OCR Text |
Show World&Nati on Friday, Jan. 15, 2010 Page 11 Ill. terrorism suspects indicted in Mumbai CHICAGO (AP) — Two Chicago men were indicted Thursday on charges they planned a violent attack on a Danish newspaper and helped lay the groundwork for the November 2008 terrorist rampage that killed 166 people in the Indian city of Mumbai. David Coleman Headley and businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana were named in a 12-count superseding indictment that for the first time alleged Rana was in on the planning of the attacks by a team of 10 terrorists. Headley, 49, an American citizen, and Rana, 49, a Canadian national who has been in business in Chicago for more than a dozen years, are both in federal custody in Chicago. Headley's attorney, John Theis, had no comment on the new indictment. A message was left for Rana's attorney, Patrick Blegan. Retired Pakistani military officer Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed and reputed terrorist leader Ilyas Kashmiri, described as having been in regular contact with al-Qaida's No. 3, Sheikh Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, also were charged in the new indictment. The charges were the first for Kashmiri in the case that surfaced with the October arrest of Headley and Rana in Chicago. Syed previously had been charged with involvement in the plans to attack the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten, which in 2005 printed 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that sparked outrage in the Muslim world. Officials says all the defendants were linked to the terrorist organization Lashkare-Taiba, translated as Army of the Pure, which has long been involved in violent conflict with India over the disputed Kashmir territory. The Indian government has blamed the group for the Mumbai attacks. The charges against Headley, formerly named Daood Gilani, are the same as those included by the government in a criminal information filed in federal court last fall. But the charges against Rana have been expanded to include participation in the Mumbai attacks. INDIAN PARAMILITARY soldiers bow their head as they pay homage to their slain colleagues killed during a wreath laying ceremony inside their base camp on the outskirts of Srinagar, India, Thursday, Dec 31. Four Indian paramilitary soldiers were killed Wednesday evening when suspected separatist militants ambushed a security patrol in Sopore north of Srinagar, police said. AP photo Analysis: Senate prospects for jobless bill weak WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is where legislation often goes to die, and it's looking more and more like that's the fate awaiting a new jobs bill wanted by President Barack Obama. After barely limping out of the House last month, prospects for a deficit-financed jobs bill appear bleak in the Senate, where it's probably going to take all 60 votes in the Democrats' coalition to pass it. That's doubtful. About one in six House Democrats voted no when the bill squeaked through the House last month. Prospects for getting the required unanimity among Senate Democrats is especially bleak since the first item of business on the Senate's agenda when it returns next week is a bill to let the government sink itself another $925 billion into debt. To turn around and take up legislation to spend perhaps $75 billion to $150 billion of that strikes some Democrats as a bad vote. There's also Obama's upcoming budget projecting another record deficit atop last year's record $1.4 trillion, adding to the difficulty in passing a new, debt-financed jobs package. Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., supports the idea of a new stimulus measure but acknowledges the hurdles to passing one. Democratic moderates like Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Evan Bayh of Indiana have already registered concerns. "It's hard to answer in a vacuum without knowing what's in it, but if it's just a wish-list of spenders' favorite items, that's not going to go through," said Bayh. "Senator Nelson is very concerned about the level of federal spending and the deficit," said Nelson spokesman Jake Thompson. "He would look at a jobs package, but those factors would weigh heavily in his mind." Nelson also thinks there's plenty of stimulus money still in the pipeline, Thompson said. Talk of a second economic stimulus measure, more pleasingly packaged as a "jobs" bill, intensified after the nationwide unemployment rate topped 10 percent last fall. Obama has proposed new spending for highway and bridge construction, for small business tax cuts and for retrofitting millions of homes to make them more energy-efficient. He also proposed an additional $250 apiece in stimulus spending for seniors and veterans and billions of dollars in aid to state and local governments to avert layoffs of teachers, police officers and firefighters. The House responded with an approximately $174 billion measure accepting many but not all of Obama's ideas. But the 217-212 vote on Dec. 16 vote was hardly encouraging. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had to work the floor for a full hour to win the tally, which was held just after Democratic leaders forced through stopgap legislation to raise the debt limit by $290 billion. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who's been preoccupied with health care, has handed off the jobs issue to allies Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill. They've taken a roster of more than 100 ideas submitted by lawmakers and have tried to winnow it down to about a dozen proposals, including steps to help small businesses create jobs, money for socalled green jobs and funding for infrastructure projects like roads and bridges. The idea is to enact fast-acting steps that would boost employment before next fall's election. But infrastructure spending is notoriously slow. Projects need to be planned and can require a lengthy contracting process before jobs appear on construction sites. Congress is overdue to pass legislation reauthorizing highway and transit programs but action on that front isn't expected until later in the year. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a new report Thursday that "fewer projects are 'shovel ready' than one might expect" and predicted that most of the hires resulting from new infrastructure funding wouldn't occur until after 2011. Democrats muscled through the first stimulus bill almost immediately after Obama took office with high approval ratings in public opinion polls. Now, Obama's numbers are significantly lower. Health care has consumed much of his political capital and his marks with the public on the economy are fading. His approval rating is below 50 percent in some polls. Just two current Republicans, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, voted for Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus bill early last year, and neither is committing to a second round, though they're likely to endorse elements of the plan, such as extending unemployment payments to the long-term jobless. "I personally believe that we need more stimulus. I think this thing is still quite weak, especially in the jobs area," Conrad said. But he's less certain whether it can pass, saying: "I just don't know." South Koreans named LG world texting champs NEW YORK (AP) — Two South Korean teenagers have been crowned fastest texters in the world. The team of 17-year-old Bae Yeong Ho and 18-year-old Ha Mok Min went thumb-tothumb against competitors from a dozen countries to win the title in a competition Thursday in New York City. The LG Mobile World Cup challenged nimble-fingered youths on both speed and accuracy. The winning team took home a $100,000 prize. Second place and $20,000 went to the U.S. contestants — 16-year-old Kate Moore of Des Moines, Iowa, who is the 2009 U.S. National Texting Champion, and 14-year-old Morgan Dynda of Pooler, Ga., the 2009 runner-up. An Argentinian team came in third and the Brazilians took fourth. With many languages at play, English was the texting language of the U.S. competitors and those from Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Other nations represented were Indonesia, Portugal, Russia, Mexico and Spain. Interpreters were hired for non-texting communication. "My thumbs are up for the challenge," Moore announced hours before the afternoon start time. But inside Manhattan's Gotham Hall, with the pressure on to text for about two intense minutes at a stretch, she and Dynda fell behind the Koreans by 20 seconds after a good hour of competition dubbed "Race of Death." "New York sure is an active, lively city!" said Bae, the Korean national champion for 2008 and 2009, basking with his teammate in a crush of admirers. He has a beautiful bass voice and is saving his $50,000 share of the prize to study to become an opera singer. And Ha said she's saving for studies to become an engineer. The drill of the third annual Mobile World Cup was simple: Copying words and phrases in one's native language off a monitor correctly, with no typos or abbreviations, and as fast as possible with the required capitalization and punctuation. Some words were intentionally misspelled to test alertness. Privately, Moore averages 12,000 texts per month, entering up to 3.5 characters per second. As in mainstream sports, the event drew vocal fans who offered fever-pitch cheers for their favorites — amid peals of laughter. "USA, USA!" yelled a front-row crowd. The winners were showered with confetti as they held up mammoth checks representing their earnings. The event is sponsored by LG Electronics Inc.'s mobile-phone division, a company based in Seoul, South Korea, that supplies its latest handsets for the contest. Moore said that although she's almost always "carrying on a conversation with someone, texting, "the habit doesn't detract from face-to-face social life. "I can talk and text at the same time, without looking at the phone." Her friends all do it too; anyone who doesn't Check out Forest Gate & University Pines Apartments $1099 for the rest of the Semester • Fully Furnished • Utilities Included • Private Bedrooms • Great Parking & Location • Wireless Internet & TV r retrieve it. The 26 finalists who made it to the World Cup were chosen from more than 200,000 wannabes in a global text-off that began in May. Before they even got to New York, female texters had the advantage — hands down, Moore said. Ha Mok-Min, left, and Yeong-Ho Bae celebrate with other competitors, after winning the LG Mobile Worldcup World Championship, Thursday, Jan. 14 in New York. AP photo Commute without the fuss... take the bus. Why are you living with a bunch of farm animals? I is socially ostracized. "When you see someone who doesn't have unlimited texting, it's like, `What's wrong with you?" But there's one thing the teen stopped doing: texting in class. A teacher took her phone away, and her parents were asked to accompany her to the vice principal's office to Three out of three doctors recommend it: Insurance Call the Voice of Choice and save up to 60% or more! Taking mass transit saves time, money, stress and the air. 11 No appointment 1 necessary 454 N 400 E forestgatemanagers@live.com 435-752-1516 Receive $100 off rent if you sign up for next school year by 02/07/10! HErsHEROADBENT L 4 .;%. • Financial SerNiees 40 W Cache Valley Blvd (1250 N) Ste 3A Monday-Friday 8 am-5 pm (435) 752-7200 |