NATION/WORLD
Sidney Daily News,Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Page 5A
TODAY IN HISTORY BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Today is Wednesday, Aug. 29, the 242nd day of 2012. There are 124 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Aug. 29, 1952, 4’33” (“Four Minutes, Thirtythree Seconds”), a threemovement composition by avant-garde composer John Cage, had its premiere in Woodstock, N.Y., as pianist David Tudor sat at a piano and, for a total of four minutes and 33 seconds, played… nothing. (According to Cage, the “music” consisted of the setting’s background noises, including the sounds of the increasingly restive audience.) On this date: ■ In 1533, the last Incan King of Peru, Atahualpa, was executed on orders of Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro. ■ In 1862, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing began operations at the United States Treasury. ■ In 1877, the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Brigham Young, died in Salt Lake City, Utah, at age 76. ■ In 1943, responding to a clampdown by Nazi occupiers, Denmark managed to scuttle most of its naval ships. ■ In 1944, 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis. ■ In 1957, the Senate gave final congressional approval to a Civil Rights Act after South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond (then a Democrat) ended a filibuster that had lasted 24 hours. ■ In 1958, pop superstar Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Ind. ■ In 1962, Malvin R. Goode began covering the United Nations for ABCTV, becoming network television’s first black reporter. ■ In 1972, swimmer Mark Spitz of the United States won the third of his seven gold medals at the Munich Olympics, finishing first in the 200-meter freestyle. ■ In 1982, Academy Award-winning actress Ingrid Bergman died in London on her 67th birthday. ■ In 1987, Academy Award-winning actor Lee Marvin died in Tucson, Ariz., at age 63. ■ In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast near Buras, La., bringing floods that devastated New Orleans. More than 1,800 people in the region died.
OUT OF THE BLUE Bikini parade fails to break world record OCEAN CITY, Md. (AP) — A city in China still holds the bikini parade record after a failed attempt in Maryland. Organizers of Saturday’s effort in Ocean City to take the title from Huludao City in China fell short. Only about 325 woman turned out under rainy skies. Brad Hoffman, who organized the parade for the North Ocean City Business Alliance, blamed the rain for the poor turnout. Organizers were trying to attract more than 1,085 to break the record set in China earlier this month. The 25-block parade included women of all ages. The $10 registration fee for the event benefited charities including the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
MEMBERS OF the Texas delegation react after casting their votes for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday.
Romney sweeps to nomination TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney swept to the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night at a storm-delayed national convention, every mention of his name cheered by delegates eager to propel him into a campaign to oust President Barack Obama in tough economic times. Romney watched on television with his wife, Ann, at a hotel suite across the street from the hall as the convention sealed his hard-won victories in the primaries and caucuses of last winter. “I read somewhere that Mitt and I have a “storybook marriage,” she said in
excerpts released in advance of a primetime speech meant to cast her multimillionaire-businessman-turned-politician husband in a soft and likable light. “Well, in the storybooks I read, there were never long, long, rainy winter afternoons in a house with five boys screaming at once.” “A storybook marriage? No, not at all. What Mitt Romney and I have is a real marriage,” she said. Aides said her husband of 43 years would be in the hall when she spoke. Through the evening, a parade of convention speakers mocked Democratic President Obama mercilessly from a made-for-television podium, as if to make
up for lost time at an event postponed once and dogged still by Hurricane Isaac. The Democratic president has “never run a company. He hasn’t even run a garage sale or seen the inside of a lemonade stand,” declared Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican Party. Said House Speaker John Boehner, “His record is as shallow as his rhetoric.” To send Romney and ticketmate Paul Ryan into the fall campaign, delegates approved a conservative platform that calls for tax cuts — not government spending — to stimulate the economy at a time of sluggish growth and 8.3 percent unemployment.
Goal of opposition still elusive AZAZ, Syria (AP) — In the foreign halls of power, the strategy is clear: Syria’s opposition should unite to present an alternative to Bashar Assad’s rule — a step France’s president says would lead to diplomatic recognition. As a move toward unity, Syrian exiles from the main opposition Syrian National Council and other groups unveiled a blueprint Tuesday in the German capital of Berlin for tranto a democratic, sition transparent society free of religious and ethnic favoritism. But rebels and civilians in the bomb-shattered Syrian town of Azaz near the Turkish border view such talk as hollow. They are deeply skeptical of all exiled leaders and believe what really matters is their fight on the ground to overthrow the regime.
“They have never come up with a united position that will save the people,” said Fadi Hajji, 25, who had been camped out along the Syrian border with Turkey with his wife and two infant daughters for five days. “All they are good at is arguing. They don’t represent anyone here and they don’t help.” There was more bloodshed Tuesday as a car bomb ripped through a Damascus suburb, killing 12 people, according to the state news agency. Activists also said an airstrike in the town of Kfar Nabl killed at least 13 people as fighting raged nationwide. With no end to the carnage in sight, French President Francois Hollande called on the Syrian opposition Monday to form a provisional government, saying France would recognize
and support it. Hollande’s statement, believed to be the first of its kind, was quickly shot down by U.S. officials who said talk of a provisional government was premature given the deep divisions within the opposition movement. The head of the main Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Council, criticized the U.S. stand, saying that efforts were under way to forge a united front but that the process takes time — especially in the midst of a raging civil war. “It seems to me as if the international community is not prepared to take decisive decisions and blames the Syrian opposition for its own shortcomings,” Abdelbaset Sieda told The Associated Press by telephone Tuesday.
Bride, groom climb mountain McLEAN, Va. (AP) — Bob Ewing has gotten a lot of mileage out of his decade-old tuxedo and has even run a couple of marathons in it. Now he’s been married in it, after he and his new bride made the 900-foot sheer climb on one of West Virginia’s most striking landmarks in full wedding regalia. Photos of the bride and groom, both residents of Arlington, Va., atop the narrow peak of Seneca Rocks in West Virginia have become a hit on the Internet, with more than 500,000 views. The bride, Antonie Hodge Ewing, made the climb in her mother’s wedding gown. Her mother, Evangeline Hodge of Los Alamos, N.M., made the climb as well. “I had to prove to myself I could do it,” said Evangeline Hodge, a novice climber who refused permission to print her age, telling a reporter to come up with a creative adjective for “old.” ”I did it for all the old people out there.” It was Antonie’s idea to get married on the peak. Ewing proposed to her in March as the couple scaled the rocks, and after she said yes, she informed him that she wanted to get married there as well. The family pitched in. Brother Scott Ewing got himself ordained and performed the ceremony. A second brother, John Ewing, made a separate climb and photographed the ceremony with a rented, high-powered lens. AP Photo/John Ewing, ho Family and friends who IN THIS Aug. 11 family handout photo, Bob Ewing, 32 (right) couldn’t make the Aug. 11 and Antonie Hodge, 30, both of Arlington, Va., pose at Seneca climb participated in a secRocks in W.Va. The couple made the 900-foot climb in formal ond ceremony and reception wedding attire. the next day.
Isaac spins into Louisiana NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Isaac spun into the southern Louisiana coast late Tuesday, sending floodwaters surging and unleashing fierce winds, as residents hunkered down behind boarded-up windows. New Orleans calmly waited out another storm on the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s seventh anniversary, hoping the city’s strengthened levees will hold. Isaac, a massive storm spanning nearly 200 miles from its center, made landfall at about 6:45 p.m. near the mouth of the Mississippi River. But it was zeroing in on New Orleans, about 90 miles to the northwest, turning streets famous for all-hours celebrations into ghost boulevards. While many residents stayed put, evacuations were ordered in low-lying areas of Louisiana and Mississippi, where officials ordered the closure of the state’s 12 shorefront casinos. By late Tuesday, more than 100,000 homes and businesses had lost power. Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, said Isaac’s core would pass west of New Orleans with winds close to 80 mph and head for Baton Rouge. “On this course, the hurricane will gradually weaken. Its winds will come down,” Rappaport said Tuesday night from the Miami-based center. He said gusts could reach about 100 mph at times, especially at higher levels which could damage high-rise buildings in New Orleans. As Isaac neared the city, there was little fear or panic. With New Orleans’ airport closed, tourists retreated to hotels and most denizens of a coastline that has witnessed countless hurricanes decided to ride out the storm. “Isaac is the son of Abraham,” said Margaret Thomas, who was trapped for a week in her home in New Orleans’ Broadmoor neighborhood by Katrina’s floodwaters, yet chose to stay put this time. “It’s a special name that means ‘God will protect us’.” Still, the storm drew intense scrutiny because of its timing — just before the anniversary of Katrina and coinciding with the first major speeches of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., already delayed and tempered by the storm.