World & Nation
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 WIRE REPORTS
IRAN
American woman leaves Iranian prison after bail mediation in Persian Gulf T E H R A N — In just a few dizzying hours, American Sarah Shourd exchanged a cell in Tehran’s Evin Prison for a private jet crossing the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, after an apparent diplomatic deal to cover a $500,000 bail and secure a release that seemed in jeopardy from the start. Shourd was met by her mother and U.S. diplomats at a royal airfield in the capital of Oman, which U.S. officials say played a critical role in organizing the bail payment and assuring it did not violate American economic sanctions on Iran. Shourd stepped off the private Omani jet and into the arms of her mother in their first embrace since a brief visit in May overseen by Iranian authorities — and her first day of freedom in more than 13 months. Shourd smiled broadly as they strolled arm-in-arm through the heat of the late summer night along the Gulf of Oman. “I’m grateful and I’m very humbled by this moment,” she said before boarding the plane in Tehran for the two-hour flight to Oman. The whirlwind departure of the 32-yearold Shourd brought little change for two other Americans — her fiance Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal — who remained behind bars while authorities moved toward possible trials on spy charges that could bring up to 10 years in prison if they are convicted.
PA K I S TA N
Record number of U.S. airstrikes hit Afghan militants in Pakistani border region I S L A M A B A D — Drone aircraft unleashed two missile attacks in a lawless tribal region on the Afghan border Tuesday, making September the most intense period of U.S. strikes in Pakistan since they began in 2004, intelligence officials said. The stepped-up campaign is focused on a small area of farming villages and mountainous, thickly forested terrain controlled by the Haqqani network, a ruthless American foe in Afghanistan, U.S. officials say. There is some evidence the network is being squeezed as a result, one official said. American officials said the airstrikes were designed to degrade the Haqqanis’ operations on the Pakistani side of the border, creating a “hammer-and-anvil” effect as U.S. special operations forces carry out raids against their fighters across the frontier in Afghanistan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing classified operations. The missiles have killed more than 50 people in 12 strikes since Sept. 2 in the Pakistani region of North Waziristan, according to an Associated Press tally based on Pakistani intelligence officials’ reports. Many struck around Datta Khel, a town of about 40,000 people that sits on a strategically vital road to the Afghan border. The border region has long been a refuge for Islamist extremists from around the world. Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders are believed to have fled there after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
FRANCE
French Senate votes overwhelmingly to ban Islamic face veils in final move toward law PA R I S — The French Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill banning the burqa-style Islamic veil on public streets and other places, a measure that affects less than 2,000 women but that has been widely seen as a symbolic defense of French values. The Senate voted 246 to 1 in favor of the bill in a final step toward making the ban a law — though it now must pass muster with France’s constitutional watchdog. The bill was overwhelmingly passed in July in the lower house, the National Assembly. Many Muslims believe the legislation is one more blow to France’s No. 2 religion, and risks raising the level of Islamophobia in a country where mosques, like synagogues, are sporadic targets of hate. However, the law’s many proponents say it will preserve the nation’s values, including its secular foundations and a notion of fraternity that is contrary to those who hide their faces. In an attempt to head off any legal challenges over arguments it tramples on religious and other freedoms, the leaders of both parliamentary houses said they had asked a special body to ensure it passes constitutional muster. The Constitutional Council has one month to rule.
Daily Egyptian
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Trapped miners have a thousand job offers EVA VERGARA VIVIAN SEQUERA The Associated Press SANT IAGO — Chile’s 33 trapped miners have something good to think about: their next jobs. Bulldozer driver, mechanic, electrician. And here’s a couple they might find particularly useful: “risk reduction specialist” and “escape-tunnel driller.” Two dozen companies with operations in Chile have made more than 1,000 job offers to the trapped miners and their 317 sidelined co-workers at a job fair this week. Even if they choose to go back to mining, the work won’t necessarily be underground and it will almost certainly be with a company with a better safety record than their struggling current employer. The 33 miners have been trapped for 40 days in harrowing, sweltering conditions since an Aug. 5 collapse. No miners in history have been trapped so long, and it still could be months before a hole large enough to get them out is completed. They are getting food, medicine, communication and other essentials through narrower holes dug by rescuers, but their anxiety has become evident, with more questions asked each time
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hile’s mining sector is booming, with $50 billion in new investment expected in the next five years, making skilled mining workers increasingly hard to find. they hear the drilling stop. Their relatives wait anxiously for the miners, many in tents at the mine itself, but in many ways life goes on without them. One of them, Ariel Ticona, became a father for the first time Tuesday. The San Esteban mining company, which owns the mine, has pursued bankruptcy protection since the collapse and has claimed it can’t afford to pay the trapped miners, even though they’ll have to work their way out by clearing rubble around the clock below the escape tunnels. The San Jose miners have been offered 1,188 jobs as of Tuesday, many of them posted on a government labor ministry web site. Mining industry companies have interviewed some 200 of the miners who are not trapped at a hotel in the regional capital of Copiapo, and say they have no trouble waiting for the trapped miners to be rescued before they interview them as well. “The 33 won’t be without a job,” vowed Sara Morales, a deputy human resources director for Terra Services, a Chilean drilling
company. She told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she had received resumes from 80 miners and will offer 20 of them jobs. There will be no deadline for the trapped miners to take advantage of this “relocation program,” said Jose Tomas Letelier, a vice-president at Canadian gold mining company Kinross. None of the trapped miners should have to venture back into marginal mines like San Jose that struggle to meet Chile’s modern safety standards. Many of these job offers come from some of the world’s most advanced mining companies — major international players making huge investments in Chile. The companies are prepared to have the miners work as truck or bulldozer drivers, heavy equipment operators, electricians, mechanics, and supervisors in various jobs up on the surface. Kinross alone is offering 46 positions, including risk reduction specialist. “As the name suggests, it’s to prevent risks in mining, which is a very risky activity ... it’s a very important role,” Letelier said.
Even without the governmentorganized job offers, the miners shouldn’t lack for work in the industry. Chile’s mining sector is booming, with $50 billion in new investment expected in the next five years, making skilled mining workers increasingly hard to find. “It’s already difficult today to find certain kinds of operators,” Letelier said. Some of the jobs being offered to the miners seem risky — like the four “explosives handler” positions the San Geronimo mining company seeks to fill. Some of the spouses of the trapped men have warned them to give up mining or else. Lila Ramirez has said her marriage to 63-year-old Mario Gomez will be over if he returns to the mines. And Carola Narvaez, whose husband, Raul Bustos, is stuck underground, said a few days after the miners were found alive that “in my heart, I don’t want him to ever return to the mines.” Asked if she thought her husband would be willing to give up the relatively good wages a man can make in mining — and if she would have the power to convince him otherwise — she flashed a bittersweet smile and shrugged. “Every man has to work,” she said.
Primaries finale: GOP establishment vs Tea Party DAVID ESPO The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Establishment Republicans vied with challengers favored by tea party activists one last time Tuesday in a multistate finale to a primary election season marked by economic recession and political upheaval. Highlighted by GOP-tea party showdowns in New Hampshire and Delaware, five states chose candidates for the Senate and six for governor. In New York, 40-year veteran Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel faced the voters for the first time since the House ethics committee accused him of 13 violations, most of them relating to his personal finances. So far this year, seven incumbent members of Congress have tasted defeat, four Republicans and three Democrats. And that does not include a lengthy list of GOP contenders who fell to tea party-supported challengers despite having the backing of party officials eager to maximize their gains in November. With unemployment high and President Barack Obama’s popularity below 50 percent, Republicans said the primaries reflected an enthusiasm that would serve the party well in the fall, when control of Congress will be at stake. Democrats, however, said the presence of tea party-supported Republicans would prove costly to the GOP on Nov. 2 — a proposition that remained to be tested in seven weeks’ time. In Delaware, Rep. Mike
Castle sought the nomination to a Senate seat held for 36 years by Vice President Joe Biden in a primary that took a sharp turn for the negative three weeks ago when the Tea Party Express announced it would come to the aid of challenger Christine O’Donnell. Castle, a former two-term governor and a veteran of nearly two decades in the House, was repeatedly assailed as a liberal, a Republican in name only. He and the party responded by challenging O’Donnell’s fitness for public office and her ability to win a statewide election in the fall. In an extraordinary move, the state Republican Party began automated phone calls attacking O’Donnell in the campaign’s final hours. The calls feature the voice of a woman who identifies herself as Kristin Murray, O’Donnell’s campaign manager in her 2008 unsuccessful Senate campaign, accusing the candidate of “living on campaign donations — using them for rent and personal expenses, while leaving her workers unpaid and piling up thousands in debt.” O’Donnell’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Republican officials have said privately they intend to write off the seat if O’Donnell is victorious against Castle. While Republicans brawled, New Castle County Executive Chris Coons coasted to the Democratic nomination without opposition. Biden resigned the seat in early 2009, and his
successor, Democratic Sen. Ted Kaufman, pledged not to run for a full term. Republicans in New Hampshire sorted through a crowded field of candidates for the nomination to a seat long held by retiring GOP Sen. Judd Gregg. Former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte was the party-backed favorite, and she added support from prominent conservatives who have played a heavy role in several primaries this year, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Her principal opposition came from Ovide Lamontagne, a lawyer and former head of the state board of education. He campaigned with the support of tea party activists and claimed to be the most conservative candidate in a race that also included businessmen Bill Binnie and Jim Bender. The winner will face Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes, who is giving up his seat in the House to run for the Senate. Republicans must gain 10 seats this fall if they are to win control of the Senate, and their chances count heavily on their ability to prevail in both Delaware and New Hampshire. In Wisconsin, businessman Ron Johnson faced two minor opponents for the Republican nomination to oppose three-term Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold in November in what polls show is a tight race. Johnson has said he will spend millions of his own money to finance his campaign through Election Day. In New York, Democratic At-
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ith unemployment high and President Barack Obama’s popularity below 50 percent, Republicans said the primaries reflected an enthusiasm that would serve the party well in the fall, when control of Congress will be at stake. torney General Andrew Cuomo faced no opposition for the party’s nomination for governor, and he will be the prohibitive favorite in the fall for an office his father held for three terms. Former Rep. Rick Lazio vied with political novice Carl Paladino, a wealthy developer who got tea party support, for the Republican nomination. The state’s new electronic voting machines made their debut, and there were scattered reports of problems that resulted in delays and long lines. In Maryland, former Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich sought the nomination for a rematch against the man who ousted him from office in 2006, Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley. There were gubernatorial nomination contests in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Wisconsin, where Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker collided with former Rep. Mark Neumann for the Republican line on the fall ballot. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was heavily favored for the Democratic nomination.