Elsewhere News from the nation, world
Monday, July 13, 2015 — Page 7
BRIEFS
Afghan bombing kills 26 civilians
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Gazette wire services
Iraq begins effort to oust ISIS BAGHDAD (AP) — The Iraqi government began today a long-awaited, largescale military operation to dislodge Islamic State militants from Iraq’s western Anbar province, a military spokesman announced. The spokesman for the Joint Operations Command, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, said in a televised statement that the operation started at dawn today and that government forces are backed by Shiite and Sunni pro-government fighters. Rasool didn’t clarify whether the U.S.-led international coalition is taking part. Rasool didn’t provide any further details on the ongoing operations. By noon, the country’s state TV reported government forces recapturing villages and areas around Fallujah.
Seoul: N. Korea confirms execution SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has officially confirmed the purging of its defense chief two months after Seoul’s spy service said he had been executed for disloyalty to leader Kim Jong Un, a South Korean official said today. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in May that People’s Armed Forces Minister Hyon Yong Chol was killed by anti-aircraft gunfire for talking back to Kim, complaining about his policies and sleeping during a meeting. The North’s state media has since not mentioned Hyon or his disappearance. But over the weekend, the country’s official Korean Central News Agency named army general Pak Yong Sik as the armed forces minister in a dispatch about a meeting with a Lao military delegation. South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-Hee told reporters today that this confirmed Hyon’s replacement and purging.
18 freed, gunmen at large in France VILLENEUVE-LAGARENNE, France (AP) — A group of gunmen broke into a discount clothing store near Paris today, trapping 18 people inside for hours before fleeing and prompting a manhunt throughout the area, police said. All 18 were safely evacuated from the Primark store in a shopping center in the town of Villeneuve-laGarenne, according to a regional police official. She said police are now pursuing the assailants. Police surrounded the sprawling shopping center and cordoned off the neighborhood, adjacent to the Seine River about 6 miles north of central Paris. The assailants entered the store around 6:30 a.m. today in what police believe was an attempted robbery, another police official said. Several people were already inside, primarily employees.
Ohio man going on trial for threat CINCINNATI (AP) — A former Cincinnati-area bartender who said he heard the devil’s voice telling him House Speaker John Boehner was “evil” was set to go on trial in federal court on charges he threatened to kill the Republican lawmaker. Michael Hoyt has pleaded not guilty to a charge of threatening to kill a government official. He is scheduled for a nonjury trial in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. Authorities have said in court documents that he threatened to kill Boehner with a gun or by poisoning his drink. Court documents also indicate that Hoyt, of the Cincinnati suburb of Deer Park, has a history of mental illness. But Judge Timothy Black in April ruled that Hoyt was competent to stand trial, based on a report from a medical facility where Hoyt was sent for evaluation and treatment.
By RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press
ALVARO BARRIENTOS/Associated Press
PEOPLE WATCHED the seventh day of the running of the bulls today from their balconies during the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain. Two Spaniards were gored in today’s running, bringing the total to 10 this year, including four Americans. The event lasts through Tuesday.
Walker announces GOP presidential bid By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced on social media this morning that he’s running for president, tweeting “I’m in.” Walker, a Republican, also released a campaign video at the same time declaring his entry in the race. The video is heavy on images of Walker speaking to a crowd in an Iowa cornfield, as well as his 2010 battle with unions. The video includes Walker speaking directly to the camera touting his willingness to take on big fights. “We didn’t nibble around the edges,” he says. Walker has a national profile largely due to his clashes with labor unions. He enacted policies weakening their political power and became the first governor in U.S. history to defeat a recall election. Walker’s task now is to remind Republican voters about the four-year-old fight and the recall election sparked by his efforts to weaken unions — and a series of lesser-known triumphs he says set him apart from the crowded Republican field. “If you could accomplish half of what he’s done in Wisconsin in Washington, D.C., you would go down as one of the greatest presidents ever,” said Walker’s top political adviser Rick Wiley. Walker cut income and corporate taxes by nearly $2 billion, lowered property taxes, legalized the carrying of concealed weapons, made abortions more difficult to obtain, required photo identification when voting and made Wisconsin a rightto-work state. His budget this year, which plugged a $2.2 billion shortfall when he signed it into law Sunday, requires drug screenings for public benefit recipients, expands the private school voucher program, freezes tuition at the University of Wisconsin while cutting funding by $250 million and removing tenure
protections from state law. Such achievements may appeal to conservatives who hold outsized sway in Republican primaries, yet some could create challenges in a general election should Walker ultimately become the GOP’s nominee. Voter ID laws, abortion restrictions, liberal gun policies and education cuts are not necessarily popular among swing-state independents. “Ultimately, Walker has to show all these victories and political successes have shown real results,” said Democratic pollster Paul Maslin. Walker’s record is well-known to Wisconsin voters, a state where the second-term governor engenders fierce loyalty and fierce opposition. Protesters who first crowded the state Capitol in 2011 in demonstrations as large as 100,000 still gather daily, although only about a dozen or so at a time, to sing anti-Walker songs. Anger over Walker’s 2011 union law led to the failed 2012 recall. His team created a video this week, called “Recall the Recalls,” to tell that story again, especially for those who are taking their first serious look at Walker as a presidential candidate. And while he’s not yet a presidential candidate in the eyes of the law, the labor dispute helped give him a significant head start in the 2016 money race. Walker’s three governor’s races left him with a far-reaching donor database of more than 300,000 names. He shattered state fundraising records, collecting $83 million for his three Wisconsin elections, much of it coming from outside the state. He begins his 2016 presidential bid with at least $20 million to spread his message, raised by two outside groups not subject to campaign finance donation limits, according to sources with direct knowledge of the fundraising operation. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to publicly discuss private fundraising strategy.
Walker’s union clashes will be featured prominently today during his official announcement, to be held in the same convention hall where he hosted his victory party after the recall election. “A lot of people, that was their first introduction to Walker,” Wiley said, calling the union battle and subsequent recall win “one of our biggest assets.” Yet the specific impact of Walker’s fight with labor unions is open to debate. The governor often highlights rising test scores and graduation rates as evidence that the 2011 union law worked. What he doesn’t mention is Wisconsin’s graduation rates were increasing for years before he took office, and the recent growth is not as strong as the national average. Wisconsin’s ACT scores have been among the best in the nation since before Walker was elected. They ranked third the year before he took office and ranked second in 2012. Walker also talks about how the 2011 union law saved taxpayers $3 billion as of late 2014, saying state and local governments have used “tools” he provided them to reduce spending on pensions and health benefits for public employees. While it’s true that the state and local governments have saved roughly that amount, the costs have been shifted to the employees who have to pay more for those benefits. Critics note that Walker too often ignores where he’s fallen short. The state’s chief economic development agency that Walker created, a hybrid public-private partnership, has been beset with problems, including handing out $124 million in loans without properly vetting the recipients. Walker was more than 100,000 jobs short on his signature 2010 campaign promise to create 250,000 private-sector jobs. Wisconsin’s job growth has lagged not only the national average but its Midwest neighbors as well.
KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide car bombing near a military base in eastern Afghanistan that once hosted CIA employees killed at least 26 people Sunday, local officials said, the latest insurgent attack after foreign forces ended their combat mission there. The bombing hit a checkpoint manned by members of the Khost Provincial Force, an Afghan unit that guards Camp Chapman, said Youqib Khan, the deputy police chief in Khost province. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the bomber was trying to get onto the base or what led to his attack, Khan said. A U.S. defense official said Chapman is an Afghan base with some American special operations forces there. A local hospital received the bodies of at least 26 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children including eight members of a single family, said Dr. Hedayatullah Hamedi, the province’s health director. He said the blast wounded nine civilians. “The explosion was so loud and strong that almost all of the city of Khost was shaken by the blast,” provincial police chief Gen. Faizullah Ghyrat said. A statement issued by the Khost provincial governor’s office offered different casualty numbers, saying that 33 people were killed — 27 civilians, including 12 children, and six members of the Afghan security forces. Another 12 members of the Afghan security forces were injured, according to the statement. The discrepancy in the casualty numbers could not immediately be reconciled. The suicide bomber carried out his attack when many civilian vehicles were waiting to pass by on a main road, said an Afghan police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the attack. He said the civilians killed and wounded in the attack were in vehicles waiting for their turn to pass. Foreign and Afghan forces blocked journalists and police from accessing the site after the blast. Pentagon officials referred comment to NATO authorities in Afghanistan. In a statement, NATO said “no U.S. or coalition personnel were injured as a result of the attack,” without elaborating. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast in the city of Khost, near Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan. Since U.S. and NATO troops ended their combat mission at the end of last year, local troops have been taking the brunt of attacks by the Taliban and other insurgent groups. Camp Chapman, named after the first U.S. soldier killed in combat in the war in Afghanistan, sits near Forward Operating Base Salerno, a large Soviet-built airfield that was targeted by a Taliban truck bombing in June 2012. Camp Chapman was the site where seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer were killed in a Pakistani Taliban suicide bombing in December 2009. Six more agency personnel were wounded in what was considered the most lethal attack for the CIA since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001 and possibly even since the 1983 embassy bombing in Beirut. It’s not clear whether the CIA still operates out of Camp Chapman. Meanwhile Sunday, Afghan security officials said a pair of roadside bombings killed at least 12 civilians in the country’s east and north.
NYC disability pride parade draws thousands By VERENA DOBNIK Associated Press
NEW YORK — New York City hosted its first parade Sunday supporting people with disabilities, with more than 3,000 participants heading up Broadway using wheelchairs, canes and guide dogs. “We’re here full force,” said rapper Namel Norris, 33, now in a wheelchair after being shot in the Bronx and paralyzed as a teenager. “I thought my life was over, but music is my calling, I have a purpose in life.” Mayor Bill de Blasio kicked off the inaugural NYC Disability Pride Parade, saying he’s proud his city is a national leader in supporting rights for disabled people. The grand marshal was former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who 25 years ago sponsored the Americans With Disabilities Act. “I may be retired from the Senate, but I’m not retired from the fight,” Harkin said. “We know that when companies hire people with disabilities they
get the best workers, the most loyal workers, the most productive workers.” De Blasio said his administration is “very, very committed already on the issue of accessible taxis, but all Tom Harkin had to do was say London was doing better to get my competitive fire going,” the mayor said, laughing. About 4 percent of New York’s yellow cabs are accessible, said Allan Fromberg, a spokesman for the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, compared to London, where every taxi can handle wheelchairs. In New York City, de Blasio declared July as “Disability Pride Month” in honor of the 25th anniversary of the landmark federal act that aims to guarantee equal opportunities and rights for people with disabilities. The city has planned a series of events relating to New Yorkers with disabilities. That includes an exhibit at the SETH WENIG/Associated Press Brooklyn Historical Society titled JESSICA LOPEZ, center, participated Sunday in the inaugural Disability Pride “Gaining Access: The New York City Parade in New York. Disability Rights Movement.”