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Obama issues new China sanctions threat over cybertheft
NEWS IN BRIEF Feds urge Calif. wildfire victims to apply for help SAN ANDREAS, Calif. — Federal authorities vowed Friday to help residents recover from one of the most destructive wildfires in memory in California, and fire officials called again for improved evacuation planning in preparation for the next fires. Officials from the Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency M a n a g e m e n t A g e n cy appeared at a news conference in San Andreas, urging residents of Calaveras County to register for help with temporary housing as they clear debris and rebuild. The fire, along with another massive blaze in Lake County, prompted President Barack Obama to declare major disasters in California. The declarations clear the way for release of federal money for cleanup and recovery.
Egypt officials say police kill 6 militants near Cairo CAIRO — Egyptian security officials say police forces have killed six militants after a heavy exchange of fire in a rural area outside of Cairo. The officials say Friday’s shooting followed intelligence reports that pinpointed a group responsible for the killing of a policemen and a bombing of five electricity transmission pylons. The say the police found a bomb and automatic weapons in the house where the militants were killed in Ausim, a farming area about 3 miles from the Egyptian capital. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to reporters.
Texas gives Virginia lethal drug for execution HOUSTON — Texas prison officials are helping Virginia carry out a scheduled execution next week by providing that state with the lethal drug pentobarbital that corrections agencies nationwide have had difficulty obtaining. The disclosure, confirmed Friday by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, has surfaced in court documents in an Oklahoma death penalty case. Lawyers for Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip also said in a federal court filing Thursday that Texas is “compounding or producing pentobarbital within its department for use in executions.” Texas prisons spokesman Jason Clark said the Texas agency gave Virginia three vials of the drug, but said the state does not have a license to manufacture its own pharmaceuticals. He said Virginia provided Texas with a backup pentobarbital supply in 2013.
Judge OKs Jenner’s legal name, gender change SANTAMONICA,Calif.— She proclaimed her new name on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine, but Caitlyn Jenner’s transition from her old identity as Bruce Jenner is finally official. A judg e on F riday approved Jenner’s request to formally change her name and gender, marking another milestone in the Olympic gold medalist’s public transitionasatransgenderwoman. The approval means Jenner’s new name will be Caitlyn Marie Jenner, replacing her birth name of William Bruce Jenner. She will now be able to get documents — including a driver’s license and Social Security card — that conform to her new identity. — Compiled from wire reports
By Julie Pace AP White House Correspondent
JACquelyn MArtin / AssoCiAted Press
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio speaks during a news conference in Washington on Friday.
BYE-BYE
BOEHNER
By Erica Werner and Alan Fram Associated Press
WASHINGTON — With Congress in turmoil, House Speaker John Boehner abruptly informed fellow Republicans on Friday that he would resign from Congress at the end of October, stepping aside in the face of hardline conservative opposition that threatens an institutional crisis. The 13-term Ohio Republican, second in line to the presidency, shocked his GOP caucus Friday morning when he announced his decision in a closed-door session. It came one day after a high point of Boehner’s congressional career, a historic speech by Pope Francis to Cong ress at Boehner’s request. A constant focus of conservatives’ complaints, Boehner was facing the threat of a floor vote on whether he
could stay on as speaker, a formal challenge that hasn’t happened in over 100 years. That was being pushed by tea partyers convinced Boehner wasn’t fighting hard enough to strip Planned Parenthood of government funds, even though doing so risked a government shutdown next week. “It’s become clear to me that this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution,” Boehner told a news conference several hours after making the announcement to his rank and file. “There was never any doubt I could survive the vote, but I didn’t want my members to go through this, I didn’t want this institution to go through this.” Boehner said he had planned all along to announce in November that he was resigning at the end of this year, but had not said so publicly.
Speaker stuns Congress, announces resignation
After emotional moments Thursday at the pope’s side, he woke up Friday morning and decided now was the time. Boehner betrayed no regrets, even breaking into a brief verse of “Zippity Doo Dah” to demonstrate he was feeling good. President Barack Obama, Boehner’s frequent antagonist and occasional partner, called the speaker “a good man” and a patriot. “And I think, maybe most importantly, he’s somebody who understands that in government and governance, you don’t get 100 percent of what you want,” the president said. “But you have to work with people who you disagree with, and sometimes strongly, in order to do the people’s business.”
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Boehner packing up his trademark hankies, merlot and Camels
By Connie Cass Associated Press
On Friday he swiped his nose with a hankie as he announced he’ll leave Congress to resign Oct. 30. He’s been blearyeyed countless times in between. When a reporter noted that Boehner appeared overcome with emotion while meeting Pope Francis on Thursday, the speaker deadpanned, “Really? What a surprise.”
WASHINGTON — When John Boehner quits the Capitol next month, the Hill will lose TOPIC OF ThE a dash of color — and not just his oft-mocked orangey tan. Some trademarks of Boehner’s more than two decades in the House:
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Blunt Boehnerisms Here’s how the speaker once described fellow U.S representatives: “We got 435 members. It’s just a slice of America, it really is. We got some of the smartest people in the country who serve here, and some of the dumbest. We got some of the best people you’d ever meet, and some of the raunchiest. We’ve got ‘em all.” At news conferences, Boehner’s responses can be curt, humorous or downright odd. Asked about a possible scenario for ending the 2013 partial government shutdown, he said: “If
steve Helber / AssoCiAted Press
Boehner wipes his face during a news conference Friday.
‘ands’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts, then every day would be Christmas.” He’s been known to start singing “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay, my, oh my, what a wonderful day” to the press and, indeed, mixed bits of the song into his resignation news conference Friday.
Choking up You can rely on Boehner to cry about, well, just about anything. He took over the speakership in 2011 wiping his eyes, and choked back tears.
His complexion Boehner takes a lot of ribbing about his perpetual tan — or more accurately, his unusual hue. The bestknown gibes on the subject came from President Barack Obama: “We have a lot in common,” the president quipped at the 2009 White House Correspondent’s Dinner. “He is a person of color. Although not a color that appears in the natural world.” At times, Boehner sounds a little thinskinned on the subject. “Listen, I play golf, I ride a bike, I cut my own grass, my mother is dark-complected, so I’m a little dark,” he told Jay Leno last year. “There’s no tanning beds, no spray anything,never,notonceever,evernothing.”
WASHINGTON — Somber against a backdrop of grand pageantry, President Barack Obama laid out a fresh threat of sanctions against China for alleged cybercrimes on Friday, even as he and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached an agreement not to conduct or support such hacking. “It h a s t o s t o p, ” O b a m a declared. The president, in a Rose Garden news conference with Xi, was clear that he’ll be wary until the Chinese follow through on promised efforts to stop cyberespionage, saying, “The question now is: Are words followed by action?” As for the possibility of sanctions, against either individuals, businesses or state-run companies, he said: “We will apply those, and whatever other tools we have in our tool kit, to go after cybercriminals either retrospectively or prospectively.” Obama said the agreement was progress — but he added that “I have to insist our work is not yet done.” Xi, for his part, agreed that the two countries would not “knowingly support” cybertheft and promised to abide by “norms of behavior” in cyberspace. “Confrontation and friction are not the right choice for both sides,” Xi said, speaking through a translator. Both countries claim they don’t engage in cybertheft of commercial secrets, one of the deep differences that h av e t h r e a t e n e d t i e s between the world’s two largest economies. The agreement to clamp down on the theft of trade secrets falls short of addressing the Obama administration’s greater concer ns about theft of national security information, such as the tens of millions of U.S. federal personnel records that American lawmakers and some U.S. officials have said was engineered by Beijing. Obama has declined to assign blame to China for that breach nor to sanction its government, amid concerns that retaliating for that breach might have led Xi to cancel the state visit. Overall, Obama said, the two leaders’ visit had yielded “an extremely productive meeting,” adding that their candid conversations on areas of disagreement “help us to understand each other better.”
Saudi Arabia accused of neglect over deadly disaster at hajj By Aya Batrawy and Jon Gambrell Associated Press
MINA, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia faced new accusations of neglect Friday in the hajj disaster that killed over 700 people, the second tragedy at this year’s pilgrimage overseen by the kingdom’s rulers who base their legitimacy in part on protecting Islam’s holiest sites. Leading the criticism was regional Shiite powerhouse Iran, which always seeks an opportunity to undermine its Sunni adversary. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in New York that at least 140 Iranians were killed. He suggested that “ineptitude” by the Saudi authorities involved in organizing the hajj was to blame for the two accidents this month that have resulted in at least 830 deaths. In Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned a Saudi envoy for the second time in as many days to hear protests over the incident, a
vice president blamed Saudi “mismanagement,” and thousands marched in the streets and denounced the Saudi royal family. Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars and undertaken massive construction projects to make the annual hajj safer for the world’s Muslims, and the last serious loss of life had occurred nine years ago. In the worst hajj disaster in a quarter century, two huge waves of pilgrims converged Thursday on a street near a religious site in Mina, and 719 people were crushed or trampled to death, while 863 were injured. That followed an accident Sept. 11 in which a storm toppled a crane at the Grand Mosque in Mecca that killed 111 people. While Saudi authorities are still investigating Thursday’s accident, Health Minister Khalid alFalih has blamed it on the masses themselves, telling a Saudi broadcaster that “some pilgrims had moved in the wrong direction amid the crowds.”
vAHid sAleMi / AssoCiAted Press
Iranian worshippers chant slogans at an anti-Saudi protest rally in Tehran, Iran, on Friday.