News Headlines
Afghan man recounts US soldier entering his home, shooting his father amid killing spree
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan man recounted Monday the harrowing tale of how an American soldier on a killing spree burst into his home in the middle of the night, searched the rooms, then dropped to a knee and shot his father in the thigh as he emerged from a bedroom.
The staff sergeant is now in custody, accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, most of them children, and then burning many of the bodies. The name of the 38-year-old soldier was not released because it would be “inappropriate” to do so before charges are filed, said Pentagon spokesman George Little.
Sunday’s attack in southern Kandahar province comes as anti-Americanism already is boiling over in Afghanistan after U.S. troops burned Qurans last month and a video of Marines urinating on alleged Taliban corpses was posted on the Internet in January.
If the attack unleashes another wave of anti-foreigner hatred, it could threaten the future of the U.S.-led coalition’s mission in Afghanistan. The events have also raised doubts among U.S. political figures that the long and costly war is worthy.
NATO and member countries said the slayings were a blow to the alliance’s efforts to cultivate trust but would not affect the timeline to hand over security operations to Afghans by the end of 2014. The White House said U.S. objectives will not change because of the killings.
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Shootings are new blow to Americans’ support for Afghan war — but US says no strategy change
WASHINGTON (AP) — The weekend massacre of Afghan civilians, allegedly carried out by a U.S. soldier, newly undermines the rationale for a war that a majority of Americans already thought wasn’t worth fighting. But the Obama administration and its allies insisted Monday the horrific episode would not speed up plans to pull out foreign forces.
President Barack Obama called the episode “tragic,” and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called it “inexplicable.”
Obama told a television interviewer Monday that the killings underscore the need to hand over responsibility for security to Afghans. But he said it won’t lead to an early withdrawal of U.S. troops.
“I think it’s important for us to make sure that we get out in a responsible way so that we don’t end up having to go back in,” Obama told Pittsburgh station KDKA. “It makes me more determined to make sure that we’re getting our troops home. It’s time.”
Clinton told reporters at the United Nations in New York, “This terrible incident does not change our steadfast dedication to protecting the Afghan people and to doing everything we can to build a strong and stable Afghanistan.”
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The South has its say: Alabama and Mississippi next up Tuesday for Romney, Republican rivals
BILOXI, Miss. (AP) — Republican presidential contenders and their super PAC supporters campaigned aggressively on land, through the mail and over the airwaves Monday on the eve of primaries in Alabama and Mississippi with the potential to solidify or shake Mitt Romney’s standing as front-runner.
In the Deep South, one of the most conservative regions of the country, Romney and his Republican rivals polished their credentials with attacks on President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy and the nation’s use of energy. “The dangers of carbon dioxide? Tell that to a plant, how dangerous carbon dioxide is,” said Rick Santorum.
But those criticisms were mere warm-up for the candidates going after each other. Gingrich is struggling for survival in Tuesday’s primaries, and Santorum is laboring to redeem his claim that Romney can’t secure the support of conservatives, particularly evangelicals who are part of the party’s key base.
“If the opportunity provides itself in an open convention, they’re not going to nominate a moderate Massachusetts governor who has been outspending his opponent 10-1 and can’t win the election outright,” Santorum said in a television interview as he campaigned across Alabama and Mississippi.
Romney countered, also on television. “We’re closing the deal, state by state, delegate by delegate,” he said, emphasizing his lead in the category that matters most.
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Activists say pro-government gunmen killed at least 16 civilians in central Syrian city
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists said Monday that pro-government gunmen killed at least 16 people, including some children, in a rebel stronghold recaptured by the government, fueling concerns the government is carrying out reprisals in territory it has taken back.
State media in Damascus, which often ignores activists’ claims, confirmed killings in Homs but blamed “armed terrorists,” as it frequently calls those behind the yearlong uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime.
At the United Nations, the U.S. and Russia clashed after Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed to the divided Security Council to speak with one voice and help Syria “pull back from the brink of a deeper catastrophe.”
Washington and Moscow both called for an end to the bloody conflict — but on different terms, leaving prospects for U.N. action in doubt.
The reports of killings in the battered city of Homs added to concerns that the hundreds of civilian deaths caused by the fighting would be compounded by reprisals against opposition supporters in recaptured towns and neighborhoods.
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Feds probe complaints of stuck throttles in 1.9 million Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable sedans
DETROIT (AP) — Federal safety regulators are investigating sticky accelerators in as many as 1.9 million Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable sedans.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration started the probe last week and expanded it on Monday to include cars from the 2001 through 2006 model years. The safety agency has received 14 complaints of Taurus sedans accelerating on their own. So far it has no reports of crashes or injuries because of the problem.
A faulty cruise control cable may be the cause. It can detach and hold the throttle open, the agency said in documents posted on its website. In at least two of the complaints, drivers told NHTSA that their cars took off and ran red lights before they were able to bring them to a stop by shifting them into neutral or park.
“This is an extremely dangerous situation,” one driver wrote in a complaint filed in August of 2010. “There needs to be something done about this before it becomes fatal.”
It’s a problem similar to one that tarnished Toyota Motor Corp.’s reputation about two years ago. The Japanese automaker eventually recalled 14 million vehicles worldwide because of acceleration problems, which it blamed on ill-fitting floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals. At the time NHTSA said at least 52 people were killed in crashes linked to Toyota’s acceleration problems. A NHTSA investigation cleared Toyota’s electronic throttle controls as a cause of the problem.
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Fired NASA computer specialist alleges discrimination over his belief in intelligent design
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A computer specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is going to court over allegations that he was wrongfully terminated because of his belief in intelligent design.
Opening statements in the lawsuit by David Coppedge were expected to start Tuesday morning in Los Angeles Superior Court after lawyers spent Monday arguing several pretrial motions.
Coppedge, who worked as a team lead on the Cassini mission exploring Saturn and its many moons, claims he was discriminated against because he engaged his co-workers in conversations about intelligent design and handed out DVDs on the idea while at work.
Intelligent design is the belief that a higher power must have had a hand in creation because life is too complex to have developed through evolution alone.
Coppedge lost his team lead title in 2009 and was let go last year after 15 years on the mission.
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Israeli planning for Iran operation goes back years: Long-range flights and ‘bunker busters’
JERUSALEM (AP) — For more than a decade, Israel has systematically built up its military specifically for a possible strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. It has sent its air force on long-distance training missions, procured American-made “bunker-busting” bombs and bolstered its missile defenses.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threats to strike Iran, voiced last week during a high-profile visit to the White House, were not empty bluster. Although a unilateral Israeli attack would probably not destroy Iran’s nuclear program, it appears capable, at least for now, of inflicting a serious blow.
“If Israel attacks, the intention is more to send a message of determination, a political message instead of a tactical move,” said Yiftah Shapir, a former Israeli air force officer who is now a military analyst at the INSS think tank in Tel Aviv.
Israel, along with the United States and other Western countries, believes Iran has taken key steps toward developing nuclear weapons. The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency has cited this concern in reports, but notes its inspectors have found no direct evidence that Iran is moving toward an atomic weapon.
Israeli leaders, however, argue that time is quickly running out. They have grown increasingly vocal in their calls for tough concerted international action against Iran while stressing they are prepared to act alone if necessary.
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Q&A: A look at the legal and policy issues in the NYPD’s Muslim spying programs
NEW YORK (AP) — A secret New York Police Department program to spy on Muslim businesses, infiltrate mosques and monitor Muslim students on college campuses has ignited a debate over how to strike a balance between civil liberties and national security. The NYPD has vigorously defended the tactics, calling them legal and necessary.
Here’s a look, in question-and-answer format, of the key legal and policy issues at play.
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Q: What does it mean that police were “spying?”
A: Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the NYPD has become one of the nation’s most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies. A secret squad known as the Demographics Unit deployed plainclothes officers, typically of Arab descent, into Muslim neighborhoods to photograph mosques and catalog everywhere Muslims congregate, including restaurants, grocery stores, Internet cafes and travel agencies. The officers eavesdropped inside businesses and filed daily reports on the ethnicity of the owner and clientele and what they overheard. The program was not based on allegations of criminal activity and did not stop at the city line.
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Interest spikes in Pinterest, website for sharing eye candy and more
NEW YORK (AP) — Oh, you pretty things. Just look at the mama giraffe nuzzling a baby giraffe, that lovely idea for an indoor planter made of mason jars and those perfectly cooked bacon strips cooling on a plate. This is what people are circulating on Pinterest, the latest website-of-the-moment for sharing things you love.
Clean and simple to use, Pinterest attracts people who need to organize the chaos of Internet-age information overload. It serves as an online scrapbook of images they find on the Web, a place to post fashion inspirations, decorating aspirations and more. It’s a digital dream collage, a recipe box and a corkboard full of magazine clippings all at once.
The site’s popularity has exploded in recent months, making it one of the fastest-growing websites in history. Its ascent to 10 million monthly visitors happened faster than Facebook, Twitter or any other site tracked by comScore.
What makes Pinterest’s surge unusual is that it’s driven not by the usual geek crowd of young men from New York and San Francisco, but by women, many of whom live in the Midwest and the central U.S. They use the sleek, photo-heavy website for fashion ideas, wedding planning and home design, or just to share photos of puppies.
Angela Bitz, a secretary at a hospital in Davenport, Iowa, says she was drawn by the site’s layout and ease of use. She uses Pinterest to collect decorating ideas for her home and for general crafting and cooking inspiration. She also turns to Pinterest for ideas on making jewelry from objects she finds.
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Odds for picking a perfect March Madness bracket? It just doesn’t add up
Want to be sure you have the perfect March Madness bracket this year? Not possible.
If you were to stack the amount of paper it would take to fill in every bracket with every possibility among the 68 teams who will play 67 games over the next three weeks, it would not fit inside the universe.
So says Michael Weimerskirch, a math professor at Augsburg College who gets paid to think about numbers and the way they affect the Kentuckys, Butlers and VCUs of the world.
But there’s this small glimmer of hope. Weimerskirch says you could simply start flipping coins. The odds of finding perfection that way — by flipping a coin to pick the winner of every game: 1-in-100,000,000,000,000,000,000. For those keeping score at home, that’s 1-in-100 million trillion.
Or, to put it another way: “You’re just as likely to win Powerball three consecutive times as you are to picking a perfect bracket by flipping a coin,” Weimerskirch says.
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