10
10
W eather
WEATHER AND INTERNATIONAL
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Thursday, Septebmer 5, 2013
TODAY IN HISTORY (AP) — Today is Thursday, Sept. 5, the 248th day of 2013. There are 117 days left in the year. On this date: In 1774, the first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia. In 1793, the Reign of Terror began during the French Revolution as the National Convention instituted harsh measures to repress counter-revolutionary activities. In 1836, Sam Houston was elected president of the Republic of Texas. In 1913, fire devastated Hot Springs, Ark., destroying some 60 blocks. In 1914, the First Battle of the Marne, resulting in a FrenchBritish victory over Germany, began during World War I. In 1939, four days after war had broken out in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation declaring U.S. neutrality in the conflict. In 1945, Japanese-American Iva Toguri D'Aquino, suspected of being wartime broadcaster "Tokyo Rose," was arrested in Yokohama. (D'Aquino was later convicted of treason and served six years in prison; she was pardoned in 1977 by President Gerald R. Ford.) In 1957, the novel "On the Road," by Jack Kerouac, was first published by Viking Press. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed legislation making aircraft hijackings a federal crime. In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford escaped an attempt on his life by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a disciple of Charles Manson, in Sacramento, Calif. In 1986, four hijackers who had seized a Pan Am jumbo jet on the ground in Karachi, Pakistan, opened fire when the lights inside the plane failed; a total of 22 people were killed in the hijacking. In 1997, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II broke the royal reticence over Princess Diana's death, delivering a televised address in which she called her former daughter-in-law "a remarkable person." Mother Teresa died in Calcutta, India, at age 87; conductor Sir Georg Solti (johrj SHOL'-tee) died in France at age 84. Today's Birthdays: Former Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul A. Volcker is 86. Comedianactor Bob Newhart is 84. Actresssinger Carol Lawrence is 81. Actor William Devane is 74. Actor George Lazenby is 74. Actress Raquel Welch is 73. Movie director Werner Herzog is 71. Singer Al Stewart is 68. Actor-director Dennis Dugan is 67.
Today
Tonight
Mostly sunny High: 74°
Friday
Mostly clear Low: 53°
Chance of rain High: 78° Low: 55°
Saturday
Sunday
Mostly sunny High: 84° Low: 63°
TROY DAILY NEWS • WWW.TROYDAILYNEWS.COM
Monday
Sunny High: 83° Low: 62°
Mostly sunny High: 83° Low: 61°
TODAY’S STATEWIDE FORECAST Thursday, September 5, 2013 AccuWeather.com forecast for daytime conditions, low/high temperatures
MICH.
Cleveland 61° | 70°
Toledo 52° | 72°
TROY •
Youngstown 57° | 75°
Mansfield 57° | 70°
PA.
53° 74°
AP Photo Russian President Vladimir Putin enters for his meeting with the Presidential Human Rights Council in the Kremlin in Moscow, Wednesday.
Columbus 59° | 73°
Dayton 55° | 75° Cincinnati 57° | 90° Portsmouth 54° | 81°
W.VA.
KY.
©
NATIONAL FORECAST
National forecast
Forecast highs for Thursday, Sept. 5
Sunny
Fronts Cold
Pt. Cloudy
Warm Stationary
Cloudy
Pressure Low
High
Plans for new Indian state spark demands for more NEW DELHI (AP) — India, a nation of 1.2 billion people, has 28 states. Some would rank among the world’s most populous countries. So when India’s ruling coalition endorsed a 29th state last month, millions of people who have felt ignored and marginalized living far from their state capitals had the same reaction: Why not us? In West Bengal state, for example, tens of thousands of indigenous Gorkhas demanding their own state — Gorkhaland — have barricaded streets in Darjeeling, the town best known for its prized tea gardens. Strikes have shut down businesses. Police arrested dozens of activists and clamped a curfew in the worst-hit districts last week. Demands for more than two dozen new states have burst into mutinous life, and the strikes and protests could redraw India’s political map. There are no immediate signs of widespread instability, but the localized rumblings could deflect government attention from its most pressing task: improving the struggling Indian economy. It’s unclear whether the ruling coalition will accept more states. Even the proposal it endorsed, for carving the state of Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh state, is a long way from implementation. India has always been a political patchwork of astonishingly diverse humanity. Since independence from Britain in 1947, the sprawling
Troy Daily News • www.troydailynews.com
AP Photo In this Aug. 20 file photo, student leader Pramod Boro addresses hundreds of thousands of Bodo tribals who gathered demanding the creation of a new state of Bodoland during a mass rally at Ghoramara in Somitpur district of Assam state, India.
country of different religions, distinct cultures and hundreds of languages has been bound together into a cohesive if chaotic democracy. The Indian system gives broad power to states, which were drawn broadly along linguistic lines, most of them by a state reorganization commission in the mid-1950s. But many states are so large they have become difficult to govern, leaving politically marginalized regions out of India’s economic boom. Some larger states have already been split apart, most recently with the creation of three new states in 2000. If Telangana clears numerous legislative hurdles, it will become the country’s 29th state. Telangana would be composed of the mostly poor, inland districts of Andhra
Pradesh state. While its people are ethnically the same as most in Andhra Pradesh, they have long felt ignored by a state government that appeared to divert most resources to the more prosperous southern and coastal districts. For years, the region has been churned by violent protests and hunger strikes. People in Telangana celebrated when New Delhi backed the creation of the new state, but the decision also triggered counterprotests from supporters of a united Andhra Pradesh. A key point of contention is that the proposed Telangana would include Hyderabad, a wealthy IT and industrial hub. In New Delhi, angry lawmakers on both sides of the Telangana debate repeatedly disrupted the lower house
of parliament this week, and nine parliamentarians were suspended. The decision on a new state faces several hurdles. The home ministry must decide how to divide Andhra Pradesh’s resources, waterways and employees. The federal Cabinet, India’s president, the state assembly and parliament would have to approve the plan. Parsa V. Rao, a political analyst in New Delhi, said the process will take several months at least. The abrupt decision on Telangana by the Congress party, the most powerful member of the ruling coalition, was made with next year’s general elections in mind, but it has given new life to other longstanding demands for new states based on ethnic or linguistic lines.
Putin warns West on Syria action NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (AP) — President Vladimir Putin warned the West against taking one-sided action in Syria but also said Russia “doesn’t exclude” supporting a U.N. resolution on punitive military strikes if it is proved that Damascus used poison gas on its own people. In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press and Russia’s state Channel 1 television, Putin said Moscow has provided some components of the S-300 air defense missile system to Syria but has frozen further shipments. He suggested that Russia may sell the potent missile systems elsewhere if Western nations attack Syria without U.N. Security Council backing. The interview late Tuesday night at Putin’s country residence outside the Russian capital was the only one he granted prior to the summit of G-20 nations in St. Petersburg, which opens Thursday. The summit was supposed to concentrate on the global economy but now looks likely to be dominated by the international crisis over allegations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in the country’s civil war. Putin said he felt sorry that President Barack Obama canceled a one-on-one meeting in Moscow that was supposed to have happened before the summit. But he expressed hope that the two would have serious discussions about Syria and other issues in St. Petersburg. “We work, we argue about some issues. We are human. Sometimes one of us gets vexed. But I would like to repeat once again that global mutual interests form a good basis for finding a joint solution to our problems.” The Russian leader, a year into his third term as president, appeared to go out of his way to be conciliatory amid a growing chill in U.S.Russian relations. The countries have sparred over Syria, the Edward Snowden affair, Russia’s treatment of its opposition and the diminishing scope in Russia for civil society groups that receive funding from the West. And Putin denied that Russia has anti-gay policies, despite a law banning gay propaganda that has caused concern about the country’s role as host of the Winter Olympics in February. Obama, speaking Wednesday during a trip
to Sweden that replaced his Moscow plans, said relations with Russia have “hit a wall,” but also expressed confidence that the two can work together on some issues. “I have not written off the idea that the United States and Russia are going to continue to have common interests, even as we have some very profound differences on some other issues,” he said, noting that those differences include Syria. Putin said it was “ludicrous” that the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad — a staunch ally of Russia — would use chemical weapons at a time when it was holding sway against the rebels. “From our viewpoint, it seems absolutely absurd that the armed forces — the regular armed forces, which are on the offensive today and in some areas have encircled the so-called rebels and are finishing them off — that in these conditions they would start using forbidden chemical weapons while realizing quite well that it could serve as a pretext for applying sanctions against them, including the use of force,” he said. The Obama administration says 1,429 people died in the Aug. 21 attack in a Damascus suburb. Casualty estimates by other groups are far lower, and Assad’s government blames the episode on rebels trying to overthrow him. A U.N. inspection team is awaiting lab results on tissue and soil samples it collected while in Syria before completing a report. Obama expressed frustration at Russia’s position, saying: “It has been very difficult to get Russia, working through the Security Council, to acknowledge some of the terrible behavior of the Assad regime.” Putin, however, said the U.S. has failed to make its case through the proper channels. “If there is evidence that chemical weapons have been used, and used specifically by the regular army, this evidence should be submitted to the U.N. Security Council,” said Putin, a former officer in the Soviet KGB. “And it ought to be convincing. It shouldn’t be based on some rumors and information obtained by intelligence agencies through some kind of eavesdropping, some conversations and things like that.”