved, said Basharat Mahmood, police chief in the eastern city of Gujrat where the attack occurred.
‘‘It is surely a terrorist attack,’’ said Mahmood. ‘‘The attackers could have taken cover. They could have hid themselves among the protesters.’’
The camp on the outskirts of Gujrat was attacked at around 5:20 a.m., a little less than an hour after the leaders of the Difah-e-Pakistan, or Defense of Pakistan, protest movement finished delivering speeches inside the city, said the police.
The group, which includes hardline Islamist politicians and religious leaders, left the city of Lahore on Sunday along with 8,000 supporters in 200 vehicles to make the 300-kilometer (185-mile) journey to Islamabad. They traveled about halfway, spent the night in Gujrat and plan to hold a protest in front of parliament in the capital on Monday.
———
46 years later, US military to bury together at Arlington 6 airmen lost in Laos plane crash
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — It was Christmas Eve 1965 when the Air Force plane nicknamed ‘‘Spooky’’ took off from Vietnam for a combat mission. The crew sent out a ‘‘mayday’’ signal while flying over Laos, and after that, all contact was lost. Two days of searches turned up nothing.
For years, that was all the families knew about what happened to the six servicemen aboard the plane. Now, nearly 50 years after the AC-47D went down, a measure of finality comes Monday: Remains from the six men will be buried with full military honors in a single casket at Arlington National Cemetery.
The burial comes after the recovery of remains in 2010 and 2011 by joint U.S.-Laotian search teams. Examiners relied on dental records, personal items recovered from the site and circumstantial evidence to conclude that the recovered remains are representative of all six Air Force servicemen: Col. Joseph Christiano of Rochester, N.Y.; Col. Derrell B. Jeffords of Florence, S.C.; Lt. Col. Dennis L. Eilers of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Chief Master Sgt. William K. Colwell of Glen Cove, N.Y.; Chief Master Sgt. Arden K. Hassenger of Lebanon, Ore.; and Chief Master Sgt. Larry C. Thornton of Idaho Falls, Idaho.
The Air Force gave all six posthumous promotions, a military spokeswoman said.
Dribs and drabs of information came in over the years, and some family members heard rumors that loved ones had been seen alive. But mostly it was the passage of time that led relatives to conclude their loved ones had perished.
———
Retired NY schoolteacher nears 3 millionth mile in beloved ’66 Volvo he bought for $4,150
BAY SHORE, N.Y. (AP) — It just keeps going, and going, and going. No, it’s not a battery. It’s Irvin Gordon’s 1966 Volvo P1800S.
Gordon’s small, red two-door has well more than 2 million miles on the odometer, the equivalent of nearly 1,176 times across the globe.
The retired schoolteacher from Long Island hopes to reach the 3 million mile mark by next year. He only has 34,000 miles to go.
The 72-year-old Gordon drives his Volvo everywhere. He has held the Guinness World Records mark for High Mileage Vehicle since 2002 and was the first person to hold that record.
‘‘It’s just a car I enjoy driving,’’ he said.
———
US official: Higher ocean acidity is climate change’s ’evil twin,’ major threat to coral reefs
SYDNEY (AP) — Oceans’ rising acid levels have emerged as one of the biggest threats to coral reefs, acting as the ‘‘osteoporosis of the sea’’ and threatening everything from food security to tourism to livelihoods, the head of a U.S. scientific agency said Monday.
The speed by which the oceans’ acid levels has risen caught scientists off-guard, with the problem now considered to be climate change’s ‘‘equally evil twin,’’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco told The Associated Press.
‘‘We’ve got sort of the perfect storm of stressors from multiple places really hammering reefs around the world,’’ said Lubchenco, who was in Australia to speak at the International Coral Reef Symposium in the northeast city of Cairns, near the Great Barrier Reef. ‘‘It’s a very serious situation.’’
Oceans absorb excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, leading to an increase in acidity. Scientists are worried about how that increase will affect sea life, particularly reefs, as higher acid levels make it tough for coral skeletons to form. Lubchenco likened ocean acidification to osteoporosis — a bone-thinning disease — because researchers are concerned it will lead to the deterioration of reefs.
Scientists initially assumed that the carbon dioxide absorbed by the water would be sufficiently diluted as the oceans mixed shallow and deeper waters. But most of the carbon dioxide and the subsequent chemical changes are being concentrated in surface waters, Lubchenco said.
———
After topsy-turvy 1st half, All-Stars pull into Kansas City for 1st time since 1973
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Much has changed since the All-Stars last pulled into town in 1973. Then again, it seems like much of baseball has been turned upside down since the final out of the crazy World Series last October.
Five no-hitters, including two perfect games. A four-home run night by Josh Hamilton. Pittsburgh and Washington together in first place for the first time. Philadelphia in the cellar. Cliff Lee winless until his 14th start.
‘‘Seeing what’s going on here, it’s fun to be a part of it,’’ A.J. Burnett said after improving to 10-2 as the Pirates routed the San Francisco Giants and Tim Lincecum 13-2 Sunday.
If the season ended now, the first year of expanded playoffs would open with Baltimore at the Los Angeles Angels for the one-game AL wild card, with the winner hosting the Yankees in the division series opener. The Chicago White Sox would host two-time AL champ Texas in the other best-of-5 series — which for one year only starts at the team with the lesser regular-season record.
In the NL, Cincinnati would host Atlanta for the wild card, with the winner hosting the Nationals — a franchise whose only postseason appearance was as the Montreal Expos in 1981. The Pirates, out of the postseason since Francisco Cabrera’s two-out, two-run hit for Atlanta in 1992, would host the post-Frank McCourt Los Angeles Dodgers.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Having trouble getting online?
Some may find their smartphones working overtime because the family computer couldn’t seem to connect to the Internet Monday morning.
You may be one of thousands across the United States who waited too long or simply didn’t believe the warnings, and your Internet may have shut down just after midnight because of malware that took over computers around the world more than a year ago.
At 12:01 a.m. EDT, the FBI turned off the Internet servers that were functioning as a temporary safety net to keep infected computers online for the past eight months. The court order the agency had gotten to keep the servers running expired, and it was not renewed.
Now, if your computer is infected, your only hope is your Internet service provider’s help desk.
———
Supreme Court’s decision renews questions about IRS capability to enforce health care mandate
WASHINGTON (AP) — Can the Internal Revenue Service police President Barack Obama’s health care mandate while simultaneously collecting all the taxes for running the federal government?
The question is being renewed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision upholding most of the 2010 Affordable Care Act as a tax issue rather than one of interstate commerce.
Nearly 2 1/2 years before taxpayers will have to start providing proof on their tax returns that they have health insurance, key Republicans suspect the agency already is diverting resources from collecting taxes to gear up for becoming the government’s health care cop.
‘‘Knowing the complexity of the health law, there’s no question that the IRS is going to struggle with this,’’ said Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., R-La., chairman of the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee. ‘‘The IRS wants more resources. Well, we need to start digging down into what are they doing with the resources and personnel.’’
Ways and Means Committee Republicans have accused the IRS of obscuring its cost of putting in place the health care law by absorbing it into other parts of the agency’s budget. They cite a June report by the Government Accountability Office that said the IRS has not always accurately identified spending related to the new health care law.
———
Republican Party conservatives give business a hard time on transportation, other issues
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative Republicans have roughed up the business community this year — and it’s not over yet.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and major companies like Boeing Co. and Caterpillar Inc. all wanted quick reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, which helps finance American companies’ overseas sales. Congress had reaffirmed the independent federal agency some two dozen times since its creation in 1934. But this year it took months of pleas, briefings and negotiations to overcome conservative opposition.
Similarly, industries ranging from asphalt to steel pressed for the popular transportation bill to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. Conservatives wanted to give authority to the states. Nine short-term extensions later — and almost three years after the last transportation bill expired — businesses finally prevailed last month.
The business community is now pressing the Senate to ratify a treaty governing the high seas, arguing that it would open a new path to oil, gas and other resources and produce thousands of jobs. Prospects are uncertain as conservatives stand united in opposition. They condemn the pact as a threat to U.S. sovereignty.
Perhaps the most telling clue is that proponents call it the Law of the Sea Convention — shorthand LOSC — while opponents refer to it as the Law of the Sea Treaty — LOST.
———
In Wisconsin, Democrat Tammy Baldwin looks to end party’s losing streak with Senate race
FRIENDSHIP, Wis. (AP) — Rep. Tammy Baldwin stood in the Friendship Cafe, giving voters a populist pitch for why she should be elected to keep Wisconsin’s open Senate seat in Democratic hands, where it’s been for the last 55 years.
When she began to field questions, a 70-year-old retiree offered the first comment, and hit on one of the most difficult issues confronting Baldwin as she tries to break the Democrats’ recent losing streak in the battleground state.
‘‘I’m not sure how to deal with your situation of who you love and who your partner is,’’ said Harry Davis, a retired Internal Revenue Service worker.
For Baldwin, the first openly gay candidate elected to Congress, questions about her sexuality evoke her reputation as an unabashed liberal and a product of left-leaning Madison, and reinforce concerns about her viability in the more conservative parts of the state she’ll need to win the Senate seat in November.
‘‘I ran into all kinds of people who thought Obama was a Muslim,’’ said Davis, a Democratic activist from nearby Adams, adding that he’s worried Baldwin will struggle to get votes beyond Dane and Milwaukee counties, the more liberal parts of Wisconsin.
———
’You gotta go to work’: Motto right to the end of durable Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine
LOS ANGELES (AP) — He was a tubby tough guy with a pug of a mug, as unlikely a big-screen star or a romantic lead as could be imagined.
Yet Ernest Borgnine won a woman’s love and an Academy Award in one of the great lonelyhearts roles in ‘‘Marty,’’ a highlight in a workhorse career that spanned nearly seven decades and more than 200 film and television parts.
Borgnine, who died Sunday at 95, worked to the end. One of his final roles was a bit part as a CIA records-keeper in 2010’s action comedy ‘‘Red’’ — fittingly for his age, a story of retired spies who show that it’s never too late to remain in the game when they’re pulled back into action.
‘‘I keep telling myself, ‘Damn it, you gotta go to work,’’’ Borgnine said in a 2007 interview with The Associated Press. ‘‘But there aren’t many people who want to put Borgnine to work these days. They keep asking, ‘Is he still alive?’’’
And yet people put him to work — and kept him working — from his late-blooming start as an actor after a 10-year Navy career through modern times, when he had a recurring voice role on ‘‘SpongeBob SquarePants,’’ became the oldest actor ever nominated for a Golden Globe and received the lifetime-achievement award last year from the Screen Actors Guild.
———
Gunmen kill 8 at Pakistani army camp in city where thousands of hardline Islamists spent night
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Gunmen killed eight people in an attack Monday on a Pakistani army camp in a city where thousands of hardline Islamists spent the night on their way to the capital to protest the government’s recent decision to reopen the NATO supply line to Afghanistan, police said.
Police were searching for the culprits and it was unclear if any of the Islamist protesters were involved, said Basharat Mahmood, police chief in the eastern city of Gujrat where the attack occurred.
‘‘It is surely a terrorist attack,’’ said Mahmood. ‘‘The attackers could have taken cover. They could have hid themselves among the protesters.’’
The camp on the outskirts of Gujrat was attacked at around 5:20 a.m., a little less than an hour after the leaders of the Difah-e-Pakistan, or Defense of Pakistan, protest movement finished delivering speeches inside the city, said the police.
The group, which includes hardline Islamist politicians and religious leaders, left the city of Lahore on Sunday along with 8,000 supporters in 200 vehicles to make the 300-kilometer (185-mile) journey to Islamabad. They traveled about halfway, spent the night in Gujrat and plan to hold a protest in front of parliament in the capital on Monday.
———
46 years later, US military to bury together at Arlington 6 airmen lost in Laos plane crash
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — It was Christmas Eve 1965 when the Air Force plane nicknamed ‘‘Spooky’’ took off from Vietnam for a combat mission. The crew sent out a ‘‘mayday’’ signal while flying over Laos, and after that, all contact was lost. Two days of searches turned up nothing.
For years, that was all the families knew about what happened to the six servicemen aboard the plane. Now, nearly 50 years after the AC-47D went down, a measure of finality comes Monday: Remains from the six men will be buried with full military honors in a single casket at Arlington National Cemetery.
The burial comes after the recovery of remains in 2010 and 2011 by joint U.S.-Laotian search teams. Examiners relied on dental records, personal items recovered from the site and circumstantial evidence to conclude that the recovered remains are representative of all six Air Force servicemen: Col. Joseph Christiano of Rochester, N.Y.; Col. Derrell B. Jeffords of Florence, S.C.; Lt. Col. Dennis L. Eilers of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Chief Master Sgt. William K. Colwell of Glen Cove, N.Y.; Chief Master Sgt. Arden K. Hassenger of Lebanon, Ore.; and Chief Master Sgt. Larry C. Thornton of Idaho Falls, Idaho.
The Air Force gave all six posthumous promotions, a military spokeswoman said.
Dribs and drabs of information came in over the years, and some family members heard rumors that loved ones had been seen alive. But mostly it was the passage of time that led relatives to conclude their loved ones had perished.
———
Retired NY schoolteacher nears 3 millionth mile in beloved ’66 Volvo he bought for $4,150
BAY SHORE, N.Y. (AP) — It just keeps going, and going, and going. No, it’s not a battery. It’s Irvin Gordon’s 1966 Volvo P1800S.
Gordon’s small, red two-door has well more than 2 million miles on the odometer, the equivalent of nearly 1,176 times across the globe.
The retired schoolteacher from Long Island hopes to reach the 3 million mile mark by next year. He only has 34,000 miles to go.
The 72-year-old Gordon drives his Volvo everywhere. He has held the Guinness World Records mark for High Mileage Vehicle since 2002 and was the first person to hold that record.
‘‘It’s just a car I enjoy driving,’’ he said.
———
US official: Higher ocean acidity is climate change’s ’evil twin,’ major threat to coral reefs
SYDNEY (AP) — Oceans’ rising acid levels have emerged as one of the biggest threats to coral reefs, acting as the ‘‘osteoporosis of the sea’’ and threatening everything from food security to tourism to livelihoods, the head of a U.S. scientific agency said Monday.
The speed by which the oceans’ acid levels has risen caught scientists off-guard, with the problem now considered to be climate change’s ‘‘equally evil twin,’’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco told The Associated Press.
‘‘We’ve got sort of the perfect storm of stressors from multiple places really hammering reefs around the world,’’ said Lubchenco, who was in Australia to speak at the International Coral Reef Symposium in the northeast city of Cairns, near the Great Barrier Reef. ‘‘It’s a very serious situation.’’
Oceans absorb excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, leading to an increase in acidity. Scientists are worried about how that increase will affect sea life, particularly reefs, as higher acid levels make it tough for coral skeletons to form. Lubchenco likened ocean acidification to osteoporosis — a bone-thinning disease — because researchers are concerned it will lead to the deterioration of reefs.
Scientists initially assumed that the carbon dioxide absorbed by the water would be sufficiently diluted as the oceans mixed shallow and deeper waters. But most of the carbon dioxide and the subsequent chemical changes are being concentrated in surface waters, Lubchenco said.
———
After topsy-turvy 1st half, All-Stars pull into Kansas City for 1st time since 1973
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Much has changed since the All-Stars last pulled into town in 1973. Then again, it seems like much of baseball has been turned upside down since the final out of the crazy World Series last October.
Five no-hitters, including two perfect games. A four-home run night by Josh Hamilton. Pittsburgh and Washington together in first place for the first time. Philadelphia in the cellar. Cliff Lee winless until his 14th start.
‘‘Seeing what’s going on here, it’s fun to be a part of it,’’ A.J. Burnett said after improving to 10-2 as the Pirates routed the San Francisco Giants and Tim Lincecum 13-2 Sunday.
If the season ended now, the first year of expanded playoffs would open with Baltimore at the Los Angeles Angels for the one-game AL wild card, with the winner hosting the Yankees in the division series opener. The Chicago White Sox would host two-time AL champ Texas in the other best-of-5 series — which for one year only starts at the team with the lesser regular-season record.
In the NL, Cincinnati would host Atlanta for the wild card, with the winner hosting the Nationals — a franchise whose only postseason appearance was as the Montreal Expos in 1981. The Pirates, out of the postseason since Francisco Cabrera’s two-out, two-run hit for Atlanta in 1992, would host the post-Frank McCourt Los Angeles Dodgers.
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