PENINSULA DAILY NEWS for Thursday, June 13, 2013 P A G E
A3 Briefly: Nation and killed 15 people. According to a letter obtained by The Associated Press, FEMA said it reviewed the state’s appeal to help West but decided the explosion “is not of the severity and magnitude that PHILADELPHIA — A warrants a major disaster decla10-year-old girl whose efforts to ration.” qualify for an organ donation The blast killed 10 first drew public debate over how responders and brought national organs are allocated got a lung attention to the agricultural transplant Wednesday after a community. President Barack match with an adult donor was Obama traveled to the area to found, her family said. attend a memorial service for Sarah Murnaghan, who sufthe first responders and others fers from severe cystic fibrosis, who died trying to help. received her new lungs at ChilThe FEMA funds would have dren’s Hospital of Philadelphia, helped pay for public repairs a family spokeswoman said. such as roads, sewer lines, pipes Her health was deteriorating and a school that were when a federal judge intervened destroyed. It does not affect last week, giving her a chance at emergency funds FEMA has the much larger list of organs provided to individual residents. from adult donors. Last month, the agency and On June 5, federal Judge U.S. Small Business AdministraMichael Baylson in Philadelphia tion approved more than ruled that Sarah and 11-year$5.6 million in aid and lowold Javier Acosta of New York interest loans to West residents City should be eligible for adult affected by the blast. lungs. The Murnaghan family said Bill on abortion ban pediatric lungs are rarely availWASHINGTON — The able. House is girding for another The Newtown Square, Pa., wrenching debate on abortion family received word about the donor lungs Tuesday night, Gar- after a House panel Wednesday rity said. The surgery began just approved legislation that would ban almost all abortions after 20 after 11:30 a.m. and was weeks of pregnancy. expected to take at least six Several recent court decisions hours, she said. Sarah’s mother, Janet, said in have struck down similar state a Facebook post that the family laws, and the GOP-backed bill has little future in the Demowas “overwhelmed with emocratic-led Senate, but the meations” and thanked all her supsure will give House conservaporters. tives a rare chance to reaffirm their social-issue credentials. FEMA: No to Texas town The bill, named the “PainHOUSTON — The Federal Capable Unborn Child ProtecEmergency Management tion Act,” was approved by the Agency is refusing to provide House Judiciary Committee on money to help rebuild the small a party-line 20-12 vote and Texas town where a deadly fercould get a vote in the full tilizer plant explosion leveled House as early as next week. numerous homes and a school, The Associated Press
Girl, 10, gets lung transplant following ruling
Briefly: World Embattled Turkish leader talks to group ANKARA, Turkey — A spokesman for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party said the Turkish government is open to holding a referendum over an Istanbul development plan that has underpinned weeks of mass protests. The announcement from Justice and Development party spokesman Huseyin Celik came after talks the embattled preErdogan mier hosted with a small group of activists Wednesday. It is the first big gesture by his government to end a standoff with protesters in Istanbul’s Taksim Square and beyond. Meanwhile, police and protesters retrenched after fierce overnight clashes in Istanbul’s Taksim Square. The protesters claim the prime minister is trying to force his religious views on all Turks, a charge that Erdogan denies.
Mandela improving JOHANNESBURG — Former President Nelson Mandela began responding better to treatment Wednesday for a recurring lung infection following “a difficult last few days,” South Africa’s president said. President Jacob Zuma told parliament that he is happy with the progress the 94-yearold is making following his hospitalization Saturday. Mandela spent a fifth straight day Wednesday in a Pretoria hospital, where he was visited by his daughter.
Syrian rebel battle BEIRUT — Syrian rebels have battled Shiites in a village in the country’s east, killing more than 60 people, activists said Wednesday. The fighting highlights the increasingly sectarian nature of the country’s civil war. Activists said the dead were mostly pro-government militiamen, without specifying whether the noncombatants had been killed deliberately or were caught in the crossfire. But a Syrian government official denounced the attack on the Shiite-section of Sunnimajority Hatla village as a “massacre” of civilians. The Associated Press
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BROKEN
DIKE FLOODS GERMAN VILLAGES
Fisherman Gernot Quaschny rescues a drowning deer from the floods near Schoenhausen, central Germany, on Wednesday. Due to a broken dike by the River Elbe, several villages in the area were flooded.
Congress ‘asleep at the wheel’ on spy program THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lawmakers voiced their confusion and concern, and some called for the end of sweeping surveillance programs by U.S. spy agencies after receiving an unusual briefing on the government’s yearslong collection of phone records and Internet usage. “People aren’t satisfied,” Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., said as he left the briefing Tuesday. “More detail needs to come out.” The phalanx of FBI, legal and intelligence officials who briefed the House was the latest attempt to soothe outrage over National Security Agency programs that collect billions of Americans’ phone and Internet records. Since they were revealed last week, the programs have spurred distrust in the Obama adminis-
tration from around the world. Congressional leaders and intelligence committee members have been routinely briefed about the spy programs, officials said, and Congress has at least twice renewed laws approving them. But the disclosure of their sheer scope stunned some lawmakers, shocked foreign allies and emboldened civil liberties advocates who long have accused the government of being too invasive in the name of national security.
Caught unawares Some congressmen admitted they’d been caught unawares by the scope of the programs, having skipped previous briefings. “I think Congress has really found itself a little bit asleep at the wheel,” Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said.
Snowden vows to stay in Hong Kong EDWARD SNOWDEN, WHO leaked secret data on U.S. surveillance and then fled to Hong Kong, said, “My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate.” Snowden, 29, said he plans to stay in the city until he is “asked to leave,” the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday. U.S. authorities have yet to bring charges or file an extradition request. The Associated Press
Kidnap suspect seeking plea deal to avoid death THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CLEVELAND — A man accused of holding three women captive in his home for about a decade pleaded not guilty Wednesday, and the defense hinted that it would like to avoid trial with a plea agreement if the death penalty was ruled out. Attorney Craig Weintraub addressed the death penalty issue after his client, 52-year-old Ariel Castro, pleaded not guilty to hundreds of charges. Castro, in an orange jail outfit with hands and ankles shackled and a dark beard grown in jail, kept his chin tucked throughout the brief court appearance. Charges he faces involving an alleged forced miscarriage don’t include death penalty specifications, but the prosecutor said that’s under review. “Mr. Castro currently faces hundreds of years in prison with the current charges,” Weintraub
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returned Friday covered only the period from August 2002, when the first of the women disappeared, to February 2007. More charges could be filed. A statement issued on behalf of the women — Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight — said: “We are hopeful for a just and prompt resolution. We have great faith in the prosecutor’s office and the court.” The indictment alleged that Castro restrained the women, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ariel Castro attends his arraignment Wednesday in Cleveland. said after the arraignment. “It is our hope that we can continue to work toward a resolution to avoid having an unnecessary trial about aggravated murder and the death penalty.” The 329-count indictment
$8 million bail Castro has been held on $8 million bail. Last week, he was taken off suicide prevention watch in jail. Cuyahoga County jail logs show him spending most of his time sleeping or watching TV. Castro was arrested May 6, shortly after Berry broke through a door and yelled for help.
. . . more news to start your day
West: Colo. homes burned in wildfire could total 100
Nation: HIV drugs also can protect injection users
Nation: Lobsterman, 90, survives sinking off Maine
World: Mexico is not yet middle-class, institute says
THE NUMBER OF houses destroyed by a wildfire near Colorado Springs could approach 100, and officials fear it’s possible that some people who stayed behind might have died. Authorities initially estimated that between 40 and 60 houses were destroyed in Black Forest, a heavily wooded residential area, but they are still surveying the damage. El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said Wednesday he believes around 80 have been lost so far. The fire that broke out Tuesday has burned about 12 square miles and forced the evacuation of more than 7,000 people over 47 square miles.
U.S. HEALTH OFFICIALS said doctors should consider giving a daily AIDS drug to another high-risk group to prevent infection: people who shoot heroin, methamphetamines or other injection drugs. A similar recommendation is already in place for gay men and heterosexual couples. The new advice was triggered by a study done in Thailand. Drug users who took the daily pill were about 50 percent less likely to become infected with HIV than those given a dummy pill. Drug users represent about 1 in 13 new infections in the U.S.
A 90-YEAR-OLD LOBSTERMAN is eager to get back on the water after surviving the sinking of his boat by swimming to a nearby island through the cold waters of the Gulf of Maine. Philip Tuttle of the Great Island community of Harpswell is on the mend, but his boat needs more work to ensure the engine is OK, daughter-inlaw Verian Tuttle said Wednesday. His boat, Queen Tut, hit rocks Saturday, lurched and took on water in choppy, 50-degree seas after the remnants of Tropical Storm Andrea passed. He ended up swimming 20 to 30 yards to Hen Island. He got scrapes on his legs crawling on the slippery rocks.
FORMER PRESIDENT FELIPE Calderon declared last year that Mexico is becoming a middle-class country. Not so fast, says the official statistics institute. A National Institute of Statistics and Geography analysis released Wednesday said that nearly 60 percent of Mexico’s estimated 112 people belonged to the lower classes in 2010. It said that the middle class grew by 4 percentage points, to almost 40 percent of the population, between 2000 and 2010. Just 1.7 percent were considered part of the upper class. The institute didn’t list precise criteria for defining middle class.