Roswell Daily Record
2011. IT, NOHundreds LICENSING of Syrians IN CHINA, haveHONG demonstrated KONG, JAPAN, near their SOUTH embassy KOREA in Beirut ANDinFRANCE support of the government. The nearly 2,000 demonstrators carried pictures of Assad and chanted: "our souls, our blood, we sacrifice for you." (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
to father’s crackdown, act’at death compromise leaks Japan plant THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY Vol. 120, No. 76 50¢ Daily / $1 Sunday
INSIDE NEWS
EXTRA CASH GOES TO GAS WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are earning and spending more, but a lot of the extra money is going down their gas tanks. Gas prices have drained more than half the extra cash Americans are getting this year from a cut in Social Security taxes.
March 29, 2011
TUESDAY
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‘We have a responsibility to act’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vigorously defending the first war launched on his watch, President Barack Obama declared Monday night that the United States intervened in Libya to prevent a slaughter of civilians that would have stained the world’s conscience and “been a betrayal of who we are” as Americans. Yet he ruled out targeting Moammar Gadhafi, warning that trying to oust him militarily would be a mistake as costly as the war in Iraq. Obama announced that NATO would take command over the entire Libya
operation on Wednesday, keeping his pledge to get the U.S. out of the lead fast — but offering no estimate on when the conflict might end and no details about its costs despite demands for those answers from lawmakers. He declined to label the U.S.-led military campaign as a “war,” but made an expansive case for why he believed it was in the national interest of the United States and allies to use force. In blunt terms, Obama said the U.S.-led response had stopped Gadhafi’s advances and halted a
slaughter that could have shaken the stability of an entire region. Obama cast the intervention in Libya as imperative to keep Gadhafi fr om killing those rebelling against him and to prevent a refugee crisis that would drive Libyans into Egypt and Tunisia, two countries emerging from their own uprisings. “To brush aside America’s r esponsibility as a leader and — more profoundly — our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have See OBAMA, Page A3
AP Photo
President Barack Obama speaks about Libya at the National Defense University in Washington, Monday.
New leaks at Japan plant
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• Fire training • DA moves to dismiss Harris case • RSO Baroque concert a success • Adopt-A-Soldier benefit draws a goodly crowd • Downtown vulture
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City of Roswell firefighters cooked a meal for Roswell High School students Monday, as part of the school’s first annual cooking competition with the Roswell Fire Department.
Firefighters show off cooking skills VCU, KENTUCKY MAKE FINAL FOUR SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Move over, Butler. Virginia Commonwealth is crashing the Final Four. Two weeks ago, the 11thseeded Rams so doubted they would get a NCAA tournament invite that they watched Cartoon Network and went out for burgers instead of watching the selection show. Now, all of America will be watching them in the Final Four. - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES • • • •
Mary Macias Victorio M. Fuentez Laura “Rosie” Savage Wilbur Lee James - PAGE B3
HIGH ...79˚ LOW ....42˚
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CLASSIFIEDS..........B6 COMICS.................B4 ENTERTAINMENT...A10 FINANCIAL .............B5 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........B6 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ............A10
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MATTHEW ARCO RECORD STAFF WRITER
City of Roswell firefighters exchanged their helmets and oxygen tanks for spatulas and oven mitts at Roswell High School Monday, during a program meant to bolster the school’s culinary arts education. Roswell Fire Department officials took part in the school’s inaugural
RFD Tur ns Up the Heat at RHS event Monday, the first day of a three-day cooking event. Teams of two shifts and one team comprised of the department’s commanders are in a competition to see who can cook the best meal.
Each of the three teams will cook their favorite dish for the students to judge and find a winner. The other cooking dates are slated for Friday and April 11. As for Mon-
day’s dish, the judges were served Swedish meatballs and garlic mashed potatoes. “It’s pretty cool,” said Christopher Lobato, a junior at RHS and one of the about 20 culinary arts students. “It’s a change (from regular class).” The event was inspired by the school’s culinary arts teacher, Mary See KITCHEN, Page A3
Syrian president wavers amid unrest
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad wavered between cracking down and compromising Monday in one of the Middle East’s most authoritarian and antiWestern nations as thousands of protesters in a southern city defied security forces who fired tear gas to disperse them. The unrest in Syria, a strategically important country of 23 million people, could have implications well beyond the country’s borders given its role as Iran’s top Arab ally and as a front line state against Israel. “Nobody has an interest in Syria going aflame,” said Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut. “Syrian instability has the potential of destabilizing the entire region.” The souther n city of Daraa — parched by drought, rural and impoverished — has become the flashpoint for 10 days of anti-government protests in a country that has a history of brutally crushing dissent. At least 61 people have been killed since March 18, according to Human Rights Watch. Touched off by the arrest
AP Photo
Syrian pro-Assad protesters shout slogans as they carry pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad during a sit-in in front of the Syrian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday
of several teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a wall in Daraa, the protests exploded nationwide on Friday.
Security forces launched a swift crackdown, opening fire in at least six locations See SYRIA, Page A3
TOKYO (AP) — Workers have discovered new pools of radioactive water leaking from Japan’s crippled nuclear complex that officials believe are behind soaring levels of radiation spreading to soil and seawater. Crews also detected plutonium — a key ingredient in nuclear weapons — in the soil outside the complex, though of ficials insisted Monday the finding posed no threat to public health. Plutonium is present in the fuel at the complex, which has been leaking radiation for more than two weeks, so experts had expected to find traces once crews began searching for evidence of it this week. The Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant was crippled March 11 when a tsunami spawned by a power ful earthquake slammed into Japan’s northeaster n coast. The huge wave destroyed the power systems needed to cool the nuclear fuel rods in the complex, 140 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo. See JAPAN, Page A3
Tempers flare in budget showdown WASHINGTON (AP) — With the clock ticking toward a possible government shutdown, spendingcut talks between Senate Democrats and the Republicans controlling the House have broken off in a whom-do-you-trust battle over legislation to keep operations running for another six months. Democrats have readied a proposal to cut $20 billion more from this year’s budget, a party official said, but they haven’t yet sent it to House Republicans. That’s because they say it’s unclear whether the majority Republicans would accept a split-thedifference bargain they’d earlier hinted at or will yield to demands of tea party-backed GOP freshmen for a tougher measure. The official spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “Republicans refuse to negotiate,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared on Monday. “The infighting between the tea party and the rest of the Republican Party — including the Republican leadership in Congress — is keeping our negotiating partner from the negotiating table. And it’s pretty hard to negotiate without someone else on the other side of the table,” the Nevada Democrat said. Republicans countered that it’s the Democrats who have yet to offer a serious plan to wrestle spending under control and that a Democratic offer from last week to cut $11 billion from the budget was laced with gimmickry. Time is running short. Staff-level negotiations last week ran aground, and the principals are going to have to pick up the pace to have any chance of makSee BUDGET, Page A3