News Headlines
Romney says he’s on track to get a nominating majority before convention; rivals undeterred.
WASHINGTON (AP) — His delegate lead growing, Mitt Romney gently nudged his Republican opponents toward the sidelines on Wednesday and said he was on track to wrap up the presidential nomination before the party convention next summer. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich paid him no mind, vowing to fight on in a campaign marked by persistent ideological divisions.
If anything, the political maneuvering intensified as the marathon pointed toward contests in five states over the next week. Romney’s campaign purchased television advertising time in Alabama according to campaign sources, as it pursued a breakthrough in the party’s Southern base.
A Santorum ally urged Gingrich to abandon the race.
In response, the former House speaker said he would consider it — if he thought Santorum was sure to beat Romney and then President Barack Obama. “I don’t,” he added.
And when Santorum was informed that an aide to Romney had said it would take an act of God for any other candidate to amass a majority of convention delegates, Santorum responded heatedly. “What won’t they resort to to try to bully their way through this race?” he said in Lenexa, Kan. “If the governor now thinks he’s now ordained by God to win, then let’s just have it out.”
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AP Exclusive: Diplomats say Iran apparently cleaning up secret nuclear work
VIENNA (AP) — Satellite images of an Iranian military facility appear to show trucks and earth-moving vehicles at the site, indicating an attempted cleanup of radioactive traces possibly left by tests of a nuclear-weapon trigger, diplomats told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The assertions from the diplomats, all nuclear experts accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency, could add to the growing international pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes.
While the U.S. and the EU are backing a sanctions-heavy approach, Israel has warned that it may resort to a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities to prevent it from obtaining atomic weapons.
Two of the diplomats said the crews at the Parchin military site may be trying to erase evidence of tests of a small experimental neutron device used to set off a nuclear explosion. A third diplomat could not confirm that but said any attempt to trigger a so-called neutron initiator could only be in the context of trying to develop nuclear arms.
The diplomats said they suspect attempts at sanitization because some of the vehicles at the scene appeared to be haulage trucks and other equipment suited to carting off potentially contaminated soil from the site.
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Wooing women: GOP, Democrats battle for support among women — on jobs, contraception and more
WASHINGTON (AP) — Is the 2012 election shaping up to be all about women?
President Barack Obama is working hard to woo this pivotal constituency in his re-election race. His Democratic allies are even accusing the GOP of launching a “war against women” after the Republicans reignited a new national debate over cultural issues, including birth control.
But now the Republicans — including Ann Romney and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski — are striking back with a promise: Their party will win women by focusing on the real No. 1 issue, the economy.
Not that Obama is ready to give up that issue.
“I believe that the Democrats have a better story to tell to women about how we’re going to solidify the middle class and grow this economy, make sure everybody has a fair shot, everybody’s doing their fair share, and we got a fair set of rules of the road that everybody has to follow,” Obama said Tuesday as Republican presidential contenders competed in Super Tuesday primaries.
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UN humanitarian chief finds Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr deserted after government siege
BEIRUT (AP) — The U.N. humanitarian chief toured the shattered Syrian district of Baba Amr on Wednesday but found most residents had fled following a bloody military siege, while activists accused the government of trying to cover up evidence of atrocities there.
The monthlong crackdown on the rebellious Homs neighborhood brought international condemnation, and the top U.S. military leader said Wednesday that President Barach Obama has asked the Pentagon for a preliminary review of military options in Syria.
These include enforcement of a no-fly zone and humanitarian airlifts, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate. However, both he and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Obama still believes that economic sanctions and international diplomatic isolation were the best ways to pressure Syrian President Bashar Assad into handing over power.
Wednesday’s visit to Baba Amr by the U.N. humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, was the first by an independent outside observer since the Syrian military began its month-long assault of the rebellious neighborhood. A key stronghold of the uprising against Assad, it was wrested from rebel control on March 1.
The Syrian regime has kept the neighborhood sealed off over the past six days, saying it was too dangerous for humanitarian workers to enter. But activists accused the government of engaging in a “mopping-up” operation to hide their atrocities.
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A new account tells of bin Laden’s family riven by suspicions, holed up in his final hideout
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) — Osama bin Laden spent his last weeks in a house divided, amid wives riven by suspicions. On the top floor, sharing his bedroom, was his youngest wife and favorite. The trouble came when his eldest wife showed up and moved into the bedroom on the floor below.
Others in the family, crammed into the three-story villa compound where bin Laden would eventually be killed in a May 2 U.S. raid, were convinced that the eldest wife intended to betray the al-Qaida leader.
The picture of bin Laden’s life in the Abbottabad compound comes from Brig. Shaukat Qadir, a retired Pakistani army officer who spent months researching the events and says he was given rare access to transcripts of Pakistani intelligence’s interrogation of bin Laden’s youngest wife, who was detained in the raid.
Qadir was also given rare entry into the villa, which was sealed after the raid and demolished last month. Pictures he took, which he allowed The Associated Press to see, showed the villa’s main staircase, splattered with blood. Other pictures show windows protected by iron grills and the 20-foot high walls around the villa.
Qadir’s research gives one of the most extensive descriptions of the arrangements in bin Laden’s hideout when U.S. SEAL commandos stormed in, killing bin Laden and four others. His account is based on accounts by an official of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency who escorted him on a tour of the villa, the interrogation transcription he was allowed to read, and interviews with other ISI officials and al-Qaida-linked militants and tribesmen in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.
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Apple unveils new iPad with sharper screen, faster processor — but no new name
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple gave the new iPad a bunch of new features but no new name.
When it goes on sale next week in the U.S. and several other countries, it will be “the iPad” or perhaps “the new iPad” — not “iPad 3” or “iPad HD,” as some had speculated.
The new iPad unveiled Wednesday comes with improvements that may not be readily apparent to the casual observer. It has, as expected, a sharper screen, driven by a faster processing chip that acts as the “brains” of the device. What was more surprising was that the new features mean the tablet computer will be slightly thicker and heavier than the iPad 2, because it needs a larger battery to power the high-resolution screen.
Prices aren’t changing from the previous models. They will start at $499. Versions capable of accessing cellular networks will cost $629 to $829.
Apple is keeping the basic model of the iPad 2 in production and dropping the price to $399. That could help Apple regain some market share from cheaper tablets like Amazon.com Inc.’s $199 Kindle Fire. Samsung Electronics and other makers of full-size tablets have cut their prices to below $500.
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Oregon nursing assistant posted disturbing photos of patients on Facebook, gets 8 days in jail
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon nursing assistant spent eight days in jail after a jury found her guilty of taking disturbing photos of elderly or disabled patients and posting them to her Facebook wall.
A jury convicted Nai Mai Chao, 26, of invasion of personal privacy late last month. She was released from prison on Friday.
She was accused of taking graphic photos of patients using bed pans and posting them on Facebook. The pictures date to April 2011.
The pictures show at least two patients — one of a patient lying down and another of the back of a patient’s head. The rest of the pictures are of the contents of bed pans.
Her Facebook friends commented on several pictures, expressing disgust or humor about the photos.
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Biggest solar storm in years races toward Earth, could disrupt power grid, GPS and more
WASHINGTON (AP) — Earth’s magnetic field is about to be shaken like a snow globe by the largest solar storm in five years.
After hurtling through space for a day and a half, a massive cloud of charged particles is due to arrive early Thursday and could disrupt utility grids, airline flights, satellite networks and GPS services, especially in northern areas. But the same blast could also paint colorful auroras farther from the poles than normal.
Scientists say the storm, which started with a massive solar flare earlier in the week, is growing as it races outward from the sun, expanding like a giant soap bubble. When it strikes early Thursday, the particles will be moving at 4 million mph.
“It’s hitting us right in the nose,” said Joe Kunches, a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo.
Astronomers say the sun has been relatively quiet for some time. And this storm, while strong, may seem fiercer because Earth has been lulled by several years of weak solar activity.
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Lawyer: Vatican reverses closing of 13 parishes in Cleveland; bishop didn’t follow procedure
CLEVELAND (AP) — The Vatican has taken the extraordinary step of overruling the closing of 13 parishes by the Cleveland Diocese, a lawyer who fought the cutbacks said Wednesday.
The move represents a rare instance in which Rome has reversed a U.S. bishop on the shutdown of churches.
The Vatican office known as the Congregation for the Clergy ruled last week that Bishop Richard Lennon failed to follow church law and procedure in the closings three years ago, attorney Peter Borre told The Associated Press.
The 13 churches were among 50 shut down or merged by Lennon, who said the eight-county diocese could no longer afford to keep them open because of declining numbers of parishioners and a shortage of priests.
Many of the 13 parishes are in poor, inner-city Cleveland neighborhoods. Some were founded by Irish, Hungarian or Polish immigrants but are now in sections of the city that are heavily black and non-Catholic.
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Let the bidding begin: Peyton Manning heads to free agency after Indianapolis Colts cut him
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Sent packing by his only NFL team, one he transformed from afterthought to Super Bowl champion, Peyton Manning said goodbye to the Indianapolis Colts with a shaky voice and tear-filled eyes, then got ready to find a new place to play quarterback.
At a podium alongside owner Jim Irsay, who cut the injured star Wednesday rather than pay a whopping $28 million bonus due this week, Manning was by turns wistful, nostalgic — he got choked up while praising the Colts’ equipment managers — and forward-looking.
The only four-time MVP in NFL history now figures to become as coveted a free agent as the league has ever seen, assuming he can assuage any lingering concerns about the series of neck operations that forced him to miss all of 2011. Arizona, Miami, Seattle, Tennessee, Washington and the New York Jets all have been rumored as possible destinations; Manning’s former offensive coordinator in Indianapolis, Tom Moore, worked for the Jets as a consultant last season.
“Nobody loves their job more than I do. Nobody loves playing quarterback more than I do. I still want to play. But there is no other team I wanted to play for,” said Manning, who turns 36 this month.
Still, he acknowledged: “We all know that nothing lasts forever. Times change, circumstances change, and that’s the reality of playing in the NFL.”
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